Modern English linguistics: A structural and transformational grammar

The first printing of Modern English Linguistics: A Structural and Transformational Grammar was published by Thomas Y. Crowell Co. Inc. in 1975. Several later printings through the mid 1980s were published by Harper & Row, Publishers (now Harper Collins). More than 10,000 new hard-cover copies were sold.

Modern English Linguistics showed how transformational grammar developed out of American structuralist morphology and syntax. It then then went on to describe English grammar in some detail using the so-called "extended standard theory" of transformational grammar described in Noam Chomsky's book, Aspects of the Theory of Syntax. Despite considerable changes in Chomsky's ideas in the 1980s and 1990s (as for example, government and binding theory), linguistics textbooks continued to be published well into the 1990s that were still based on the Aspects model.

Table of Contents

Modern English Linguistics: A Structural and Transformational Grammar

Chapter One: Introduction
Empirical scientific method 3
American Structural Linguistics 8
Generative-Transformational Linguistics 12
The plan of this book 17
For further reading 19

Chapter Two:
English Morphology 21
Morphemes 22
Words 26
Roots and affixes 28
Some English prefixes 30
Derivational and inflectional suffixes 31
Some English derivational suffixes 35
English inflectional suffixes 37
Exercises 40
For further reading 43

Chapter Three:
Constituent Structure 45
Syntax 46
Form classes 47
LInear sentence patterns 55
Constituent structure 59
Exercises 64
For Further reading 66

Chapter Four:
English Phrase-Structure Rules 67
The nature and operation of PS rules 68
The English auxiliary 74
English prepositional phrases 84
Exercises 93
For further reading 94

Chapter Five:
Transformational Syntax of English Simple Sentences: I 95
Inadequacy of phrase-structure rules 96
Deep structure and surface structure 99
The nature and operation of transformations: indirect objects 101
The application of transformations: auxiliary inflections 104
Passives 111
The ordering of transformations 116
Exercises 119
For further reading 120

Chapter Six:
Transformational Syntax of English Simple Sentences: II 121
Sentence negation 122
Contracted negatives 127
Do 128
Imperatives 131
Yes/no questions 134
Question-word questions 137
Do in questions 141
Exercises 142
For further reading 142

Chapter Seven:
Transformational Syntax of English Complex Sentences 143
Deep structures for noun clauses 144
Noun clause transformations 148
Ordering of noun clause transformations 150
Noun clause questions 154
Deep structures for relative clauses 156
Relative clause transformations 161
Exercises 166
For further reading 166

Chapter Eight:
Expanding the Grammar: Practice in Syntactic Research 167
Syntactic Research 168
Agentless passives 169
Particles 173
Deleted relative pronouns 177
Conjoining 180
Adverbial clauses 184
Pronouns 185
Exercises 189
For further reading 194

Chapter Nine:
English Semantics 195
Syntax and semantics 196
Features 198
Case grammar 208
Exercises 216
For further reading 216

Chapter Ten:
English Phonology 217
Articulatory phonetics 218
Phonemes 228
Phonological rules 232
Exercises 240
For further reading 242

Appendix: A Basic Transformational Grammar for English 243

Bibliography 247

Index 252