28.289, Review: English; Applied Ling; General Ling; Sullivan (2015)

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LINGUIST List: Vol-28-289. Fri Jan 13 2017. ISSN: 1069 - 4875.

Subject: 28.289, Review: English; Applied Ling; General Ling; Sullivan (2015)

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Date: Fri, 13 Jan 2017 12:44:11
From: Catharine Welch [cwelch at uta.edu]
Subject: Essential Grammar for Today's Writers, Students, and Teachers

 
Discuss this message:
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Book announced at http://linguistlist.org/issues/26/26-4371.html

AUTHOR: Nancy  Sullivan
TITLE: Essential Grammar for Today's Writers, Students, and Teachers
PUBLISHER: Routledge (Taylor and Francis)
YEAR: 2015

REVIEWER: Catharine M Welch, University of Texas at Arlington

Reviews Editor: Helen Aristar-Dry

SUMMARY

Nancy M. Sullivan’s “Essential Grammar for Today’s Writers, Students, and
Teachers”, is a manageable-for-one-semester textbook designed to introduce
grammar concepts to students who may not have a strong background in grammar.
While Sullivan’s primary intended audience is Education majors, this text is
suitable for any student interested in developing a working knowledge of the
fundamentals of English grammar. The book is written from a linguistics
viewpoint that puts primary emphasis on function over form. Throughout the
five chapters of the text, more traditional definitions are abandoned (such as
the age-old “noun = person, place, or thing” explanation), and instead words
are viewed in terms of the role they perform in the sentence. To accomplish
this goal, Sullivan provides various diagnostic tests that students can
utilize to determine the function of sentence components. 

The concept of form versus function is critical to the ordering of the
information throughout the textbook. Sullivan’s style is to introduce a basic
concept—such as verbs—where the form and function are interrelated, and then
extend the student’s understanding by giving examples such as gerunds and
participles that have the form of a verb but the function of some other word
class. The chapter titles themselves highlight her “define, then extend”
methodology. For instance, Chapter 1: Word Classes is directly followed by
Chapter 2: Extending the Basics.

Two of the more distinct aspects of the book involve 1) Sullivan’s choice of
sample sentences that exemplify the grammatical concepts being presented, and
2) her use of a corresponding “Language Focus” box at the beginning of each
chapter. Sullivan makes a concerted effort to avoid a common issue in grammar
texts whereby seemingly random and context-less sample sentences such as “Mary
kicked the ball” fill the pages. She instead organizes each chapter around a
linguistic theme, or “Language Focus,” that is presented at the outset of the
chapter. These themes include: Language and the Brain (Chapter 1), The Sounds
of Language (Chapter 2), Sociolinguistics (Chapter 3), Language Acquisition
(Chapter 4), and The History of English (Chapter 5). Every sample sentence in
the book relates conceptually to the theme of the chapter in which it appears.

As would be expected with a grammar text, many exercises appear throughout the
book with a detailed answer key at end of the volume. The exercises are
generally brief, ranging from 5-10 questions each and are designed to assess
student understanding of key concepts. Regardless of the length of the
exercise, only the first 5 questions of each exercise are included in the
book’s answer key. 

Chapter 1: Word Classes

Sullivan begins her text with the eight major parts of speech, which she notes
are contemporarily referred to as word classes. She remarks that professors
can no longer assume that college students enter their courses having any
meaningful prior experience with grammar, including knowledge of these basic
parts of speech. Thus, she does not approach this chapter as simply a review
of previously learned knowledge, but as a true beginner’s introduction to
nouns, adjectives, pronouns, verbs, adverbs, prepositions, conjunctions, and
interjections. From the start, Sullivan acknowledges the more traditional
definitions of these word classes, but then seeks to expand the learner’s
understanding of these terms. For example, in the section on adjectives, the
idea that “an adjective modifies a noun or pronoun” is addressed and supported
by sample sentences with arrows demonstrating nouns being modified by
preceding adjectives. (Interestingly, Sullivan includes determiners as a
sub-category of adjectives and contrasts them with descriptive adjectives,
explaining how the former is a closed class and the latter an open class.) The
adjective section quickly moves toward more functional perspective, though,
with sample sentences demonstrating noun-like words (e.g. ‘brain’, ‘language’)
functioning in an adjectival capacity. Sullivan also is quick to point out
that adjectives most typically occupy two “slots” in a sentence, either before
a noun or after a linking verb. This chapter sets the tone of the rest of the
book by asking students to conceptualize word classes based on the word’s
function and placement in the sentence instead of on rote definitions that are
often oversimplified and incomplete. 

The chapter theme—which she calls the “Language Focus”—is on the topic of
“Language and the Brain.” The chapter begins with a brief discussion about
language processing, and sample sentences throughout the chapter include
topics such as brain lateralization, child language acquisition, and language
disorders. The chapter contains 14 exercises that evaluate student
understanding of presented concepts. Several all-chapter review exercises
conclude the chapter. 

