SYNTAX I

 

Biber, et al  (2002) Student Grammar of Spoken and Written English

 

Prescriptive

  1. Topics: Dr. Grammar

  2. Snyder project

Topics

One construction vs. many
 

My work

  1. Causatives (+/- se)

  2. Clitic climbing (LO quiero / deseo hacerLO)

  3. Subject raising (seems to / that)

Biber

  1. Grammatical constructions out of context

  2. We also need to understand how these choices are used to create discourse in different situations ([nn*] [nn*] [nn*], [vm*] [vh*] [vb*] [v_g])

  3. Corpus -- 40 million words (see page 8) -- spoken and written, American and British

  4. Real examples

  5. Coverage of language variation (e.g. 1/2 pronouns vs. proper Ns; NP modification)

  6. Coverage of preference and frequency (e.g. passives)

  7. Interpretations of frequency: context and discourse

  8. Lexico-grammatical patterns (e.g. [v*] to / [v*] that)

  9. Dialect less important for grammatical purposes than register

  10. Issue of standard vs. non-standard grammar (might could)

  11. Prescriptive vs. descriptive (who/whom, prep stranding, split infinitive)

Other constructions

 

  1. passive, perfect, progressive in main genres

  2. to V up/down (and across registers)

  3. seem to V / that / like

  4. end up Ving

  5. begin to V / Ving

  6. . having [vvn]

  7. sequences of verbs (had been Ving)