the Charybdis of parents who want the 'best' English A University Course in English

for their children. Despite its shortcomings, the book Grammar

should be included in reading lists of teacher training
courses, setting out as it does the linguistic, social,
Angela Downing and Philip Locke
and cultural contexts for so much of the world's Prentice Hall International 1992 652pp £14.95
English language teaching. This would surely ISBN 0 13 952490 8 (paperback)
increase teachers' insight into the characteristics of
This volume provides the most thorough coverage of
the English of students from the 'other tongue' areas.
The book should also be studied by exam boards English grammar based on Michael Halliday's
'systemic grammar' model that you will find
dealing with these areas, with a view to formulating a
more suitable policy towards local varieties. anywhere. For those who believe that this is the most
suitable model available for language learners and
John Norrish, Institute of Education, University of teachers, this is a necessary book. It is certainly one
London that is the fruit of long grammatical collection and
recollection by its authors.
References The book is divided into thirteen chapters. The first
Armah, A. K. 1968. The Beautyful Ones are Not Yet gives an overview of basic grammatical concepts, on
Born. London: Heinemann. systemic lines. These include Halliday's three 'meta-

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Bickerton, D. 1983. 'Comments on Valdman's
creolization and second language acquisition' in R.
Andersen Pidginization and Creolization as
Language Acquisition'. Rowley, Mass.: Newbury
House.
Halliday, M., A. Mclntosh and P. Strevens. 1964.
The Linguistic Sciences and Language Teaching.
London: Longman.
Kaplan, R. 1980. 'Cultural thought patterns in
intercultural education' in K. Croft (ed.) Readings
on_English as a Second Language. 2nd ed.
Cambridge Mass.: Winthrop.
Medgyes, P. 1983. 'The schizophrenic teacher'. ELT
Journal 37/1:2-6.
Medgyes, P. 1986. 'Queries from a communicative
language teacher'. ELT Journal 40/2:107-12.
Norrish, J. 1984. Review: The Other Tongue edited
by B. Kachru. ELT Journal 39/2: 135-8.
Phillipson, R. 1992. Linguistic Imperialism. Oxford:
Oxford University Press.
Prator, C. 1968. 'The British heresy in TESOL' in J.
A. Fishman, C. A. Ferguson, and J. Das Gupta
(eds.) Language Problems of Developing Nations.
New York: Wiley.
Rampton, M. B. H. 1990. 'Displacing the "native
speaker": expertise, affiliation, and inheritance'.
ELT Journal 44/2:97-101.
Sey, K. 1973. Ghanaian English. London:
Macmillan.
The reviewer
John Norrish worked in Asia and Africa teaching at
secondary and university levels before returning to
the UK to work at the Institute of Education,
University of London. He has since worked on many
teacher training projects in Europe and the Third
World. He has also worked extensively with RSA/
UCLES on a number of their teacher training
schemes. He has published internationally in a
number of areas in ESOL.
284 Reviews
functions' of language (p. xi—this should surely be
referred to as 'mega-functions')—the ideational
(which the authors usually label 'experiential'), the
interpersonal and the textual—and the notions of
units of structure (clause, group, word, morpheme)
and the rank order of units. This overview is
important as the basis for the treatment later of the
grammatical devices of embedding and recursiveness
within units of structure. The emphasis is on the first
two units in the 'rank scale': the clause (which
replaces the sentence as the highest range of unit in
systemic grammar) and, next below it, the group.
Chapters 2 to 7 focus upon clause structure. Chapter 2
introduces basic syntactic categories, such as subject,
predicator (the verbal component of a clause), object,
complement, and adjuncts, disjuncts, and conjuncts.
Chapter 3 covers verb-patterns with the various kinds
and numbers of objects and complements, Chapter 4
the ideational 'mega-function', the clause as
representation, and the notion of transitivity
structures. Chapter 5 describes the interpersonal,
particularly in terms of mood structures in the clause.
Chapter 6 focuses on the clause as message and its
thematic structures (the textual function). Chapter 7
deals with the 'clause complex', a term that Downing
and Locke use to cover the traditional terms 'simple',
'compound', and 'complex' sentence. Chapters 8 to
13 concentrate on the structures of the various groups,
i.e. nominal, verbal, adjectival, adverbial, and
prepositional.
Each chapter contains a number of modules, sixty in
all, upon which the section numbering system is
based. Each module is headed by a generally very
helpful summary of its contents. At the end of each
chapter there are sets of tasks for each module, and at
the end of the book, a key containing answers to many
of them.
Downing and Locke set out four aims: to deepen
students' knowledge of the language through
'exploration and analysis'; to give students 'a global
vision of English'; to see grammar as a relation of
'form to meaning and meaning to situation', and to
'provide a basic terminology which . . . will enable
students to make these relationships explicit' (p.xi).
In this review I shall attempt to assess how far and
well their aims have been met.
A key question about a grammar book is: what do you
use it for? As a reference book—a kind of problem-
solving device, analogous to the use of a dictionary
for lexical questions—or as a practice book, a means
of improving accuracy in the use of the language?
Many grammar books attempt to fulfil both functions,
of course, and A University Course in English
Grammar is one such. The second function is met
chiefly through the end-of-chapter tasks. These, as I
sampled them, do indeed test your grammatical
ability and sensibility. They are varied in format;
many are designed for use by the individual learner,
others for small group and teacher-with-class use. I
liked the way that a number are based on texts rather
than isolated sentences. The use, in fact, of illustrative
texts, from contemporary sources, and across a range
of spoken as well as written fields, is one of the best
features of this grammar, and fulfils the third (and
perhaps the second) aim very well.
The most important and innovative contribution that
the authors make to our range of English grammars is
