Introduction

This grammar is for anyone who is interested in the English language and how it works. Many people will come to this book because they are learning English and trying to master the structure of the language. As soon as they have enough practical English to master the text, they will find this grammar helpful to them although it has been written primarily for students of advanced level.

The information the book contains, however, will also engage the attention of a different sort of student—those who make a study of English because they are simply interested in language and languages. They include teachers, examiners, syllabus planners and materials writers. The grammar has several unique features which will give them very useful information.

The information in this book is taken from a long and careful study of present-day English. Many millions of words from speech and writing have been gathered together in a computer and analyzed, partly by the computer and partly by a team of expert compilers. It is the first grammar of its kind, and it is deferent in many respects from other kinds of grammar.

This grammar attempts to make accurate statements about English, as seen in the huge Birmingham Collection of English Texts. The main patterns of English are picked out and described, and the typical words and phrases found in each pattern are listed.

This is what a grammar ought to do, but only very recently has it been possible. For a long time there has been a credibility gap between a grammar and the language that it is supposed to describe. Many of the rules seem too abstract to apply to actual examples. There is no room to show how the strong structural patterns can be varied and developed to allow users great freedom of expression.

A Grammar of Functions

People who study and use a language are mainly interested in how they can do things with the language—how they can make meanings, get attention to their problems and interests, influence their friends and colleagues and create a rich social life for themselves. They are only interested in the grammatical structure of the language as a means to getting things done.

A grammar which puts together the patterns of the language and the things you can do with them is called a functional grammar.

This is a functional grammar: each chapter is built around a major function of language, such as 'concept building', 'making up messages', and 'reporting what someone said'. Each of these functions is regularly expressed in English by one particular structure. For example, concept building is usually expressed structures built around a noun, called noun groups; messages are very often expressed in clauses; and reports typically involve a pair of clauses, with one of them containing a reporting verb such as 'say', and the other one beginning with 'that' or having quote marks (' ') round it.

This grammar is based on these important correspondences between structure and function, which are set out in the Cobuild Grammar Chart on the following pages. The skeleton of English grammar is seen in this chart.

However, there are many minor features of English that cannot appear on a simple summary chart. The grammar of a language is flexible, and with the passage of time there are changes in meaning and use of grammatical forms.

For example, although it is true to say that the noun group is the structure we choose for the things we want to talk about, it is not the only one. Sometimes we want to talk about an event or an idea that is not easy to express in a noun group. Instead we can use a clause as the subject of another clause.

All I want is a holiday.

We can also use a clause as the object or complement of another clause.

That's what we've always longed for.

By extending the basic grammar occasionally, speakers of English can express themselves more easily and spontaneously.

The same kind of extension works in the other direction also: noun groups are not only used as subjects, objects and complements. They can function as adjuncts of time, for example, among a range of minor uses.

He phoned back with the information the very next day.

But there is a major area of English grammar based on prepositions (see Chapter 6), which allows noun groups to be used in all sorts of subsidiary functions in the clause.

I went to a village school.

This has been my home for ten years now.

With a click, the door opened.

So it can be seen that the structural patterns can have more than one function, and that different structures can have similar functions. This may sound confusing, and it can be confusing if the grammar is not carefully organized around the major structures and functions.

This grammar follows up each major statement (often called 'rule' in other grammars) with a detailed description of the usages surrounding that statement—including 'exceptions'. Other ways of achieving the same sort of effect are then presented, with cross-references to the main structural patterns involved. Later in the chapter, the various extensions of use of a structure are set out, with cross-references to places where those functions are thoroughly treated.

These extensions and additions to the functions of a structure are not just random. Usually they can be presented as ways of widening the scope of the original function. For example, the basic, central function of reporting verbs (Chapter 7) is to introduce what someone has said.

He said he would be back soon.

It can easily be extended to include what someone has written:

His mother wrote that he had finally arrived home.

Then it can be widened to include thoughts and feelings; these do not need to be expressed in words, but the report structure is very convenient.

The boys thought he was dead.

From this we can see the reporting clause as a more general way of introducing another clause. The reporting clause becomes a kind of preface, commenting on the other clause, which contains the main message.

It is true that some children are late talkers.

The subject of the reporting clause is the pronoun 'it', which refers forward to the 'that'-clause. The verb is now a link verb (Chapter 3) and not a special reporting verb.

A Grammar of Examples

All the examples are taken from texts, usually with no editing at all. It is now generally accepted that it is extremely difficult to invent examples which sound realistic, and which have all the features of natural examples. I am convinced that it is essential for a learner of English to learn from actual examples, examples that can be trusted because they have been used in real communication.

