A Student's Advanced Grammar of English (SAGE)

Foreword VII
Chapter 1 Introduction - Elements of English 1
001 On grammar 1
002 The character of English 3
002/1 Who speaks English?. 3
002/2 Where English comes from. 3
002/3 Language varieties. 5
002/4 Regional variants of English and standard languages 8
003 Some basic concepts in language study 14
003/1 Some general fields of language 14
003/2 Basic grammatical categories. 17
003/3 Sentence functions 19
003/4 Sentence types and sentence patterns 24
Chapter 2 Nouns 27
2.1 Basic features: introduction 27
004 Main grammatical features 27
004/1 Nouns and noun phrases 27
004/2 Syntactic roles of noun phrases 28
004/3 Morphological invariance 29
004/4 Number: singular and plural 29
004/5 Countability 30
004/6 The genitive. 31
005 Main semantic features 32
005/1 Common and proper nouns 32
005/2 Common nouns: concrete or abstract 33
005/3 Common nouns: individual, mass, collective, and pair nouns 33
2.2 From singular to plural 34
006 Regular plural formation 34
006/1 Regular changes in spelling and pronunciation 34
006/2 Special cases 34
007 Irregular plural formation 35
007/1 Vowel change 35
007/2 Plurals in -en/-ence. 36
007/3 Singular-plurals. 36
007/4 Plural-singulars 37
007/5 Greek and Latin plurals. 37
007/6 Modern loan-word plurals 38
008 Number, countability and meaning: details of use 39
008/1 Individual nouns 39
008/2 Mass nouns 39
008/3 Collective nouns 41
008/4 Pair nouns 43
008/5 Quantifying non-count nouns 43
008/6 Mass, collective and pair nouns with different German equivalents 45
008/7 Summary: common nouns with different meanings in singular and plural 45
2.3 The genitive 46
009 The s-genitive: form and syntax 46
009/1 Spelling 46
009/2 Pronunciation 47
009/3 Syntax 47
010 The of-genitive: form and syntax 49
010/1 As a postmodifying prepositional phrase 49
010/2 As part of a premodifying expression of quantity. 49
010/3 The "double genitive" 49
011 The genitive in general use 50
011/1 Animate nouns: s-genitive 50
011/2 Inanimate nouns: of-genitive 51
012 Some specific uses of the genitive 52
012/1 Quantifying expressions 52
012/2 Constitutive meaning 53
012/3 The pronoun s-genitive with localities 55
012/4 Genitives with verb-related nouns 57
012/5 Beyond the genitive: the collocational nature of "prepositional of" with
verb-related nouns 58
012/6 The compound noun in genitive meaning 58
013 Summary: s-genitive and of-genitive in contrast 58
013/1 The s-genitive in general use; exceptions 58
013/2 The of-genitive in general use; exceptions 59
2.4 Noun forms 59
014 Common suffixes 60
014/1 Describing a state, condition or characteristic. 60
014/2 Describing an action or state, or the result of one 60
014/3 Describing a person/thing carrying out an action, or affected by one 60
014/4 Describing fields of study, belief, professional activity or behaviour. 61
014/5 Suffixes with mixed reference 61
015 Prefixes 62
015/1 Opposites. 62
015/2 Describing place, order, size and rank. 62
015/3 Describing self and others 62
015/4 Referring to number and quantity 62
015/5 Meaning "badly/wrongly". 62
016 Compound nouns 63
016/1 Two separate nouns 63
016/2 The "hyphen" question. 63
016/3 Two nouns as one 64
016/4 Singular in the first element 64
016/5 Other types of compound noun 64
016/6 Pronunciation: stress. 66
016/7 Plural forms. 68
017 Compound nouns: summary and points of difficulty 68
017/1 Type and spelling. 68
017/2 Pronunciation: stress. 69
018 Some other processes of noun formation 69
018/1 Old forms into new 70
018/2 Old words, new meanings. 71
018/3 New words, new meanings. 71
Chapter 3 Pronouns, Determiners and Quantifiers 73
3.1 Pronouns 73
019 Main grammatical features 73
020 Pronoun types 74
020/1 Personal pronouns 74
020/2 Possessives. 77
020/3 Reflexive pronouns: self and others 79
020/4 Reflexive pronouns: further points of usage 79
020/5 Pronoun table (summary). 81
020/6 Reflexives, possessives and personal pronouns: summary of important
points and common difficulties. 81
020/7 Other pronoun types. 82
3.2 Determiners 84
021 Main grammatical and semantic features 84
022 Determiner types 84
022/1 The indefinite article 84
022/2 The definite article 87
022/3 The zero article 88
022/4 The definite article with names. 95
022/5 The definite article in other 'borderline' uses 98
022/6 Demonstrative determiners. 101
3.3 Quantifiers 108
023 Main grammatical and semantic features 108
