Dixon R.M.W. A Semantic Approach to English Grammar

2nd edition. — Oxford University Press, 2005. — 568 р. — ISBN: 0199247404 , 0199283079This book shows how grammar helps people communicate and looks at the ways grammar and meaning interrelate. The author starts from the notion that a speaker codes a meaning into grammatical forms which the listener is then able to recover: each word, he shows, has its own meaning and each bit of grammar its own function, their combinations creating and limiting the possibilities for different words. He uncovers a rationale for the varying grammatical properties of different words and in the process explains many facts about English - such as why we can say I wish to go, I wish that he would go, and I want to go but not I want that he would go.The first part of the book reviews the main points of English syntax and discusses English verbs in terms of their semantic types including those of Motion, Giving, Speaking, Liking, and Trying. In the second part Professor Dixon looks at eight grammatical topics, including complement clauses, transitivity and causatives, passives, and the promotion of a non-subject to subject, as in Dictionaries sell well.This is the updated and revised edition of A New Approach to English Grammar on Semantic Principles. It includes new chapters on tense and aspect, nominalizations and possession, and adverbs and negation, and contains a new discussion of comparative forms of adjectives. It also explains recent changes in English grammar, including how they has replaced the tabooed he as a pronoun referring to either gender, as in When a student reads this book, they will learn a lot about English grammar in a most enjoyable manner.Part A. Introduction.
Orientation.
Grammar and semantics.
Semantic types and grammatical word classes.
Semantic roles and syntactic relations.
The approach followed.
Words and clitics.
Notes to Chapter.
Grammatical Sketch.
Pronouns.
Verb and verb phrase.
Forms of the verb.
Verb phrase.
Verbal systems.
Noun phrase.
Main clauses.
Imperative clauses.
Adverbial elements.
Relative clauses.
Complement clauses.
Omission of be.
Types of -ing clause.
Word derivations.
Clause derivations.
Questions.
Causatives.
Passives.
Promotion to subject.
Reflexives.
Reciprocals.
Have a verb, Give a verb and Take a verb.
Clause linking.
Syntactic preferences and constraints.
Summary of omission conventions.
Notes to Chapter.Part B. The Semantic Types.
Noun, adjective and verb types.
Types associated with the Noun class.
Types associated with the Adjective class.
Comparison of adjectives.
Introduction to verb types.
Subject and object.
Grammar versus lexicon.
Primary and secondary verbs.
Primary-A verb types.
Motion and Rest. / Affect. / Giving. / Corporeal. / Weather. / Others.
Notes to Chapter.
Primary-B verb types.
Attention. / Thinking. / Deciding. / Speaking. / Liking. / Annoying. / Others.
Secondary Verb types.
Secondary-A types.
Modals and Semi-Modals.
Beginning. / Trying. / Hurrying. / Daring.
Secondary-B Types.
Wanting. / Postponing.
Secondary-C Types.
Making. / Helping.
Secondary-D Types.
Seem. / Matter.
Notes to Chapter.Part C. Some Grammatical Topics.
Tense and Aspect.
Basic Distinctions.
Generic.
Future.
Present and Past Systems.
Perfective Versus Imperfective.
Actual Versus Previous.
Present Versus Past.
rrealis and Aspect.
Back-Shifting.
Occurrence.
Notes to Chapter.
Complement Clauses.
Parentheticals.