Seminar Only in Grammar can you be more than perfect William Safire

The idea that the way a person uses language may be correct or incorrect is firmly established in our minds – after all there are grammatical rules which define what is right and what is wrong. We tend to forget that there are almost always exceptions to these rules as well. This seminar is supposed to help you realise that all categories and rules used for the description of language (e.g. subject, object, verb, noun, etc.) do not exist as such in language but are constructs developed by linguistis in order to describe certain properties of language. Languages, as we all know, are fuzzy and constantly changing – they are far from being perfect systems that could be perfectly analysed and described. Grammar is to some extent an indeterminate system. Categories and structures, for example, often do not have neat boundaries. Grammarians are tempted to overlook such uncertainties, or to pretend that they do not exist. Our guiding principle in this grammar, however, will be to acknowledge them, and where appropriate to explore them through the study of gradience. A gradient is a scale which relates two categories of description (for example two word classes) in terms of degrees of similarity and contrast. At the ends of the scale are items which belong clearly to one category or to another; intermediate positions on the scale are taken by ‘in-between’ cases – items which fail, in different degrees, to satisfy the criteria for one or the other category. (CGEL 2.60) Instead of discussing dozens of rivalling approaches and terminologies, we will try to arrive at a critical appraisal of the model sanctioned by the Bavarian state exam regulations (Quirk et al.). We will familiarise ourselves with the basic categories and patterns used in the description of English sentences. And we will develop analytic abilities that allow us to explore syntactic structures and -in-between cases” in more depth and learn precise ways of formalising syntactic analysis. References: Quirk, Randolph & Greenbaum, Sidney & Leech, Geoffrey & Svartvik, Jan 1985. A Comprehensive Grammar of the English Language. London: Longman. (CGEL). Department III - Anglistik und Amerikanistik LMU München SoSe 2015 Steger Maria