024 Distributives 109
024/1 all 109
024/2 both. 114
024/3 every 116
024/4 each. 117
024/5 either. 119
024/6 Negative distributives: not + either/neither/nor 121
024/7 Other negative distributives 125
025 Indefinite quantifiers 131
025/1 some 132
025/2 any 133
025/3 much/many/a lot of 138
025/4 little/few/a little/a few/several 139
025/5 more/most, less/least, fewer/fewest 140
Chapter 4 Adjectives 141
026 Basic features 141
027 The syntax of adjectives 142
027/1 Position and function 142
027/2 The adjective phrase 142
028 Adjective meaning and adjective grammar 143
028/1 Common semantic categories 143
028/2 Some special sub-types 144
028/3 Adjective position: attributive only. 145
028/4 Adjective position: predicative only 146
028/5 Clause reduction 147
028/6 Attributive postmodification 148
028/7 Attributive premodification 149
028/8 Gradable and non-gradable adjectives 151
028/9 Proper adjectives 151
029 Adjective forms 151
029/1 Affixes 152
029/2 Other words in adjective functions 154
029/3 Compound adjectives 157
030 Aspects of usage 159
030/1 Adjectives as nouns. 159
030/2 Some special cases. 163
030/3 Adjectival complements 164
031 Comparison 166
031/1 Types of comparison 166
031/2 Forming the comparative and superlative 167
031/3 Use of comparative and superlative 170
031/4 Equative comparison. 171
031/5 Deficit and surplus comparatives compared 171
031/6 Comparative constructions and their syntax 173
031/7 Superlatives. 179
031/8 Non-adjective comparison 180
031/9 Summary of different comparative types and structures 186
Chapter 5 Adverbs 188
032 Basic features 188
033 Adverb meaning 189
033/1 Semantic types 190
033/2 The adverb phrase and its functions 193
033/3 Adverb position: general 196
033/4 Adverb position according to meaning 197
033/5 Position of other adverbials. 205
033/6 Usage: some special cases 209
034 Adverb forms 214
034/1 Derived adverbs 214
034/2 Non-derived adverbs and other special groups. 215
034/3 Comparison of adverbs 218
Chapter 6 Prepositions 221
035 Basic features 221
036 Individual prepositions and their meanings 222
036/1 Prepositions of place and direction 222
036/2 Prepositions of time. 237
036/3 Prepositions of mixed reference 243
Chapter 7 Conjunctions 246
037 Basic features 246
038 Individual conjunctions and their meanings 247
038/1 Conjunctions expressing cause (reason). 247
038/2 Conjunctions expressing time relations 248
038/3 Conjunctions expressing conditions 251
038/4 Conjunctions expressing addition. 254
038/5 Contrast and contradiction with subordinating conjunctions 258
038/6 Mixed conjunctions. 259
039 Conjunction clauses and sentence syntax 264
039/1 Clauses as adverbials 265
039/2 Clauses as subjects, objects and complements 266
039/3 Adverbs as subordinators instead of conjunctions 267
039/4 Further subordination. 268
039/5 Clause reduction to indicate function 269
039/6 Clauses as parts of phrases 269
039/7 Comma rules. 272
Chapter 8 Verbs: Basic Features, Syntax and Forms 273
040 Basic features 273
040/1 The verb phrase. 273
040/2 Verb morphology 274
041 Syntax: the verb in the sentence 285
041/1 The verb and its complementation 285
041/2 The verb and basic sentence operations 287
041/3 Verbal action types (modes of occurrence) 298
042 Forms of verbs 300
042/1 Verb formation 300
042/2 Particle verbs 301
042/3 Formation of non-finite verbs. 307
042/4 Forming progressive and perfect. 309
042/5 Forming the passive 309
Chapter 9 Verbs: The Present and Past Tenses 311
043 Overview 311
044 The primary non-perfect tenses and their aspects 312
044/1 The general meaning of the aspects 312
044/2 The present tense and its aspects 318
044/3 The past tense: introduction 327
044/4 The past tense: forms 327
044/5 The past tense: main interplay of aspects 334
044/6 The past tense: further points on aspect usage 336
Chapter 10 Verbs: The Perfect Tenses 340
045 Introduction 340
046 The present perfect 341
046/1 Time orientation and general meaning. 341
046/2 Time orientation, adverbials, and tense 342
046/3 Time-span perfects: the continuative 343
046/4 Time-span perfects: the experiential 348
046/5 Non-time-span perfects: the resultative 352
046/6 The present perfect: concluding points and summary 360
047 The past perfect 364
047/1 Time orientation and general meaning. 364
047/2 The past perfect as present-perfect-in-the-past. 364
047/3 The past perfect as past-tense-in-the-past (= pre-past use) 366
