[The Cambridge Grammar carries a similar seal -- me it reminded of a fried egg on a platter --  brashly labeled "Real English Guarantee". The late and sorely lamented John Sinclair told me that the phrase "real English" was coined in the 1980s by the COBUILD team, who were surpised how well it caught on befoe Cambrige swiped it.]

Dedicated to Dwight Bolinger

Motto Gallery

Grammarians would perhaps differ less, if they read more.

-- Goold Brown, 1851

As the grammarians […] began quarrelling, they lost the power of discovering.

-- Charles Kingsley, 1854

It is a capital mistake to theorise before one has data.

                   --  Sherlock Holmes, 1892

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Ruminations from My Students

(Emirati data)

In school they teach us English grammar in confusion way.

The grammar rules were just like a solid thing that we cannot use it.

Grammar is an essential thing for students to build their knowledgement on strong basement.

CONTENTS

Part I. Managing data for a “grammar”

Part II. In search of “grammar” and GRAMMAR

II.A Three sides

II.B The double-bind of “English teachers”

II.C Some precepts for “grammar”

II.D The term “grammar”

II.E  A “bref historie” of English GRAMMAR versus “grammar’

II.F “Grammar”, “lexicon”, “lexicogrammar”, and “usage”

II.G  Six criteria for a “friendly grammar”

Part III. ORTHOGRAPHY and PRONUNCIATION

Part IV.  WORDS and PHRASES in a “grammar”

IV.A  What’s in a WORD?

IV.B  WORD-PIECES

IV.C  MULTI-WORD UNITS

IV.D  “Naming the Parts of Speech” revisited

IV.E  WORD-CLASSES

IV.F. MAJOR WORD-CLASSES

IV.F.1 NOUNS

IV.F.2 NOMINALS

IV.F.3 NOUN PHRASES

IV.F.3.1 DETERMINERS in NOUN PHRASES

IV.F.3.2 ARTICLES

IV.F.3.3 DEMONSTRATIVES

IV.D.3.4 POSSESSIVES

IV.F.3.5 INTERROGATIVES and EXCLAMATORIES

IV.F.3.6 QUANTIFIERS and ENUMERATORS 

IV.F.3.7 PRE-MODIFIERS and POST-MODIFIERS

IV.F.4 PRO-NOUNS and PRO-NOMINALS

IV.F.5 ADJECTIVES

IV.F.5.1 PRO-ADJECTIVES

IV.F.6 VERBS

IV.F.7 VERBALS

IV.F.7.1 PRO-VERBS

IV.F.8 VERB PHRASES

IV.F.9ADVERBS  and ADVERBIALS

IV.F.9.1 PRO-ADVERBS  and PRO-ADVERBIALS

IV.G. MINOR WORD-CLASSES

IIV.G.1 INTERJECTIONS

IV.G.2 PREPOSITIONS

IV.G.3 JUNCTIONS  

Part V. A LEXICOGRAMMAR of PROCESSES in CLAUSES

V.A  GRAMMAR, LEXICON, and LEXICOGRAMMAR revisited

V.B A LEXICOGRAMMAR of PROCESSES

VI.B.1 OUTER PROCESSES

V.B.2 INNER PROCESSES

Part VI. PROSODY and GRAMMAR

VI.A Four units

VI.B The spontaneity of real conversation

VI.C STRESSES and TONE GROUPS

VI.D PROSODY and GRAMMAR in CLAUSE TYPES

VI.D.1 The DECLARATIVE CLAUSE TYPE for STATEMENTS

VI.D.2 The INTERROGATIVE CLAUSE TYPE for QUESTIONS

VI.D.3 The EXCLAMATORY CLAUSE TYPE for EXCLAMATIONS

VI.D.4 The IMPERATIVE CLAUSE TYPE for COMMANDS

VI.E MINOR CLAUSE TYPES

VI.E.1 DEPENDENT CLAUSES

VI.E.2 NON-FINITE CLAUSES

VI.E.3 NON-CLAUSES

VII. PUNCTUATION in LEXICOGRAMMAR and PROSODY

VIII. On the future of GRAMMAR and “grammar”

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