Grammar, Meaning, and Concepts A Discourse-Based Approach to English Grammar

Grammar, Meaning, and Concepts: A Discourse-Based Approach to English Grammar is a book for language teachers and learners that focuses on the meanings of grammatical constructions within discourse, rather than on language as structure governed by rigid rules. This text emphasizes the ways in which users of language construct meaning, express viewpoints, and depict imageries using the conceptual, meaning-filled categories that underlie all of grammar. Written by a team of authors with years of experience teaching grammar to future teachers of English, this book puts grammar in the context of real language and illustrates grammar in use through an abundance of authentic data examples. Each chapter also provides a variety of activities that focus on grammar, genre, discourse, and meaning, which can be used as they are or can be adapted for classroom practice. The activities are also designed to raise awareness about discourse, grammar, and meaning in all facets of everyday life, and can be used as springboards for upper high school, undergraduate, and graduate level research projects and inquiry-based grammatical analysis. Grammar, Meaning, and Concepts is an ideal textbook for those in the areas of teacher education, discourse analysis, applied linguistics, second language teaching, ESL, EFL, and communications who are looking to teach and learn grammar from a dynamic perspective.

List of Illustrations; Acknowledgments; Chapter1Meaning Beyond Syntax: Discourse and Conceptualization; Chapter2 The Nuts and Bolts of Grammar; Chapter3 The Basic Grammar for Mentioning People, Ideas, Values, Objects, Concepts, and Things: Nouns and Their Meanings in Discourse; Chapter4 Referring to, Identifying, Specifying, Underspecifying, Possessing, and Quantifying Things, People, and Ideas in Discourse: Determiners; Chapter 5 Alternate Ways to Identify, Specify, Underspecify, Focus On, and Quantify Things, People, and Ideas in Discourse: Pronouns; Chapter 6 The Grammar of Events, States, Identities, Actions, Power, Control, and Spontaneity in Discourse: Verbs; Chapter 7 The Grammar of Time, Fact, Habit, Changeability, Permanence, Sequence, and Relevance in Discourse: Tense and Aspect; Chapter 8 The Grammar of Directives, Permissions, Obligations, Opinions, and Mitigations: Imperatives and Modals; Chapter 9 The Grammar of Agency, Control, Responsibility, Passivity, Non-Agency, and Non-Accountability: Voice; Chapter 10 The Grammar of Juxtaposing, Contrasting, Denying, Excluding, Contradicting, and Reversing: Negation; Chapter 11 The Grammar of Inquiry and Apparent Inquiry in Discourse: Yes-No Questions, Wh- Questions, Alternative or Choice Questions, and Tag Questions; Chapter 12 The Grammar of Situating Entities in Space, Time, and Abstractness, Hanging On, Burning Up, and Cooling Down: Prepositions and Phrasal Verbs; Chapter 13 The Exquisite Grammar of Descriptions—Being Bellicose or Bubbly, Feckless, or Fearless: Adjectives; Chapter 14 The Grammar of Connecting, Adding, Conjoining, Contrasting, Indicating Alternatives, and Expressing Stance: Conjunctions; Chapter 15 The Grammar of Exquisitely Evoking Events, How Things Happen, When Things Happen, If Things Happen, and How We Portray Such Views in Discourse: Adverbs; Index

Susan Strauss is Associate Professor of Applied Linguistics and Asian Studies at The Pennsylvania State University, USA. Her research interests center on the interface of discourse, cognition, interaction, and culture, often from a cross-linguistic/cross-cultural perspective. She is co-author of Discourse Analysis: Putting our Worlds into Words (Routledge, 2014).

Parastou Feiz is Associate Professor of Applied Linguistics in the Department of English at California State University, San Bernardino, USA. Her research focuses on comparative analyses of grammatical structures across languages, particularly Persian and English. She is co-author of Discourse Analysis: Putting our Worlds into Words (Routledge, 2014).

Xuehua Xiang is Associate Professor of Applied Linguistics in the Department of Linguistics at the University of Illinois at Chicago, USA. Her research focuses on using empirical lenses, such as discourse analysis, corpus tools, and cognitive-functional perspectives to study the interaction of language, culture, and communication.