047/4 Some further points of note 368
Chapter 11 Verbs: Future and Conditional Meaning,
Indirect Speech, the Passive 371
11.1 Future meaning 371
048 Introduction 371
049 The forms of future reference 372
049/1 The modal future: will 372
049/2 The modal future: to be going to 377
049/3 The modal future: shall 379
049/4 The non-modal future: arrangements. 380
049/5 Past and perfect meanings with future reference 382
049/6 The basics of future meaning - overview 385
11.2 Conditional meaning 386
050 Introduction 386
051 Conditional meaning and conditional forms 387
051/1 Concrete points on form 387
051/2 Conditional sentences with speculative meaning 388
051/3 Conditional sentences with non-speculative modal meaning 395
051/4 False conditionals 398
051/5 Speculative conditions: other types and variants 401
11.3 Indirect (reported) speech 405
052 Introduction: direct and indirect speech 405
053 The forms of indirect speech 406
053/1 Tense regulation in indirect speech. 407
053/2 Other changes in indirect speech 410
053/3 Reporting verbs in indirect speech 413
053/4 Questions in indirect speech 416
053/5 Commands in indirect speech. 420
11.4 The passive voice 422
054 Introduction: active and passive voice 422
055 Forming and using the passive 423
055/1 Basic features of active-passive conversion. 423
055/2 Transitive verb types and their relation to the passive 425
055/3 Further points on the passive 426
Chapter 12 Verbs: Modal Verbs. 430
056 Modal verbs: types and forms 430
056/1 Primary modals 430
056/2 Secondary modals 432
057 Modal meanings 433
057/1 Ability/capability 433
057/2 Speculation 437
057/3 Permission. 442
057/4 Directives. 445
057/5 Other modal usage 456
Chapter 13 Verbs: Non-finite Verbs 459
058 Basic features 459
13.1 The infinitive 459
059 Forms 459
060 Infinitive constructions 460
060/1 The infinitive after verbs 461
060/2 The infinitive after verbs: some special cases 462
060/3 The infinitive after adjectives 463
060/4 Infinitive clauses as shortened relative clauses 467
060/5 Infinitive clauses as appositive postmodifications 472
060/6 Infinitives of purpose 472
060/7 Infinitives in indirect questions and indirect commands 473
060/8 Consecutive infinitives 475
060/9 The perfect, progressive and passive forms of the infinitive 479
060/10 Syntax: sentence functions in and around the infinitive 481
13.2 The gerund 487
061 Form, syntax, general meaning 487
061/1 The subject of a gerund. 488
061/2 The gerund clause as subject. 489
061/3 Tense, aspect and passive with the gerund 489
062 Gerund constructions 491
062/1 The gerund after verbs 492
062/2 Catenatives: gerund or infinitive according to meaning 494
062/3 Catenatives: gerund or infinitive according to grammar 497
062/4 Catenatives: gerund or infinitive with little or no difference 498
062/5 The gerund after prepositions 499
062/6 The gerund in noun compounds. 501
062/7 The action nominal 501
13.3 The participles 503
063 Form, syntax, general meaning 503
063/1 Uses and functions of participles: an introduction 504
063/2 The syntax of the participle clause 505
063/3 Tense, aspect and passive with participles. 506
064 The participles in use 507
064/1 The present participle at sentence level 507
064/2 The present participle at phrase level 515
064/3 The present participle: some borderline cases. 519
064/4 The perfect participle. 522
064/5 The past participle: introduction 524
064/6 The past participle at sentence level 524
064/7 The past participle at phrase level 529
Chapter 14 Phrase and Clause at Complex Level 532
14.1 The complex phrase 532
065 Introduction 532
066 Postmodification in the noun phrase 532
066/1 The relative clause. 534
066/2 The relative clause: other phenomena 540
066/3 Other types of relative postmodification. 542
066/4 Appositive postmodification 548
066/5 Genitive postmodification 551
066/6 Multiple postmodification 553
067 Complex adjective and prepositional phrases 557
067/1 The complex adjective phrase 557
067/2 The complex prepositional phrase 561
14.2 Aspects of the complex sentence 562
068 Forms and functions 562
068/1 Clauses as subject (S) 562
068/2 Clauses as direct object (Od) 563
068/3 Clauses as subject complement (Cs) 565
068/4 Clauses as object complement (Co) 565
068/5 Clauses as adverbials (A). 567
068/6 Examples of sentence analysis 572
068/7 Analysing special clause and sentence types. 574