The bestselling workbook and grammar guide, revised and updated! Hailed as one of the best books around for teaching grammar, The Blue Book of Grammar and Punctuation includes easy-to-understand rules, abundant examples, dozens of reproducible quizzes, and pre- and post-tests to help teach grammar to middle and high schoolers, college students, ESL students, homeschoolers, and more. This concise, entertaining workbook makes learning English grammar and usage simple and fun. This updated 12th edition reflects the latest updates to English usage and grammar, and includes answers to all reproducible quizzes to facilitate self-assessment and learning. Clear and concise, with easy-to-follow explanations, offering "just the facts" on English grammar, punctuation, and usage Fully updated to reflect the latest rules, along with even more quizzes and pre- and post-tests to help teach grammar Ideal for students from seventh grade through adulthood in the US and abroad For anyone who wants to understand the major rules and subtle guidelines of English grammar and usage, The Blue Book of Grammar and Punctuation offers comprehensive, straightforward instruction.
This book presents a comprehensive picture of reflexive pronouns from both a theoretical and experimental perspective, using the well-researched languages of English, German, Dutch, Chinese, Japanese and Korean. In order to understand the data from varying theoretical perspectives, the book considers selected syntactic and pragmatic analyses based on their current importance in the field. The volume consequently introduces the Emergentist Reflexivity Approach, which is a novel theoretical synthesis incorporating a sentence and pragmatic processor that accounts for reflexive pronoun behaviour in these six languages. Moreover, in support of this model a vast array of experimental literature is considered, including first and second language acquisition, bilingual, psycholinguistic, neurolinguistic and clinical studies. It is through both the intuitive and experimental data linguistic theorizing relies upon that brings out the strengths of the modelling adopted here, paving new avenues for future research. In sum, this volume unites a diverse array of the literature that currently sits largely divorced between the theoretical and experimental realms, and when put together a better understanding of reflexive pronouns under the auspices of the Emergentist Reflexivity Approach is forged.
This book brings together a number of seemingly distinct phenomena in the history of English: the introduction of special reflexive pronouns (e.g. myself), the loss of verbal agreement and pro-drop, and the disappearance of morphological Case. It provides vast numbers of examples from Old and Middle English texts showing a person split between first, second, and third person pronouns. Extending an analysis by Reinhart & Reuland, the author argues that the 'strength' of certain pronominal features (Case, person, number) differs cross-linguistically and that parametric variation accounts for the changes in English. The framework used is Minimalist, and Interpretable and Uninterpretable features are seen as the key to explaining the change from a synthetic to an analytic language.
Seminar paper from the year 2009 in the subject Didactics for the subject English - Pedagogy, Literature Studies, grade: 1,0, University of Frankfurt (Main) (Institut für England- und Amerikastudien), course: Theory of Anaphora in Context , language: English, abstract: In this term paper I will investigate whether the implementation of reflexive pronouns through seventh grade English-schoolbooks is sufficient to let students understand and eventually use this phenomenon correctly. In the first part of this paper, I will begin with introducing the phenomenon. Here, I will give a short overview of how reflexive pronouns developed. Furthermore, I will present two different acknowledged theories (Chomsky and Reinhart & Reuland) and their conditions on reflexive pronouns. I will then show the two different usages of this phenomenon and will give examples of cases which are somewhat different from the common way of using it. In the second part, I will present the explanations and rules as they are given in the three most commonly used schoolbooks here in Hesse to show how reflexive pronouns are implemented. In part three, I will investigate in how far these rules are sufficient to explain the examples given in those schoolbooks respectively. I will furthermore analyze examples given in Mary Shelley’s “Frankenstein” and Oscar Wilde’s “The Canterville Ghost”, which are suggested for the use in seventh grade. Here, I will rather put my focus on somewhat more complex examples in order to find out whether those short rules apply for them as well. I will then conclude, whether my assumption that the explanations in these schoolbooks are not sufficient can be verified.
