In:Grammar of Spoken and Written English
Douglas Biber, Stig Johansson, Geoffrey N. Leech, Susan Conrad and Edward Finegan
[Not in series 232] 2021
► pp. xxix–xxx
Abbreviations and symbols
Published online: 29 November 2021
https://doi.org/10.1075/z.232.glossary
https://doi.org/10.1075/z.232.glossary
acad
academic prose
AmE
American English
A
adverbial
Ac
circumstance adverbial
Al
linking adverbial
As
stance adverbial
BrE
British English
CGEL
R. Quirk et al., A Comprehensive Grammar of the English
Language
conv
conversation
fict
fiction writing
LDOCE
Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
LSWE Corpus
Longman Spoken and Written English Corpus
news
news writing
O
object
Od
direct object
Oi
indirect object
Op
prepositional object
P
predicative
Po
object predicative
Ps
subject predicative
S
subject
v.
versus (i.e. contrasted with)
V
verb (phrase)
()
parentheses ( ) enclose an optional part of an example or a formula
<…>
an omitted section of a corpus example
<–>
the location of ellipsis (in an example)
<sic>
(in an example) confirmation that the example is accurately reproduced:
e.g. Dickens <sic> famous novel
< >
an editorial comment on an example: e.g. <unclear>
[]
brackets [ ] in an example enclose either:
a.
a grammatically defined constituent, such as a phrase or a
clause, or
b.
a part of an example highlighted for attention. Primary
highlighting is signalled by
bold face
and secondary highlighting by [ ].
–
in transcribed speech, a dash at the end of a word signals that it is
incomplete, i.e. is a word fragment: e.g. thi–, this
–
in transcribed speech, a dash signals a pause
*
unacceptable: e.g. *They needed not leave.
?
marginally acceptable: e.g. ?a most promising pupil of
hers
?*
on the boundary of unacceptability: e.g. ?*excuse me a
little
†
truncated example
