This textbook takes as its beginnings the work of Karl Hagen, who published it under a Creative Commons license as “Navigating English Grammar” at his site Polysyllabic. As part of a project which started in Fall 2020, and is continuing in Spring 2021, the textbook is intended to be read, annotated, and elaborated upon by successive ENG 270 courses at York College/CUNY, becoming a resource for future students, and ultimately a textbook to be used by other students of the syntax of varieties of English.

Segments of Chapter 2 and Chapter 7 are adapted from ‘Textbook Section’ assignments written by York students, who are credited according to their preference (by real name, pseudonym, or anonymous contribution). York students’ annotations on hypothes.is have also contributed to rewrites for clarity, to correct errors, or to add more information where desired.

• Preface
• Chapter 1. Language, Grammar, and the Nature of Error
• Chapter 2. A Smattering of Linguistics [Incomplete]
• Chapter 3. Word Categories
• Chapter 4. Analyzing Sentences
• Chapter 5. Verb Phrases
• Chapter 6. Noun Phrases
• Chapter 7. Other Phrase Types [Incomplete]
• Chapter 8. Tense and Auxiliary Verbs [Incomplete]
• Chapter 9. Main and Subordinate Clauses [suggested title; currently empty]
• Chapter 10. Movement & Deletion [suggested title; currently empty]
• Bibliography and Further Reading
• List of contributors