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.

Table of Contents:
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: