Doing Grammar

Doing Grammar is a practical and lively guide to discovering how the English language works. Using strong visuals and an engaging style, Max Morenberg builds upon traditional frameworks with modern linguistic theories and provides accessible explanations for the composition of sentences. Now in its fifth edition, Doing Grammar includes up-to-date examples and features, while retaining its unique voice.

Max Morenberg was Professor of English Emeritus at Miami University of Ohio, where he codirected the Ohio Writing Project.

Preface
1. Relating Words, Phrases, and Slots
What Grammar Does
Grammar and Our View of Language
Parts of Speech
What Nouns Do
Verbs, Modal Auxiliaries, and Tense
Adjectives and Noun Characteristics
Adverbs Orient Readers and Listeners
Prepositions Precede Noun Phrases
Try This
Words and Grammar
Grammatical Slots Identify Phrases
Grammatical Analysis and Chicken Parts
Heads, Attributes, and Hierarchies
Basic Sentence Structure
The Yes/No Question Test
Knowledge and Practice
Chapter Summary: Words, Hierarchies, and Constituents
--EXERCISES
--I. IDENTIFYING SENTENCE CONSTITUENTS
Thinking Critically about Grammar
2. Identifying Verbs and Core Sentences
Verbs and Core Sentences
Verbs: The Basic Sentence Components
--Intransitive Verbs
--Linking Verbs
--Transitive Verbs
--Two-Place Transitive Verbs
---Vg Verbs
---Vc Verbs
--Two-Place Transitives as Transitives
--The Verb BE
Verbs and Slots and Sentence Nuclei
Verbs Change Types
Try This
Reference Material
Tree Diagrams
Diagrams as Tools
Multiple-Word Verbs
Chapter Summary: The Six Verb Types
--EXERCISES
--I. IDENTIFYING VERB TYPES
3. Expanding Verb Phrases
Tense, Modality, and Aspect
Status of the Main Verb
Verb Form
Finiteness
Mood and Purpose
Conditional Mood
Conditional Mood and Possibility
Future Time and Conditional Mood Again
So You Say
Aspect
--Perfect Aspect
--Past Participles
--Progressive Aspect
--Present Participles
Conditional, Perfective, and Progressive
Tense Form of Main Verb
How to Expand a Main Verb
Regular and Irregular Verbs
So You Say
Chapter Summary: Components of the Main Verb
--EXERCISES
--I. CHANGING MAIN-VERB FORMS
--II. IDENTIFYING VERB STATUS AND ANALYZING SENTENCES
Thinking Critically about Grammar
4. Exploring Noun Phrases
Noun Phrase Components
Proper and Common Nouns
Determiners
--Definite Articles
--Demonstratives
--Possessive Pronouns
--Numbers
--Prearticles
Try This
Postnoun Modifiers
Genitives
"Genitive" Rather than "Possessive"
Personal, Reflexive, and Indefinite Pronouns
So You Say
Chapter Summary: Function Words Can Expand Noun Phrases
--EXERCISES
--I. IDENTIFYING NOUN CONSTITUENTS AND ANALYZING SENTENCES
Thinking Critically about Grammar
5. Rearranging and Compounding
Changing Core Sentences
Making Negative Sentences
Changing Statements into Yes/No Questions
Wh-Question Sentences
Passive Sentences
--Deleting "By" from a Passive
--Core Arrangement of Passive Constituents
--Past Participles and Adjectives
-- "Get" as a Passive Auxiliary
--Rearranging a Passive Sentence
--Status and Passive
Existential-There Sentences
Expletives
Imperative Sentences
--Deleting "You" and "Will" from Imperative Sentences
--Diagraming Imperative Sentences
--Imperative Sentences Lack Tense
--The Negative Form of Imperatives
Compounding Structures
--Coordinate and Correlative Conjunctions
--Conjoining and Commas
--Attaching Conjunctions
--Parallel Structure
Try This
Conjunctive Adverbs
Chapter Summary: Rearranging and Compounding Core Sentences
--EXERCISES
--I. REARRANGING AND COMPOUNDING SENTENCES
--II. ANALYZING SENTENCES
Thinking Critically about Grammar
