Studies in English Grammar is the second collection of essays published by the Centre Interdisciplinaire de Recherches en Linguistique at the University of Lille III. As the title suggests, the unity of the volume centres round English linguistics but, as was the case for the first volume which appeared in 1973, there is a wide range of subjects dealt with and a variety of methods used.English being a second language in France, problems of translation from English to French and vice-versa obviously come under consideration:
Simone Wyss discusses
chassé-croisé and
Georges Garnier applies Guillaume's theory of psycholanguage. Morphology is represented by
André Crépin's article in which he offers an alternative classification of the English irregular verbs to that put forward recently by R. Quirk, and
John Hewson's discussion on inflection and derivation markers has wide theoritical implications. The same may be said of
André Joly's presentation of a theory of gender in English, based on Guillaumean linguistics. Historical linguistics is well represented with, on the field of morpho-syntax,
Paul Bacquet's remarks on negation in Old English and
Thomas Fraser's paper on the preverb
for-, and in the field of diachronic phonology
Michel Viel applies recend finding in generative phonology to English vowel changes.
Catherine Rihoit applies linguistics to the analysis of a literary texte in her essay on the opening paragraphs of James'
The Portrait of a Lady. Finally, teachers of English as a second language will find in
Walter Hirtle's paper a means of explaining to students the difference between the prepositions
for and
during.The term "English Grammar" in the title is therefore to be understood in its widest sense. The aim of this volume is to present to the reader the range of interests of English teachers at French-speaking universities.