Analyzing Grammar: An Introduction

by Paul R. Kroeger

Covering both syntax (the structure of phrases and sentences) and morphology (the structure of words), this book equips students with the tools and methods needed to analyze grammatical patterns in any language. Students are shown how to use standard notational devices such as phrase structure trees and word-formation rules, as well as prose descriptions. Emphasis is placed on comparing the different grammatical systems of the world's languages, and students are encouraged to practice the analyses through a diverse range of problem sets and exercises.

Genres: Linguistics, Nonfiction, Language, Reference

384 pages, Paperback

First published May 5, 2005

About the author

Paul Kroeger is a Professor of Applied Linguistics at the Dallas International University in Dallas, Texas, and a Senior Linguistic Consultant for SIL International. He is the author of Phrase structure and grammatical relations in Tagalog (1993, CSLI); Analyzing syntax: a lexical-functional approach (2004, Cambridge University Press); and Analyzing grammar: an introduction (2005, Cambridge University Press). He holds a Ph.D. in Linguistics from Stanford University. His research has focused primarily on the syntax and semantics of Western Malayo-Polynesian languages, with a particular interest in languages of Borneo.

Reviews

[Lídia]

és totalment fals que m'hagi llegit de cap a peus aquest llibre, però només pel patiment dels capítols que n'he llegit mereixia estar aquí. la meva conclusió després de tot plegat és que en kroeger és un màquina, però aviam, hi ha coses que no acaben de ser "an introduction", perfavor

[Kara · Rating 5 out of 5]

While there are chapters that I am not confident I fully understand yet, this is a great book! I read this as pre-reading for my MA in Linguistics program and I feel much more confident going in.
Whether you are simply a grammar nerd or need to read this book for a class, it is very well-written with good explanations and practical examples covering a wide range of languages with very different grammatical structures.

[Gro · Rating 4 out of 5]

En meget begrebstung men heldigvis overskuelig bog. Den er forholdsvis god til at forklare og sætte billeder og eksempelr på begreberne. I slutningen af hvert kapitel er der øvelser, så man kan få afprøvet metoderne og finde ud af om man har forstået det hele.
Jeg elsker den lille historie der bliver fortalt om John og Mary igennem eksemplerne.

[Rebecka · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a very good introduction to linguistics. It deals with all major categories and provides you with the relevant terminology. For me, it was perhaps a little basic, but I really needed something to make sure I had the foundations firmly in place since I have never studied any formal linguistics and just had to try to make sense of concepts as they came along. All in all, it was an easy and pleasant read! The downside is perhaps that after reading a nice -pedagogical- book like this, a specialized linguistics article may scare the shit out of you.

The one thing that bugged me a little bit was the language choice for examples. Why so few Slavic languages? :( (And one weird Russian example! But I guess I must be the one who's mistaken, because it's from Comrie, and Comrie can't be wrong, can he?) Well, there were generally few languages where I could understand much anyway. I do get that linguists love to poke around in obscure African and Southern American languages (for example) because they have some pretty wild stuff in them (or just funny, like Tagalog reduplication), but at the same time... when you want to illustrate something pretty simple, that can be found pretty much everywhere, why not just choose a language which has a much wider "audience"? I would get any examples from any Slavic, Romance or Germanic languages, and not just struggle through the morphological annotation to make sense of them. After 100 examples of Malayalam & friends I found myself just reading the English translations...

Extra points for making an effort with the English examples though, there are many brilliant ones there alongside the traditional "Mary gave Thomas a book"! And I really liked the "promiscuous clitics".

[Tom]

For my Morphology and Syntax class.

[Hans Henrik · Rating 4 out of 5]

Linguistics