28.1: Brief Overview

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1. This is a reference grammar for this textbook. For a more complete reference grammar of French the reader is referred to intermediate or advanced level textbooks. Later, when you reach the advanced level and continue your interest in French, you'll enjoy such works as Grevisse's Le Bon Usage or judge and Healey's A Reference Grammar of French.

2. Most of the terminology in this grammar will be traditional, but some of the explanations will include terms from modern linguistics that we consider helpful in clarifying certain concepts.

BRIEF OVERVIEW

The basic communicative unit of language is the sentence. The traditional "complete" sentence¹ is composed of a subject and a predicate: the thing you are talking about and whatever it is you say about it. As you work through the chapters of the text, you'll be using specific forms that can occur within these functional units (that is, within the sentence and within the subject and predicate respectively). In Part I of the Reference Grammar, we'll explain how those forms work within each functional unit. In Part II, we'll discuss the ordering of those forms in the three basic kinds of sentences, as well as the construction of more complex sentences.

Sentences are of three main types: statements, questions, and commands, and each of these may be either affirmative or negative. Subjects can be proper nouns, common nouns, pronouns, or something more complex, such as another sentence. Predicates consist of a verb and its complement (if any). Some of those complements may be proper nouns, common nouns or pronouns. In other words, noun phrase structures may occur either in the subject or in the predicate. As we consider individual constructions, wel l regularly try to indicate how they fit into the different kinds of sentences, and into the subject or predicate.

Many of the statements we make regarding grammar hold true for both English and French; in some of those cases, we'll give examples in English if that seems the most effective way to illustrate the point. On the other hand, there are significant differences between the two languages, both in vocabulary and in the use and ordering of grammatical constructions. We'll point out those differences wherever we think it is helpful to do so, but our primary aim is to give the simplest description possible of the constructions you'll be producing or hearing/reading in this course, without lengthy digressions on the grammar of either language. In fact, we have relegated "grammar" to the back of the book for two reasons: (1) to try to keep our focus in class on the use of the language, and (2) to provide the most efficient way for you to find the answers to your questions about grammar while working at home.

¹ Linguists remind us, properly, that "Yes" can be a complete sentence, as in the following exchange:

A: "Are you leaving now?"

B: "Yes."

However, your instructor will normally request that you respond to questions with what language teachers call "complete" sentences, as defined above. Obviously, the intent is to have you use as many of the structures available to you so as to become familiar with them. Don't worry: we'll let you use short phrases often in class, since that is usually the most natural response.