This book is intended for students in colleges or universities who have little or no previous background in grammar, and presupposes no linguistics.

Without language, societies as complex as ours could not exist. Geoffrey Pullum offers a stimulating introduction to the many ways in which linguistics, as the scientific study of language, matters.

A new edition of the ground-breaking undergraduate textbook on modern Standard English grammar, now completely rewritten and updated.

. . . I expect that this guide will prove to be very useful to very many people.” —Keren D. Rice, Phonology “The attention to detail is exemplary, as is the clarity of exposition. . .

Geoffrey K. Pullum thinks you deserve better. In this book he breaks away from the tradition. Presupposing no prior knowledge or technical terms, he provides an informal introduction to the essential concepts underlying grammar and usage.

Contains a collection of twenty-three essays originally appearing in the journal "Natural Language and Linguistic Theory."

Publisher description: This book presents a new and comprehensive descriptive grammar of English, written by the principal authors in collaboration with an international research team of a dozen linguists in five countries.

This grammar for the 21st century combines clear grammatical principles with non-technical explanations of all terms and concepts used.