From a Cobuild perspective, no argument is needed. At Cobuild there are file stores bulging with examples, and we do not need to invent any. By examining these real examples closely, we are gradually finding out some of the ways they differ from made-up examples. Until we know a lot more about naturalness in language we do not think it is safe to use invented examples.

There is a special note developing this point, which can be found immediately after this Introduction.

A Grammar of Classes

The actual words and phrases that are regularly used in each structure are printed in the grammar in a series of lists. Instead of just a few illustrative examples, this grammar gives information about the grammar of a large number of words. The student can get a good idea of how large or small a grammatical class is, how many words a certain rule applies to. The teacher has the raw material for making up exercises that suit a particular group of students, and can point to general features of a grammatical class.

Most of these lists, as far as we know, have never been available before. They are worth detailed investigation by student and teacher, because these lists provide the main link between the abstractions of grammar and the realities of texts.

In grammar lists of this kind are called 'classes'; a class is the grouping together of words and phrases which all behave in the same way. Hence this grammar is very much a grammar of classes because it features so many lists of words and phrases.

The job of preparing the lists has been one of the most interesting and challenging problems in the preparation of this book. The computer does the first stage, and produces a fist by searching out all the words that fit a pattern it is given. For example, it might be asked to pick all the words that end in '-ing' and do not have a corresponding form without the '-ing'. The first list it produces includes such words as 'overweening', and 'pettifogging', which are not very common, and which in our view can be left to a later stage of language learning. Also found are 'blithering' and 'whopping', which have a special function and are treated in a separate paragraph 2.41. A few words fit the pattern well but are only found in very restricted combinations, or collocations. 'Piping' goes with 'voice', and 'gangling' goes with 'youth' or 'boy'. Since grammar mostly deals with generalities, we feel that it could be misleading to print them in fists which are intended to encourage composition.

At present the computer has difficulties in detecting similarities and differences of meaning. But in the Cobuild database notes on meaning are made by the compilers, and the computer can also report back on this information. So, for example, it will know that in the case of 'fetching', there is a verb to 'fetch', but it does not have the same meaning. In most cases we omit a word like 'fetching' from our lists, to avoid confusion; otherwise the grammar would be full of special notes. If we put it in, we give an appropriate warning.

In the summer of 1989 I worked with a large number of English teachers in Europe, South East Asia and South America, to find out their reactions to our lists and to have their suggestions for revising them and editing them. The clear message was that the lists, to be teachable, should be orderly and comprehensive. Problem cases, on the whole, should be omitted rather than explained in a grammar at this level: on the other hand words which an experienced teacher would expect to find in a list should be there, or there should be an explanation.

The results of aft this careful editing can be found in the lists at, for example, 2.77, 2.78, and 2.79.

Wherever we can see a good reason, we put the words and phrases in a list in a meaningful arrangement. This approach was suggested in the teachers' workshops, and on that basis, for example, we put verbs with a prefix (2.79) in a different list from other verbs (2.78) which behave in the same way.

Another good example of this can be found at 1.21, where in a single list we put in separate groups animals, fish, words ending in '-craft', foreign words ending in '-s', and a miscellaneous list. These all share the same feature, namely that they can be either singular or plural nouns without any change of form—moose, salmon, aircraft, corps, crossroads. From a purely grammatical point of view they could all go in a single alphabetical list: however from a teaching and learning point of view it is helpful to have them further classified.

A Grammar of Meanings

Many English words have several meanings and uses. This is particularly true of the common words which make up most of our everyday language. Because of this it is difficult to make statements about the grammatical behaviour of a word, as this can vary according to its meaning. For example, in one meaning a verb may be transitive, and in another meaning intransitive.

An instance of this is 'manage', which in its meaning of 'be responsible for controlling an organization, business, or system' is transitive, and in its meaning of 'be able to continue with a reasonable way of life, even though you do not have much money' is intransitive, usually followed by an adverbial phrase.

Drouet returned to Ecuador to manage a travel agency.

I don't know if I can manage much longer.

Each meaning of a word may well have its own grammar, and it is unlikely that the statements about a word will cover all its meanings. However, the grammar would be very long and cumbersome if each statement had to indicate which meaning was being referred to. Throughout this grammar, therefore, the examples and the lists have been chosen so that the relevant meaning is the one that should first come to mind.

Many users will need a little time to adjust to this; we have lived so long with the assumption that grammar is independent of lexical meaning that it will be surprising to many people to see that grammar and lexis are very closely related. Where the choice of one word in a structure is very closely connected with the choice of another, this is pointed out. For example, the preposition 'aboard' is almost always used with a singular count noun referring to a form of transport such as 'ship', 'plane', 'train', or 'bus'.

