In Nouns^x, Conversations^x, English grammar^x

Swagatalakshmi wrote: OK - consulted couple of grammar books. "Participles" (verb+-ing or verb in past participle form) ALWAYS modify nouns. If you see a verb +-ing used as a stand-alone phrase (noun) which is not modifying anything, it must be a gerund. There is nothing called "adverbial...

I think your examples of question tags, ellipsis in interrogatives, semi-preconstructed phrases, and complex clauses and ellipsis are more likely to appear in spoken English than written. As to whether they stem from spoken or written grammar, I think they stem from informality, contextual...

Summarising: Three ways of looking at it. Extracts from the Geoffrey Leech article, " />English Grammar in Conversation . View 1: Spoken English has no grammar at all: it is grammatically inchoate. (That view) ...does not need to be taken seriously, although it is surprisingly persistent...

"A Practical English Grammar" by Thomson and Martinet: As everyone/everybody takes a singular verb, the pronoun should be he/him, she/her with possessive adjectives his and her. But this is only found in formal English. In ordinary conversation the plural forms they/them and their are...