the consistent way in which they make links between
the levels of traditional syntax and discourse:
sentences, they make it clear, exist not as isolated
occurrences but as connected sequences. They start
from the basic concept that 'language is for
communication' (p.2), and that 'although we start
from the grammar rather than from the text, the
relationship between the two is of primary interest.'
(p. 17).
Throughout the book they juxtapose the syntactic and
semantic dimensions of grammar. A typical example
is the treatment of the prepositional group. Module 58
deals with its syntactic, and Module 59 with its
semantic features. The most prolonged treatment of
the syntactic/semantic interface—I would say, in fact,
pragmatic rather than semantic—comes in Chapter 5.
Its six modules explore the ways that the major
illocutions—assertions, interrogatives, exclamations,
and imperatives—are realized in syntax. However,
here, and elsewhere in the book, Downing and Locke
are rightly careful to point out that there is no one-to-
one relationship between syntactic form and
semantic/pragmatic function.
Chapter 6 is one of the most innovative chapters, for
the detailed and useful attention it pays to the
interface between sentence-grammar and discourse.
Its treatment of theme and rheme (Module 28) is
thorough, although Downing and Locke have their
fair share of problems with the notion of topic—a
notoriously difficult concept in discourse. Their
distinction between 'basic-level and subordinate
topics' (see section 28.2) does not adequately
describe the use of topic at the clausal level. In
Module 29, however, their treatment of intonation
features, as part of their discussion of information
focus, is most helpful.
One of the most forbidding aspects of grammars, for
all but the most dogged and dedicated grammarians,
is the metalanguage they employ, the necessary
technical terms of a grammar. In this respect, and
concerning the authors' aim of providing a basic
terminology, this book may cause readers a number of
problems since the metalanguage is demanding and
plentiful, especially for those not familiar with
Hallidayan grammar. For example, the authors prefer
the use of the systemic terms 'parataxis' and
'hypotaxis' to the much more familiar 'co-
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ordination' and 'subordination' of sentences
(clauses). Other rather forbidding terms are
'syndetic' and 'asyndetic', referring to the two forms
of co-ordination, as in 'bits and pieces' (syndetic) and
'up, up, up went the balloon' (asyndetic). In Chapter 9
(on tense, aspect, and modality in the verb group), we
come across 'intrinsic' and 'non-epistemic' and
'extrinsic' and 'epistemic' modality. On page 430 we
meet 'metonyms', but this one is not included in the
index. To be fair, all the metalanguage is explained in
detail at some point in the book, although technical
terms are not always explained when they are first
introduced. The term 'deictics' appears first on page
39, for example, but its definition (pointing to 'an
entity as being near or not near the speaker in space or
time (this book, that reason)') does not come until
page 409—and it is not highlighted there. The
terminology, then, is thorough, and in being so, much
more than 'basic'.
In a work of grammar, the index is a more than
usually important feature. You are constantly using it,
as a work of reference, to get to the section you need,
or for cross-referencing once you are under way.
Complete coverage of terms and ample cross-
referencing are essential. A problem I found is that
the first mention of a number of items is missing.
Examples are deictic, deixis, dynamic/stative verbs
(their first mentions on p.99 are not indexed) and
performative verbs (p.90, but indexed as p. 170). The
most noticeable omission concerns the entry 'thing'.
Most of Module 21 (pp. 147-52) is given to this
treatment of a key grammatical process,
nominalization, and Downing and Locke's
interesting notion of 'grammatical metaphor'. The
only index entry, however, is for the passing mention
on p.315.
In conclusion, A University Course in English
Grammar quite definitely achieves thefirstthree of its
aims. It allows for much exploration and analysis of
Reviews 285
the language, it gives a thorough and theoretically embraces knowledge about the forms and
coherent (i.e. systemic) coverage of the grammar, and'grammatical behaviour' of determinatives (p.436),
consistently links form to meaning. The fourth—the about which prepositions go with which nouns
provision of 'a basic terminology'—is abundantly, (p.592), and a familiarity with the morphology of
perhaps over-abundantly, achieved. English adjectives (p.513). I would say that the book
is more suited for advanced learners than
Regarding the two purposes of grammars mentioned intermediate, and especially suitable for those who
earlier, A University Course in English Grammar is have a professional academic interest in the language.
most certainly a compendious reference source of the There is a great deal in A University Course in
language, and indeed, an excellent, practical English Grammar for the materials or textbook
introduction to Hallidayan grammar and analysis. writer, for the syllabus designer and, perhaps most of
However, as a grammar book to develop and practice all, for the university teacher of the 'intermediate
skills in accuracy, this would not be an automatic student' Downing and Locke target at the beginning
choice. Other books serve that function more of their work.
manageably, notwithstanding the frequently
excellent and challenging tasks. The reviewer
Mike Reynolds teaches applied linguistics and
So, in conclusion, who is this book for? In their sociolinguistics at the University of Sheffield. He
introduction, Downing and Locke are quite explicit. began his teaching career in 1963, and has taught

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Their book is aimed at students of EFL or ESL in EFL, ESP, and TEFL in Europe, South America, and
higher education, who they assume have 'an the Middle and Far East. His special interests are
intermediate standard of knowledge and operational management in ELT, curriculum development,
ability in the language' (p.xi). This assumption testing and evaluation, and critical discourse analysis.

286 Reviews