Analysing English Sentence Structure

This book provides a concise introduction to work in syntactic theory, drawing on the key concepts of Chomsky's Minimalist Program.

A readable introduction to English syntax and syntactic theory, argumentation and description, suitable for students with little prior knowledge.

This highly successful text has long been considered the standard introduction to the practical analysis of English sentence structure. It covers key concepts such as constituency, category and functions, and also utilises tree diagrams throughout to help the reader visualise the structure of sentences. In this fourth edition, Analysing Sentences has been thoroughly revised and now features a brand new companion website with additional activities and exercises for students and an answer book for the in-text exercises for professors. The extra activities on the website give students practice in identifying syntactic phenomena in running text and will help to deepen understanding of this topic. Accessible and clear, this book is the perfect textbook for readers coming to this topic for the first time. Featuring many in-text, end-of-chapter and Further Exercises, it is suitable for self-directed study as well as for use as core reading on courses.

Analysing English Sentences provides a concise and clear introduction to work in syntactic theory, drawing on the key concepts of Chomsky's Minimalist Program. Assuming little or no prior knowledge of syntax or minimalism, Radford outlines the core concepts and leading ideas and how they can be used to describe various aspects of the syntax of English. A diverse range of topics is covered, including syntactic structure, null constituents, head movement, case and agreement and split projections. Using Radford's trademark approach and writing style, the book is intensive and progressive in nature, introducing grammatical concepts and working in stages towards more complex phenomena.

Andrew Radford has acquired an unrivalled reputation over the past thirty years for writing syntax textbooks in which difficult concepts are clearly explained without the excessive use of technical jargon. Analysing English Sentences continues in this tradition, offering a well-structured introduction to English syntax and contemporary syntactic theory which is supported throughout with learning aids such as summaries, lists of key hypotheses and principles, extensive references, handy hints and exercises. Instructors will also benefit from the book's free online resources, which include PowerPoint slides of chapter key points and analyses of exercise material, as well as an answer key for all the in-book exercises. This second edition has been thoroughly revised and updated throughout, including additional exercises and an entirely new chapter on exclamative and relative clauses. Assuming no prior knowledge of grammar, this is an approachable introduction to the subject for undergraduate and graduate students.

An intermediate textbook in English syntax and contemporary syntactic theory, full of helpful features for students and instructors alike.

English Sentence Analysis: An introductory course is designed as a 10-week course for students of English Language and Literature, Linguistics, or other language related fields. In 10 weeks the student will be proficient in English analysis at sentence, clause and phrase level and have a solid understanding of the traditional terms and concepts of English syntax. This introduction prepares for practical courses in grammar and writing skills and for theoretical courses in syntactic argumentation. The Course Book provides sentence structures in clear graphics; logically structured chapters with Introductions and Summaries; exercises with quotations and excerpts from English, American and Australian literature and pop songs. English Sentence Analysis: An introductory course has been classroom tested at various universities. The students seem to enjoy the ‘dreaded’ syntax course and pass rates have gone up significantly from 50 to 70%. Originally, this book was accompanied by a CD-rom with a Practice Program for Windows. The Practice Program on CD-rom is not updated anymore by its creators and as a result is no longer compatible with current Windows versions. For this reason, we have ceased to include it with the book.

This outstanding resource for students offers a step-by-step, practical introduction to English syntax and syntactic principles, as developed by Chomsky over the past 15 years. Assuming little or no prior background in syntax, Andrew Radford outlines the core concepts and how they can be used to describe various aspects of English sentence structure. This is an abridged version of Radford's major new textbook Analysing English Sentences (also published by Cambridge University Press), and will be welcomed as a handy introduction to current syntactic theory.