Chapter 2: Extending the Basics

The second chapter seeks to provide a more detailed look at several word
classes that were highlighted in Chapter 1, including nouns, prepositions,
verbs, and conjunctions. In this chapter, students are introduced to the
concept of phrases—Noun Phrases (NPs), Prepositional Phrases (PPs), and Verb
Phrases (VPs). Drawing on this concept, students are given some basic
information about the structure of English sentences, such as the fact that
subjects are always NPs and that Prepositions always co-occur with an NP.
After identifying the structural components of NPs and PPs, Sullivan again
returns to the question of the function of these constituents. For PPs, she
points out that they can serve either an adjectival or an adverbial function.
For NPs, the concepts of subject, object, object of the preposition, and
appositives are introduced. 

Students often become confused between PPs and phrasal verbs because of the
overlap between prepositions and particles (e.g. turn in vs. in the garden),
and Sullivan uses this point to transition the discussion from NPs/PPs toward
VPs. The remainder of the chapter focuses on creating active and passive
constructions by manipulating VPs and subject- and object-position NPs. The
chapter concludes with an explanation of a specific type of conjunction, the
conjunctive adverb, and its function in uniting two VPs. 

The “Language Focus” for Chapter 2 involves “The Sounds of Language”. Sample
sentences throughout the chapter include topics such as articulation, the IPA,
phonological variation in dialects, and foreign language accents. This chapter
contains 11 self-check exercises with an additional 6 all-chapter review
exercises at the end.  

Chapter 3: Sentence Patterns

The second chapter ended with a discussion of VPs, and the third picks up
where the second left off. In this chapter, though, the focus is on
identifying the difference between a linking verb and an action verb, as this
critical distinction dictates the entire structure of the sentence. Sullivan
walks the reader through the basic definition of a linking verb, as well as
the be-substitution test to determine if a verb is linking or not. She then
moves into a discussion of transitive and intransitive verbs, highlighting the
fact that some verbs can function both as a linking verb and as an
intransitive action verb. After laying this groundwork, she returns to linking
verbs (LV) and identifies three common sentence structures related to them:
Subject + LV + Adverb; Subject + LV + Predicate Adjective; Subject + LV +
Predicate Nominative. Four additional action verb structures are then
given—one intransitive (Subject + Intransitive Verb) and three transitive
(Subject + Transitive Verb + Direct Object; Subject + Transitive Verb +
Indirect Object + Direct Object); and Subject + Transitive Verb + Direct
Object + Object Complement. Although Sullivan acknowledges elsewhere in the
book that this is not an exhaustive list of English structures, these are some
of the higher frequency constructions. 

The chapter begins with a brief discussion of sociolinguistics. Language
policy, bilingualism, and sociolinguistic variation pertaining to gender and
age were all topics touched on in the sample sentences. The third chapter
contains 10 exercises with 5 additional all-chapter review exercises at the
end.  

Chapter 4: Verbals: Gerunds, Participles, and Infinitives

While the verbs in Chapter 3 all functioned in a more traditional way, the
“verbs” in focus in Chapter 4 possess the form of a verb but actually function
as nouns, adjectives, or adverbs. Sullivan calls these “verbals”, a category
that includes gerunds, participles, and infinitives. Gerunds, which are
verbals that function as nouns, are described, and three tests for identifying
gerunds are given. Participles are then explained as being similar to gerunds
but functioning as adjectives instead of nouns. Sullivan uses this as an
opportunity to discuss dangling participles, a common student error in formal
writing. Indeed, as is the case here, each chapter often has very practical
punctuation and writing tips interwoven into the lesson that help students
understand how grammar knowledge can be applied in  real-world scenarios. The
same is true of the final topic of the chapter—infinitives, which are
described as functioning as nouns, adjectives, or adverbs. After giving
examples of infinitives and infinitive phrases, the practical application of
split infinitives comes into focus. Sullivan instructs students both on how to
identify a split infinitive and on when this construction should be avoided in
writing. 

The chapter begins with a brief discussion of the theme “Language
Acquisition,” and sample sentences throughout the chapter include topics such
as first language acquisition stages, primate language, methods for learning a
second language, and the critical period hypothesis. Thirteen grammar
exercises are interspersed throughout the text with four all-chapter review
exercises concluding the chapter. 

