GISDepartment of Global and Interdisciplinary Studies

The most important ingredients of the grammar of the English language.

A major step toward the ability to understand how sentences of English work.

For why you might want this ability, see the course description for English Grammar Extended, which you should consider taking after English Grammar: The Basics.

Will be able to gain “DP 1”, “DP 2”, and “DP 4”.

英語 / English

We follow Huddleston, Pullum and Reynolds’ textbook, which is based on (but is very much smaller and simpler than) the earlier book The Cambridge Grammar of the English Language (CGEL). Both are descriptive grammar books, saying how sentences of English are constructed (and not how the authors imagine they should be constructed). As its publisher says, CGEL “is firmly based on research in modern linguistics and rejects many errors of the older tradition, supporting its departures from traditional grammar with reasoned argument”. So the textbook will almost certainly disagree with any grammar or other textbook that you’ve used in any previous English course.

The book and course are only theoretical where necessary. (There are very few tree diagrams.) So if other syntax books alarm you, don’t worry.

Before each class, you have to read and digest ten or so pages of the textbook. We’ll discuss that part of the book, and related exercises, in the class. You are very welcome to come up with apparent counterexamples to what’s written in the book, and so forth.

Students both submit work for assignments and get comments on this work via “Hoppii”.

あり / Yes

なし / No

授業形態/methods of teaching：対面/face to face

※各回の授業形態は予定です。教員の指示に従ってください。

1[オンライン/online]：Introduction

Introduction to the course and its rationale

2[対面/face to face]：Word Categories

Classification among nouns, verbs, adjectives, and the rest

3[対面/face to face]：Verbs (i)

Verb inflection and paradigms; finite versus non-finite

4[対面/face to face]：Verbs (ii)

Auxiliary versus lexical verbs; perfective interpretation versus imperfective

5[対面/face to face]：Verbs (iii)

Primary versus perfect tense; progressive aspect; mood and modality; futurity; irrealis

6[対面/face to face]：Quick Survey; Mid-term Examination

Rapid reminders; assessing the degree to which students have understood the first half of the course

7[対面/face to face]：Clauses (i)

Clause structure, complements, and adjuncts; subjects; objects

8[対面/face to face]：Clauses (ii)

Predicative complements; canonical clause structures; adjuncts

9[対面/face to face]：Nouns and Noun Phrases (i)

Nouns, noun phrases, pronouns and proper nouns; number and countability; determiners and determinatives; noun complements

10[対面/face to face]：Nouns and Noun Phrases (ii)

Internal modifiers versus external modifiers; fused heads

11[対面/face to face]：Nouns and Noun Phrases (iii)

Pronouns; case

12[対面/face to face]：Adjective and Adverb Phrases (i)

Adjectives as distinguished from other categories; gradability

13[対面/face to face]：Adjective and Adverb Phrases (ii)

Adjective phrases; postpositional and other adjective use; adverbs; adverb phrases

14[対面/face to face]：Quick Survey; Final Examination

Rapid reminders; assessing the degree to which students have understood the second half of the course

Reading the textbook, doing exercises, coming up with examples. Preparatory study and review time for this class are 2 hours each.

Rodney Huddleston, Geoffrey K Pullum and Brett Reynolds. A Student’s Introduction to English Grammar. 2nd ed. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2021. ISBN 978-1-00-908801-5

We’ll only have time to go through part of this book, but later chapters will serve for a second course, English Grammar Extended.

Rodney Huddleston and Geoffrey K Pullum, The Cambridge Grammar of the English Language (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002). (Do not use any book intended for, or often used by, language learners or high-school students.)

Evaluation will be based on two examinations (50% + 50%). Both examinations will be “open book”, and will test real understanding and ability to analyze (as opposed to mere memorization).

A further slight reduction in the quantity of what's shown on screen during the class, a further slight increase in the quantity of annotations that can be examined outside the class.

Each class slideshow will be openly available on the web. The slideshows are usable on computers, tablets, and most phones.

None.