Analysing Sentences

This highly successful text has long been considered the standard introduction to the practical analysis of English sentence structure. It covers key concepts such as constituency, category and functions, and also utilises tree diagrams throughout to help the reader visualise the structure of sentences.

In this fourth edition, Analysing Sentences has been thoroughly revised and now features a brand new companion website with additional activities and exercises for students and an answer book for the in-text exercises for professors. The extra activities on the website give students practice in identifying syntactic phenomena in running text and will help to deepen understanding of this topic.

Accessible and clear, this book is the perfect textbook for readers coming to this topic for the first time. Featuring many in-text, end-of-chapter and Further Exercises, it is suitable for self-directed study as well as for use as core reading on courses.

"This is the go-to book for all students and teachers of English syntax. Rigorous and yet highly accessible, it guides the reader from phrasal analysis through to complex sentence structure, and is packed with lively examples and valuable practical exercises."
Siobhan Chapman, University of Liverpool, UK

"A welcome addition to the fourth edition of this excellent textbook is a very helpful website. The style remains very user-friendly, and the structure of the book is very well thought-out: Burton Roberts guides the reader step-by-step through increasing syntactic complexity, always building incrementally on what has come before. I have been teaching classes based on this book since 1986, and have found it invaluable. The final chapter remains a very good introduction to general issues about the nature of human language. I recommend it with great enthusiasm."
Philip Carr, University of Montpellier, France