Download - VISL

SECTION 1: Preliminaries
1.1. Introducing the course
1.1.1. About this book
Though I draw on material from both English and Danish, the book is not to
be viewed as an English grammar nor as a Danish grammar. Instead it aims at
upgrading the reader’s grammatical literacy by focussing on basic
terminology and by investigating some of the current issues in grammar and
general linguistics – using concrete data from English and Danish. Why these
two languages?
• English, because it is the author’s native language and because English
grammar has been his primary area of teaching and research for more
than three decades.
• Danish, because the primary readership is intended to be teachers and
students affiliated with all levels of the Danish educational system.
Ideally, readers should profit by improving their understanding of grammar in
general, while at the same time adding to their knowledge of (corners of)
English and Danish grammar. Furthermore, by making use of data from two
languages, the book provides a comparative and contrastive element which
yields an additional perspective on both linguistic data and theory.
Hopefully, readers will begin to notice some benefits from the book when
they peruse one or more of the standard grammar books for Danish or any
foreign language – simply as a result of becoming more familiar with
grammatical terminology and grammatical analysis. I hope, too, that students
at all levels will be able to sense that teacher presentations and classroom
discussions become more meaningful. This will have a cumulative effect on
their learning curve, as understanding in given areas promotes understanding
in new areas.
1.1.1.1. Integration with the VISL website
I should stress that this book is but a pale reflection of its electronic
counterpart – a highly interactive web-book freely accessible on the Internet at
the following address:
visl.sdu.dk
page 9
John M. Dienhart