English Syntax

It is remarkable that children learn all of the syntactic structures described in this book and with no instruction. Most children have mastered them by the time they start school. However, learning a language is subject to critically sensitive age restraints, and learning a second language becomes increasingly difficult as children age through this zone of sensitivity. Therefore, the goal of this updated and expanded edition of this book is to provide teachers with a detailed explicit knowledge of the syntactic system and the order in which it is learned. The material is presented clearly and simply, but this is not the way it should be taught to the English language learner. The knowledge in this book is strictly for teachers, and it will enable them to assist their students in acquiring a more natural implicit understanding of the English language. Topics include: Syntax in Language Acquisition; Sentence Classes; The Auxiliary; The Expanded Auxiliary; The Determiner System; Nouns; Pronouns; The Negative Transformation; Prepositional Phrases; Phrasal Verbs; Indirect Objects; Yes/No Questions; WH Questions; What-Do Questions; Transitive Verb Complements; The Passive Transformation; Possessives; The There Transformation; Relative Clauses; Noun Modifiers and Clauses; Nominalizing Transformations; Cleft Sentences; Adverbial Clauses and Conjunctive Adverbs; Adverbs; Comparative Constructions; Participial and Absolute Phrases; Cause and Effect; Conjunctions; Exclamations and Commands and Direct Address; Direct and Indirect Discourse; Word Order Transformations; Anaphora; Syntax for Basic Math and Science Instruction; Assessment; Methods; Special Difficulties; and Samples and Analysis. The Appendices and Bibliography provide additional assistance.