...two weeks aboard the royal yacht Britannia.

Another example is a verb referring to physical senses such as 'see', 'feel', 'near', and 'smell'. When such a verb is used to refer to the present time, it is typically preceded by the modal 'can' or 'can't' rather than being in the simple present tense:

I can see George's face as clearly as if he were here with me.

When we come down, I can smell the aroma from the frying trout.

However, some of the verbs can be used with other, non-physical meanings, and in the other meanings the simple present tense is much used.

I see you had a good trip.

Many people feel that he should resign immediately.

This grammar is a halfway house between grammars which ignore the meaning of words, and dictionaries which give some grammatical information. We have left out reference to uncommon meanings, and we only occasionally draw attention to distinctions of meaning that entail a different grammar.

If you think about it, it is obvious that different meanings of a word are likely to occur in different structures. The meaning of a word includes the relations it makes with other words; so a verb such as 'see' in its physical meaning is likely to go along with a noun that means what was seen, or perhaps an adverb such as 'well' which gives an evaluation of the power of seeing. When 'see' is used to mean something like 'understand', it will naturally be followed by a 'that'-clause. On the rare occasions when it has a noun group as object, the noun will be something like 'problem', 'point', or 'position'—nouns describing messages.

A Grammar for Access

When using a grammar, it is often difficult to find the information that you want. This is often the biggest single problem for users of grammars, and a good reason why grammars are often unpopular with students. This grammar makes a special effort to support the user, and there are several interlocking systems of access.

The well-known grammatical terms are all used here—subject and object, present and past tense, and so on. New terms are kept to a minimum and are only used where there is no obvious alternative. A glossary of terms is provided and they are also, of course, all listed in the index.

There is a contents list and chart at the beginning of the book and a more detailed contents list at the beginning of each chapter. Using this or the index, the student will be able to find the section or paragraph where a function is associated with a structure. By reading around a little, the student will find a few alternatives, or will learn more about the exact meaning of the structure.

Throughout the book there is an extra column at the side which shows the topic of almost every paragraph, and there are frequent additional headings for each section of a chapter. At the top of each page is another heading to guide the user.

Each paragraph is written lo be read separately from every other, so that a small piece of information can be found and understood without the user having to read a whole section. But if a user does want to read straight through a section or chapter, it will be found both readable and interesting.

A Grammar for Production

The main purpose of this grammar is to help students to choose structures which accurately express the meanings they want to create. Hence the book is largely organized around the functions or meanings.

In particular, we set out many 'productive features' to guide the student towards confidence in personal expression. In some areas of grammar the rules are very flexible. Rather than giving a definite class, we feel it is better to give guidance so that the user can make individual choices, with no serious risk of error. By describing the language in this way, we give plenty of scope for creativity and innovation, a feature which is not commonly found in grammars. There are many productive features in current English. Some are well-known, for example the fact almost any noun in English can modify almost any other noun. For example, the noun 'steam' can be used in, among others, the following combinations: 'steam bath', 'steam boiler', 'steam coal', 'steam engine', 'steam iron', 'steam power', steam radio', 'steam train', 'steam yacht', and even 'a flatbed steam table'.

Just the act of putting two nouns together at random shows how a speaker of the language immediately searches for a meaningful interpretation.

trick finger

There is no accepted meaning of 'trick finger'. It could be a medical problem, or a skill similar to juggling. But it is grammatically acceptable, and invites us to imagine a meaning for it.

A productive feature invites and encourages us to use our imagination. The list of words and phrases that will fit a structure is often impossible to define completely. There may be a number of words in regular use, but in addition to that many other possibilities, offering the user a safe place to experiment.

Other places in the grammar allow very little variation, and the learner must simply keep to the rules in these cases. Many grammar books concentrate on these restrictive rules, and make grammar appear to be a dangerous area where the main job is to avoid mistakes. 'You do this, and you don't do that.' In this grammar we concentrate on positive statements, and relate function to structure. 'If you want to do this, then you say that.'

Although there are many potential productive features, in this grammar we have only introduced the main and most obvious ones. If we find that this approach is popular with teachers and learners, it may be possible gradually to shift the whole perspective away from grammar as a list of arbitrary problems, and towards grammar as a means of free expression.

We have tried to produce a grammar of real English—the English that people speak and write, it contains detailed information about English, collected from the large corpus we have built up, and it is new both in what it says and in the relationship between its statements and the evidence on which they are based. It is designed above all to be really useful to student and teacher.