Preface
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 14 January 2010
Summary
This book is an introduction to the study of French grammar intended principally for advanced students (e.g. at university level) and teachers of French. It is particularly appropriate as a textbook for courses which combine the study of French with linguistics, though no prior knowledge of linguistics is assumed. Its main objectives are as follows:
to give a detailed analysis of the main areas of French grammar, with the aim of explaining facts rather than simply observing them;
to present some of the insights into French syntax which have been brought to light by research in linguistics (particularly within the transformational-generative approach) and to make this research accessible to students of French;
to equip the reader with an analytical framework within which problems of French grammar can be circumscribed and elucidated;
to enable the reader to make more effective use of traditional reference grammars and dictionaries through a clearer understanding of the grammatical system of French;
to promote a view of grammar as an interesting object of inquiry rather than simply a set of rules to be learnt and applied.
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- Information
- Foundations of French Syntax , pp. xxi - xxivPublisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1996