The English language in its complex shapes and forms changes fast. This thoroughly revised edition has been refreshed with current examples of change and has been updated regarding archeological research. Most suggestions brought up by users and reviewers have been incorporated, for instance, a family tree for Germanic has been added, Celtic influence is highlighted much more, there is more on the origin of Chancery English, and internal and external change are discussed in much greater detail. The philosophy of the revised book remains the same with an emphasis on the linguistic history and on using authentic texts. My audience remains undergraduates (and beginning graduates). The goals of the class and the book are to come to recognize English from various time periods, to be able to read each stage with a glossary, to get an understanding of typical language change, internal and external, and to understand something about language typology through the emphasis on the change from synthetic to analytic. This book has a companion website: http://dx.doi.org/10.1075/z.183.website
Seminar paper from the year 2016 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Linguistics, grade: 1,0, University of Bonn, language: English, abstract: Prior linguistic knowledge - it seems plausible that the acquisition of a second language can be influenced by the learner’s knowledge of structures and rules of his or her first language . Especially similarities between languages are probably tending to either facilitate the learning process or to impede it (cf. Gundel & Tarone 1994: 87). This cross-linguistic influence is called “language transfer”, which can be described as negative when the application of L1 structures or rules on a L2 utterance leads to a linguistically incorrect expression (cf. Saville-Troike 2012: 19). Given the fact that similarities between languages might impede the learning process of the L2, the work in hand takes a closer look at reflexive pronouns in English and German. As “self-forms” in English and “sich-forms” in German look quite similar but differ in their use, they appear as a possible source of error for German learners of English. Therefore, the leading question of the paper is whether L2 English learners recognize the differences in the use of “self-forms” in English and the use of “sich” in German. The hypothesis is that, based on their L1 knowledge, German learners of English are likely to make use of reflexive pronouns more often than necessary. In other words, it is assumed that a negative language transfer is likely to occur due to the formal similarities between the L1 and L2. Further information on the theoretical basis of the study will be given in the second chapter, followed by the part on methodology that includes information on the informants, the research instruments, and the data collection procedure. In the following two chapters, the results of the study will be presented and, with regard to possible explanations and limitations, discussed. Finally, the main findings of the paper will be summarized. The reason for conducting this study is, in the first place, that the problem of language transfer is of great importance for the learner’s learning process of English as L2. Especially teachers of English should be aware of common sources of error, so they might be able to predict possible linguistic problems and support their students at their best to avoid such mistakes (cf. Odlin 1990: 4). Furthermore, previous studies in the field of cross-linguistic examinations on reflexive pronouns mainly referred to binding conditions and the like, whereas this paper deals with the frequency and correct application of reflexives by learners of English as L2.
Grammar by Diagram, second edition is a book designed for anyone who wishes to improve grammatical understanding and skill. Using traditional sentence diagraming as a visual tool, the book explains how to expand simple sentences into compound, complex, and compound-complex sentences, and how to employ verbals (infinitives, gerunds, and participles) and other structures for additional variety. The text addresses the most frequent usage errors by explaining how to distinguish between adjectives and adverbs; how to avoid problems of pronoun case, agreement, and consistency; how to ensure that verbs will agree with their subjects and will be appropriate in terms of tense, aspect, voice, and mood; and how to phrase sentences to avoid errors in parallelism or placement of modifiers. Six appendices incorporate further exercises, a summary of key basics from the text, and supplemental material not included in the body of the text but useful for quick reference. This new edition includes additional exercises and has been revised and updated throughout.
Embark on a linguistic journey with "Emphatic Precision: Mastering Intensive Pronouns with MCQs." Tailored for learners, educators, and language enthusiasts, this comprehensive guide delivers an interactive learning experience. Explore the nuanced world of intensive pronouns through a diverse collection of multiple-choice questions, refining your language proficiency. Elevate your grammar skills, grasp the subtleties of emphasizing and intensifying pronouns for impact, and confidently construct well-structured and expressive sentences. Don't miss the opportunity to enhance your linguistic finesse. Secure your copy now and delve into the art of mastering intensive pronouns in English!
This is the first thorough description of the Nakh-Daghestanian language Hinuq. Hinuq has about 600 speakers living primarily in a single village in the Caucasus mountains in southern Russia (Daghestan). During several fieldwork trips, the author collected an extensive corpus of texts. Based on the data, Forker provides a comprehensive analysis of Hinuq grammar with reference to other Nakh-Daghestanian languages, to Caucasian studies and to typological and general linguistic topics.
Comprises a thorough treatment of the syntactic structures of English, beginning with an overview to syntactic analysis and progressing through the major constructions and processes of English grammar. Updates from the 1988 edition include sections on appositive constructions, parasitic gaps, contrastive negation, and comparative conditional sentences and expanded coverage of cleft sentences and free relatives. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR.
