31.1239, Review: Applied Linguistics; General Linguistics: Depraetere, Langford (2019)

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LINGUIST List: Vol-31-1239. Wed Apr 01 2020. ISSN: 1069 - 4875.

Subject: 31.1239, Review: Applied Linguistics; General Linguistics: Depraetere, Langford (2019)

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Date: Wed, 01 Apr 2020 22:07:59
From: Marine Riou [marine.riou at univ-lyon2.fr]
Subject: Advanced English Grammar (2nd edition)

 
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http://linguistlist.org/pubs/reviews/get-review.cfm?subid=36582097


Book announced at http://linguistlist.org/issues/30/30-3372.html

AUTHOR: Ilse  Depraetere
AUTHOR: Chad  Langford
TITLE: Advanced English Grammar (2nd edition)
SUBTITLE: A Linguistic Approach
PUBLISHER: Bloomsbury Publishing (formerly The Continuum International Publishing Group)
YEAR: 2019

REVIEWER: Marine Riou, Université Lyon 2

SUMMARY

Chapter 1 (“Getting started: Forms and functions”) opens with the difference
between a prescriptive and descriptive approach, and presents four different
levels of linguistic analysis (morphology, semantics, syntax, and pragmatics).
The chapter then focuses on category and function for individual words and
phrases, with an in-depth discussion of compound nouns (morphology and
stress). The functions taken into consideration are: subject, predicate,
direct object, indirect object, subject complement, object complement,
adjunct, prepositional object, and prepositional complement. The chapter ends
with a section on clause type (declarative, interrogative, exclamative, and
imperative), subordination and coordination, and finite vs non-finite clauses.
As the authors make clear (“the goal of this chapter was to refresh your
knowledge of basic syntactic terminology” p. 24), the chapter is not intended
for a reader with no previous knowledge of category and function. Some
keywords such as “constituent” and “headword” (p. 15) are introduced rather
quickly, and the more naïve reader will not find a full demonstration as to
why these concepts are useful or practical instructions on how to carry out
such analysis (e.g. identifying constituents and labelling them).

Chapter 2 (“The verb and its complements”) “zoom[s] in on the verb phrase (VP)
from different angles” (p.31). First, the characteristics of auxiliaries
(direct NOT-negation, subject-auxiliary inversion, ellipsis, contraction and
weak forms) are detailed so as to compare them to lexical verbs. Section 2
side-steps to a discussion of interrogatives (closed vs open interrogatives,
WH-constituents, inversion and DO-insertion, main vs embedded interrogatives,
echo questions, tags). Section 3 then circles back to lexical verbs and their
complementation, introducing transitivity. The term valency itself is not
used, but the authors explain in a clear manner the connection between the
semantics of a verb and the arguments that it licenses (p.54), with a
subsection on clausal complements (including a discussion of THAT-clauses,
TO-infinitive clauses, bare infinitive clauses, and -ING clauses). The authors
also discuss the syntactic differences between prepositional verbs and
particle verbs, listing a number of syntactic tests which can be used to tell
them apart. Finally, Section 4 on the passive outlines the syntactic,
semantic, and discursive parameters presiding over the choice of active vs.
passive voice. As the authors admit, Chapter 2 is “ambitious and cover[s] a
lot of ground” (p. 92). Some of the more complex concepts might have been kept
for later. For example, middle voice (p. 56-57) might be quite challenging for
student readers, as it uses concepts which have not yet been formally
introduced at this stage in the book, such as semantic roles (first explicit
explanation p. 79). Another slight criticism concerns the dense section on
interrogatives at this stage of the book. I understand that this choice is
motivated by the reliance of interrogative clauses on auxiliaries, but I fear
it might divert the students’ attention away from the main focus of the
chapter – verbs and their complementation. 

Chapter 3 (“The noun and the noun phrase”) “look[s] at some of the basic facts
concerning countability of nouns and how different determiners can combine
with them [and] serve to establish different kinds of reference, how
pre-modifiers […] and post-modifiers […] can be used to expand the NP, and how
the NP determines verbal agreement” (p.160). The chapter initially lays out a
typology of nouns (concrete vs abstract, common vs proper, animate vs
inanimate, individuating vs collective, countable vs uncountable). It then
details different types of determiners (articles, demonstratives, quantifiers,
possessives, Saxon genitive) and their role in the construction of reference
(generic vs specific). A section on modifiers covers adjectives and relative
clauses (with a distinction between restrictive and non-restrictive relative
clauses). The chapter closes with a section on subject-verb agreement, “a
topic that very nicely brings the NP and the VP together” (p. 156), circling
back to topics such as collective nouns and complex NPs (e.g. starting with “a
number of”). Contrary to previous chapters, Chapter 3 is accessible to
intermediate as well as advanced students, as it goes step-by-step into
concepts such as noun type.

