人们在对语言的特定细节进行剖析之前，应该对语言整体有个大致的了解。作为语言学研究方向的学生进行深入研究之前的热身阅读，《牛津语言学入门丛书》的主旨是为人们理解那些学术性强的语言学专著奠定理论基础。因为这套丛书浅显易懂，对那些感兴趣却并非专门从事语言研究的人进一步了解语言也大有裨益。斯沃所著的《语法学》为其中一册。

Preface

Author's Introduction

 SECTION I

 Survey

1 What is grammar?

 What is grammar for?

 Language without grammar

 Problems

 Solving the problems

2 From simplicity to complexity: word classes and structures

 Word classes

 Code and message: from words to phrases

 Clauses

 Subjects and objects

 Mood

 Analysing phrases and clauses

 Clauses inside clauses

 The units of language

3 Grammar In the world's languages

 Word classes

 Structural types

 Morphological complexity

 Agreement

 Meanings

 Why is everything so complicated ?

4 Grammar and vocabulary

 How different are grammar and vocabulary?

 The grammar of words

 On the frontier

 Language in use: chunking

 A continuum

5 Grammar In spoken and written text

 Speech and writing

 Building phrases, clauses, and utterances

 Reference and context

 'Given' and 'new': information flow and topic-maintenance

 Text structuring

 Face

 Formal and informal language

 Special kinds of text

6 Grammar and language change

 1,ooo years of change in English

 Mechanisms of change

 Analogy

 Phonetic erosion

 Grammaticalization

 Speed of change

 How did it all start?

7 Grammar in society: 'correctness' and standardization

 Language under attack

 What do we mean by 'incorrect'?

 Mistakes

 Variation

 Dialect forms

 Alternative usage

 Authorities: descriptive and prescriptive rules

 Problems with prescriptive rules

 Ripples on the ocean

 The desire for standardization

 The price of standardization

8 Grammar In the head

 Investigating language

 From outside to inside

 Learnability and universal grammar

 Problems with the innatist view

 Usage-based associative learning

 Modularity: grammar in the brain

 SECTION 2

 Readings

 SECTION 3

 References

 SECTION 4

 Glossary

 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS