4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent as a reference or as a refresher, February 18, 2004
This review is from: An Introduction to English Grammar, Longman Grammar, Syntax and Phonology, Second Edition (Paperback)
Up to this point, I have always been able to help my children with their homework. However, now that they are in middle school, they are starting to bring me problems that I cannot immediately answer. To date, the difficult problems have been confined to language arts. When given a collection of sentences, they have been asked to identify the parts. Definitions of phrases such as pronouns, auxiliary verbs, subordinate clauses, prepositions, and modifiers have once again become part of my life. As someone who writes a great deal, I rely on the feel of my phrases, rather than the formal rules. Therefore, when I was asked, "What is a preposition?", I realized that I needed help.
I turned to this book, both as a reference and as a general refresher. As I went through it, I was sent back through years of language arts classes. Of course this time the journey through the rules of grammar was much easier than it was the first time. After reading it, I am in a much better position to face the questions of those learning it for the first time. Also, I now spend more time pondering the rules as I construct my sentences.
Learning your native language well is something that all productive citizens in the modern world must do. Furthermore, as more time elapses between the time you learned the rules and the time you are using them, your understanding of the fundamentals fades. This book is one that will allow you to change that in a hurry, which is what we are all in these days.
Published in the recreational mathematics e-mail newsletter, reprinted with permission.
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