ABSTRACT
Many of the discussions about grammar over the centuries have been seen from the point of view of items and structures that can fit into the grammar of sentences; that is to say, the grammar that can fit between full stops in writing or, in a looser but more satisfactory sense, the grammar of clauses and clause combinations. The chapter focuses on academic language, with a briefer mention of business English. In all respects, K. Hyland’s comment on academic English applies equally to business English, especially in its spoken manifestations, where we find further examples of the grammaticalisation of items in the recurring contexts that shape participants’ understandings. Description conventionally tells us that the subject of an English verb can be a noun phrase or a pronoun; this is the assumption that virtually all pedagogical grammars and grammar practice books for English follow.
