An Introduction to Grammar for Language Learners

Explains universal concepts of language structure to help students preparing to study a foreign language.

Don Ringe (Author)

9781108425155, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 23 August 2018

230 pages
25.2 x 17.7 x 1.4 cm, 0.62 kg

'This excellent book represents a new approach to languages and how to learn them. It takes the reader through the wonderful peculiarities and challenges of real language with minimal jargon and maximum common sense. It is packed with insight and practical tips on how to start understanding grammar.' Stephen Colvin, University College London

Learning a foreign language is much easier when it is approached with a knowledge of language structure ('grammar'), but many students find grammar mystifying. This text explains points of grammar straightforwardly using examples from several widely-studied languages, including English, so that students can see how the same principles work across different languages, and how the structures of different languages correspond both formally and functionally. The use of concrete examples makes grammar less abstract and easier to grasp, allowing students to relate what they are learning to knowledge that they already possess unconsciously; it simultaneously brings that knowledge up to a conscious level.

How to use this book
1. Introduction
2. Sentences, clauses, and their verbs
3. Subjects
4. Noun phrases
5. Pronouns and subject-verb agreement
6. Direct objects
7. Double-object verbs
8. 'Linking' verbs
9. Personal pronoun systems
10. Reflexives and passives
11. Possession
12. Gender, concord, and noun classifications
13. Case systems and adpositions: the Latin system
14. Tense, aspect, and auxiliary verbs: the English verb system
15. Tense, aspect, and mood: the Spanish verb system
16. The Latin verb system
17. The Hebrew verb system
18. The Navajo verb system
19. The Mandarin verb system
20. Negation
21. Questions
22. Adjectives and relative clauses
23. Articles, demonstratives, and quantifiers
24. Subordinate clauses, infinitives, and verbal nouns
25. Participles
26. Comparative constructions
27. The segmental sounds of human languages
28. Prosody
29. Writing systems
30. The lexicon
Epilogue: 'bad grammar'
Answers to the exercises
Glossary of technical terms
Languages used as examples in the exercises
References
Index.

Subject Areas: Educational: Languages other than English [YQF], Grammar & vocabulary [CJBG], Grammar, syntax & morphology [CFK], Language acquisition [CFDC]