Analyzing Syntax through Texts

Elly van Gelderen is Regents’ Professor of English at Arizona State University.

• List of AbbreviationsChapter 1 Introduction1 The history of English in a nutshell2 Functions and case3 Verbal inflection and clause structure4 Language change5 Sources and resources6 ConclusionChapter 2 The Syntax of Old, Middle, and Early Modern English 1 Major Changes in the Syntax of English2 Word Order3 Inflections4 Demonstratives, pronouns, and articles 5 Clause boundaries6 Dialects in English7 ConclusionChapter 3 Old English Before 11001 The script2 Historical prose narrative: Orosius3 Sermon: Wulfstan on the Antichrist4 Biblical gloss and translation: Lindisfarne, Rushworth, and Corpus Versions5 Poetic monologue: the Wife’s Lament and the Wanderer6 ConclusionChapter 4 Early Middle English 1100-13001 Historical prose narrative: Peterborough Chronicle2 Prose Legend: Seinte Katerine3 Debate poetry: The Owl and the Nightingale4 Historical didactic poetry: Physiologus (Bestiary)5 Prose: Richard Rolle’s Psalter Preface6 ConclusionChapter 5 Late Middle English and Early Modern 1300-16001 Didactic poem: Cleanness2 Instructional scientific prose: Chaucer’s Astrolabe 3 Religious: Margery of Kempe4 Romance: Caxton5 Chronicle and letters: Henry Machyn and Queen Elizabeth6 ConclusionChapter 6 ConclusionAppendix I Summary of all grammatical information Appendix II Background on textsAppendix III Keys to the exercisesBibliography GlossaryIndex

Analyzing Syntax through Texts is a very good book, one that the diachronic-syntactic community has probably been waiting for, and it deserves a place among the ranks of our course books ... Each chapter offers further reading and exercises; the latter are cleverly devised and can effectually be used in class or as homework ... The book concludes with three appendixes [and] van Gelderen also includes a glossary that gives comprehensible definitions of the grammatical terms used. The bibliography is short and therefore reader-friendly, particularly for students, and the index stood up well to random critical cross-checking. All in all, this is a really recommendable book that can well be used for undergraduate courses.