Chapter 4 (“Aspect and tense”)
The chapter starts with a very clear introduction on tense and aspect, and
their interrelation in English. The authors opted for a semantic definition of
tense and they consequently list eight tenses (present, past, present perfect,
past perfect, future, future perfect, past future, and past future perfect).
Section 2 classifies verbs according to situation type (state, activity,
accomplishment, achievement) depending on duration, dynamicity, and inherent
endpoint. This section is flawlessly fluid and manages to avoid overly
technical terms, for example by using the self-evident term “inherent
endpoint” instead of the more challenging term “telicity”. The rest of Section
2 focuses on the basic meanings of the progressive (ongoingness and limited
duration) and connects them to situation type. Except for a section on future
time reference, the authors adopted a form-to-function approach, showing how
each tense can be used to locate situations in different time-spheres, with
systematic reference to situation type. The section on the present perfect is
very thorough and includes a series of useful diagrams (p.215) some of the
constraints on the use of temporal adjuncts (e.g. SINCE, JUST). Overall,
Chapter 4 offers a unified and step-by-step account of the English tense and
aspect system, highlighting the individual contribution of the forms involved
(temporal features, aspectual markers, situation types). The hypothetical and
counterfactual uses of tenses, such as the modal past, are treated in full in
Chapter 5.

Chapter 5 on “Modals and modality” starts with a definition of what modal
meaning is, and a brief list of different forms which have modal meaning in
English. Section 2 focuses on modal verbs (modal auxiliaries, lexical modal
verbs, and periphrastic forms such as OUGHT TO). Section 3 is entitled
“Composition of the modal sentence” and explains the distinction between modal
meaning (M) and proposition (P), which is then used to introduce two key
concepts: 1) scope of negation, and 2) temporal location of M vs. temporal
location of P. Section 4 defines epistemic modality, details which modal verbs
can express different subtypes of epistemic meanings, and includes a valuable
section on the intersection of epistemic meaning, aspect, and situation types.
Section 5 addresses non-epistemic (“root”) modality with a similar structure.
The authors devote a short separate section to SHALL and WILL. The chapter
closes with two short but efficient sections on the subjunctive (Section 7)
and the modal past and modal past perfect (Section 8). The chapter succeeds in
“pinning down the exact difference in communicative effect between each of
these modals” (p.284) in a way that is both compact and thorough enough for
advanced students. I found it extremely valuable that the authors were so
explicit about the “very delicate interaction between situation type, various
facets of temporal reference and modal meaning” (p. 300). 

Chapter 6 (“Discourse”) focuses on “grammar beyond the level of the sentence”
(p. 316) and elegantly ties together some of the topics covered in previous
chapters. After an illustration of the interrelatedness of the different
phenomena featured so far, Section 1 on cohesion presents some of the key
concepts of information packaging and uses IT-clefts, WH-clefts, and
extrapositions as cases in point. Section 2 describes grammatical markers of
cohesion (anaphors, cataphors, ellipsis) and lexical markers of cohesion (e.g.
although, since, therefore, actually, anyway, obviously).

EVALUATION

An Advanced English Grammar bridges the gap between grammar textbooks whose
main focus is on language learning and more advanced grammars that can be too
intimidating and ambitious for undergraduate students. As its title explicitly
says, the target audience is advanced students. As such, it might not be
suitable for first-year university students in English Studies whose native
language is not English. The authors very carefully define every technical
term they use, and they abide by their promise to “be accessible to students
with no background in linguistics” (p. ix). Technicality is not the main
reason why the textbook is better suited to advanced students, density is. The
authors use clear language (with short, focused sentences) and a pleasant
layout (the keywords are in bold, the titles visually prominent). The reader
is explicitly walked through the logical flow of the different chapters,
sections, and topics, and great care has been given to strike an engaging
balance between formality and familiarity. Numerous exercises are provided
(between 9 and 33 per chapter). They are carefully crafted and very classical
in terms of form and content, falling into two main categories: exercises that
test English proficiency (e.g. “fill in the gap”) and exercises that focus on
grammatical analysis (e.g. delineating, labeling, or explaining how two forms
have a different communicative effect). A companion website provides a number
of additional resources: a glossary, 28 additional exercises, and the key to
all exercises (though the latter does not seem to be accessible just yet).
Overall, this is a very solid linguistically informed grammar of English, and
in the future, I will refer my students to it.


ABOUT THE REVIEWER

Marine Riou is an Assistant Professor in English Linguistics at Lumière Lyon 2
University (France) and Adjunct Research Fellow at Curtin University
(Australia). Her main research interests include grammar and prosody in
interaction, corpus linguistics, and linguistics applied to health.





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