6. Constructing Relative Clauses
Dependent Clauses
Little Sentences Combine to Make Big Sentences
Why We Combine Clauses
A Relative Clause Embeds into a Noun Phrase
The Way It Was Is the Way It Is
Relative Clauses and Sentences
Restrictive Relative Clauses as Adjectives
Making a Relative Clause
Relative Pronouns Replace Noun Phrases
"Whose" Replaces a Possessive Pronoun or a Genitive Noun
Relative Pronouns in Prepositional Phrases
The Functions of Fronted Relatives
Find the Constituents of the Relative Clause
Deleting Object Noun Phrases from Relative Clauses
Embedding Relative Clauses into Subordinate Clauses
Chapter Summary: Constituents in Independent or Dependent Clauses
--EXERCISES
--I. COMBINING SENTENCES
--II. BREAKING OUT UNDERLYING SENTENCES
--III. ANALYZING SENTENCES
7. Reducing Relative Clauses to Phrases
Deriving Prepositional and Participial Phrases
Reducing Clauses
Embedding Phrases
Participial Phrases are Verb Phrases
Making Some Verbs into Present Participles
Deriving Past Participial Phrases
Embedded Prepositional Phrases
Constituency: Adjective or Adverbs
How the Components of an Embedded Phrase Function
Prepositional Phrases Headed by "With"
We Won't Derive One-Word Modifiers
Embedded Phrases and Commas
Making Long Sentences from Just a Few Kinds of Phrases and Clauses
The Clauses That Underlie a Sentence's Constituents
Grammatical Ambiguity
Chapter Summary: Phrases Derived from Relative Clauses
--EXERCISES
--I. BREAKING OUT UNDERLYING SENTENCES
--II. COMBINING SENTENCES
--III. ANALYZING SENTENCES
8. Making Noun Clauses, Gerunds, and Infinitives
Noun Clauses, Gerunds, and Infinitives Fill Noun Phrase Slots
That-Clauses
Noun Clauses Fill Noun Phrase Slots
Extraposing That-Clauses
Some Sentences with Expletives and Noun Clauses Don't Seem to Be Derived
Wh-Subordinators Act as Content Words within Noun Clauses
Wh-Clauses Are Related to Question Sentences
Reducing Clauses to Infinitive Phrases
Infinitives without "To"
Infinitive Phrases Introduced by "For... To"
Some Infinitives Function as Adverbs
Gerunds Are "-ing" Verb Forms
Gerund Phrases May Contain a Subject in the Genitive Form
Studying Grammar is Cumulative
Chapter Summary: Embedded Structures That Fill
Noun Phrase Slots in Matrix Clauses
--EXERCISES
--I. BREAKING OUT UNDERLYING SENTENCES
--II. COMBINING SENTENCES
--III. ANALYZING SENTENCES
9. Adding Modifiers to Sentences
Nonrestrictive Modifiers
Nonrestrictive Modifiers Are Not Bound within Phrases
Nonrestrictive Relative Clauses Sit Next to Noun Phrases
Nonrestrictive Relative Clauses Make Added Comments
Nonrestrictive Participial Phrases
Nonrestrictive Participial Phrases Function as Adverbs
Appositives Sit Next to Nouns
Absolute Phrases
Adverb Clauses Share Some Characteristics of Nonrestrictive Modifiers
Adverb Clauses and Subordinate Conjunctions
Nonrestrictive Modifiers Change the Pace, Rhythm, and Movement
in Sentences
A Grammar Course Should Prepare You to Analyze Real Sentences
Chapter Summary: Doing Grammar is About Understanding the
System That Generates Sentences
--EXERCISES
--I. BREAKING OUT UNDERLYING SENTENCES
--II. COMBINING SENTENCES
--III. ANALYZING SENTENCES
10. What Can You Do Now That You Can Do Grammar?
Reflecting on Writing and Reading
Style
Better Writers Match Sentence Structure with Content
Students Writing with Style
Most Punctuation Can Be Addressed with Three Principles
Teachers Should Point Out Interesting and Effective Student Sentences
Chapter Summary: Good Writers, Good Readers, and Good Teachers
--Understand the Options Grammar Gives Us to Construct Sentences
--EXERCISES
Answer Key
Glossary
Index