Understanding Sentence Structure

<p><b>A straightforward guide to understanding English grammar</b></p> <p> </p> <p>This book is for people who have never thought about syntax, and who don’t know anything about grammar, but who want to learn. Assuming a blank slate on the part of the reader, the book treats English grammar as a product of the speaker’s mind, and builds up student skills by exploring phrases and sentences with more and more complexity, as the chapters proceed.</p> <p> </p> <p>This practical guide excites and empowers readers by guiding them step by step through each chapter with intermittent exercises. In order to capitalize on the reader’s confidence as a personal authority on English, <i>Understanding Sentence Structure</i> assumes an inclusive definition of English, taking dialect variation and structures common amongst millions of English speakers to be a fact of natural language.</p> <p> </p> <ul> <li>Situates grammar as part of what the student already unconsciously knows</li> <li>Presupposes no prior instruction, not even in prescriptive grammar</li> <li>Begins analyzing sentences immediately, with the “big picture” (sentences have structure, structure can be ambiguous) and moves through levels of complexity, tapping into students’ tacit knowledge of sentence structure</li> <li>Includes exercise boxes for in-chapter practicing of skills, side notes that offer further tips/encouragement on topics being discussed, and new terms defined immediately and helpfully in term boxes</li> <li>Applies decades of findings in syntactic theory and cognitive science, with an eye towards making English grammar accessible to school teachers and beginning students alike</li> </ul> <p><i> </i></p> <p><i>Understanding Sentence Structure: An Introduction to English Syntax</i> is an ideal book for undergraduates studying modern English grammar and for instructors teaching introductory courses in English grammar, syntax, and sentence structure.</p>