Chapter 5: Adjective, Adverb, and Noun Clauses

The final chapter shifts the focus away from verbs and instead delves into
adjective, adverb, and noun clauses. This chapter is rightly included at the
end of the text, as it builds on many of the skills and vocabulary learned in
the previous four chapters. The chapter begins with a clarification on the
difference between phrases and clauses. The previous chapter’s discussion of
verbals is essential for students to be able to rightly identify whether a
structure contains both a subject and verb, thus making it a clause. The
conversation then turns towards types of clauses, with adjective clauses being
presented first. This section includes a thorough description of relative
pronouns and antecedents, as well some “quirks” of adjective clauses such as
the ability for a relative pronoun to be omitted on occasion. The following
section on adverb clauses points out that the subordinating conjunction “that”
can likewise be omitted in some cases. 

The final topic of Chapter 5 is noun clauses, which helps bring the book
full-circle, as knowledge of nouns—the word class that kicked off Chapter
1—becomes relevant again. By this point, however, students have become aware
that the “noun slot” of a sentence isn’t just reserved for “person, places, or
things,” but instead can be occupied by a wide variety of phrases and clauses
that function as nouns. 

The theme “The History of English” takes center stage in Chapter 5. A callout
box appears early in the chapter, directing readers toward the well-known
YouTube video “The History of English in 10 Minutes”. Sample sentences
throughout the chapter incorporate topics such as Old/Middle/Modern English,
the Norman Conquest and other major events in the history of English, word
etymology, and the significance of English as a global language. Fifteen
self-check exercises followed by 3 chapter review exercises conclude Chapter
5. 

EVALUATION

As a professor in Texas who teaches Education majors, I am quite familiar with
the target audience for the book as well as the grammar concepts that are
tested on teacher certification exams in our state. This textbook positions
itself perfectly for pre-service teachers who may not have a strong background
in grammar yet need to know these critical concepts in order to pass the
certification exams. For that niche market, this book is more than adequate.
The text is written to a general audience, however, so its usage is in no way
confined to pre-service teachers and would be appropriate for anyone wanting
to enhance their understanding the basic structure of English. 

The study of grammar can be both infinitely complex and excruciatingly boring,
and Sullivan tackles these obstacles in creative ways. To keep the complexity
in check, Sullivan is intentional in selecting the topics that she chooses to
cover and the depth into  which she delves on the selected topics. She states
in the Introduction that she purposefully does not explore every exception to
every grammar rule or include an exhaustive list of sentence structures. (I do
note that the sentence structures she covers correspond to those often tested
on the teacher certification exams in our state.) She avoids nonessential
topics not only to keep the readers focused on the main points, but also to
help keep the book from becoming unnecessarily long and unwieldy. 

To keep the banality at bay, Sullivan purposefully introduces intriguing
linguistics concepts into the text without taking the focus away from the
grammar instruction. Various “Did You Know?” boxes appear throughout the text
that offer some interesting tidbit about contemporary language use and then
direct the reader to additional information on the subject. One such box
directs students toward a YouTube video that highlights research about the
correlation between personal pronoun usage and lying.

Other creative and unique aspects of this text are the chapter themes and the
sample sentences related to the theme. While these serve their purpose in
providing more appealing sentences with which to analyze grammatical
structures, I found myself reading through the sample sentences and desiring a
more cohesive or logical sequence. For instance, in a half-page explanation of
reflexive pronouns, the sample sentences presented ranged in topics from SLA
to Einstein donating his brain to science to seizure surgery. While these
sentences all loosely relate to the chapter theme of “Language and the Brain”,
I found it distracting as I tried to determine how the sentences related to
each other.

In future editions of this book, I would love to see expanded “Language Focus”
chapter introductions that more exhaustively address the chapter theme. A
suggestion might be to actually incorporate the sample sentences from the
chapter into a unified paragraph or short essay so that the students can be
initially exposed to the sentences as part of a coherent discourse. Then, once
they see them again later in the chapter being analyzed for their structure,
they can more readily relate the sentence back to the chapter theme. As a
fellow linguist, I absolutely agree with Sullivan that her inclusion of these
mini-linguistics lessons are an “exciting dimension” to this grammar book and
simply would like to see this aspect expanded and presented in a more
accessible way. 

Lastly, should an instructor consider adopting this text for a course, I’d
like to mention two small but important details. One is that the book has a
very nice aesthetic and is priced competitively. The book’s formatting is very
agreeable and easy-to-navigate. The sample sentences are accompanied by
supporting notations (underlining, arrows, etc.) that are both visually
appealing and instructive. Routledge, the publisher, and Sullivan did an
excellent job at keeping the price low without sacrificing quality. Secondly,
Routledge provides Instructor Notes via their website. These notes include an
answer key to the exercises, as well as some suggested assignments that
Sullivan uses in her own classroom. These assignments, particularly the
Grammar Literacy paper, enable students to apply their grammar knowledge to
their own writing.


ABOUT THE REVIEWER

Catharine Welch, Ph.D., enjoys teaching undergraduate and graduate courses in
the education department at the University of North Texas Dallas in Dallas,
TX. Her areas of interest include pragmatics, sociolinguistics, educational
linguistics, and Spanish.





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