This well-established standard textbook deals with areas of the English language which are well-known 'trouble spots' for the foreign learner: tense, progressive and perfect aspects, mood and the modal auxiliaries.
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
From the Back Cover
This new updated third edition confirms Professor Leech's pre-eminence in the field. The book is still the clearest and most authoritative statement of meaning in the verb phrase, and the revised extended treatment of modality and mood constitutes a new standard for English language study. The writing is clear, precise and combines complexity with accessibility. Descriptive linguists, applied linguists, critical discourse analysts, teachers and students of the English language across the world will continue to reach for this book again and again. Professor Peter Stockwell, University of Nottingham
This new edition, taking into account recent studies on English grammar, is elaborately organized with lucid and insightful descriptions of the relationship between form and meaning - indispensably valuable work that will no doubt greatly benefit teachers and students of English as a second/foreign language. Professor Miyazaki Akio, Mie University, Japan
Every language has its peculiar problems of meaning for the foreign learner. In the English language, some of the biggest yet most fascinating problems are concentrated in the area of the finite verb phrase: in particular, tense, aspect, mood and modality.
Meaning and the English Verb describes these fields in detail for teachers and advanced students of English as a foreign or second language. This new third edition uses up-to-date examples to show differences and similarities between American and British english, reflecting a great deal of recent research in this area. It also takes account of the subtle changes which are taking place in the language today.
In print for over 30 years, Meaning and the English Verb has established itself as a recognised authority on the meaning and use of verb constructions in English. This updated third edition will ensure that it remains an invaluable text for teachers and students of English worldwide.
Geoffrey Leech is Emeritus Professor of English Linguistics at Lancaster University. He has published 20 books with Longman, including 'A Linguistic Guide to English Poetry' and 'A Communicative Grammar of English'.
--This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.About the Author
Geoffrey Leech was Professor of Linguistics and Modern English Language at Lancaster University from 1974 to 1996. He then became Research Professor in English Linguistics. He has been Emeritus Professor in the Department of Linguistics and Modern English Language, Lancaster University, since 2002.
He has written, co-authored or co-edited 25 books in the areas of English grammar, literary stylistics, semantics, computational linguistics, corpus linguistics and pragmatics. They include:
English in Advertising: A Linguistic Study of Advertising in Great Britain (1966); A Linguistic Guide to English Poetry (1969); Meaning and the English Verb (1971, 2nd ed. 1987, 3rd ed. in preparation); A Communicative Grammar of English (with J. Svartvik) (1975, 2nd edn. 1994, 3rd edn. 2002); Style in Fiction: A Linguistic Introduction to English Fictional Prose (with M. Short) (1981); Principles of Pragmatics (1983); A Comprehensive Grammar of the English Language (with R. Quirk, S. Greenbaum and J. Svartvik) (1985); Spoken English on Computer: Transcription, Mark-up and Application (ed. with G. Myers and J. Thomas) (1995); Corpus Annotation: Linguistic Information from Computer Text Corpora (ed. with R. Garside and T. McEnery) (1997); Longman Grammar of Spoken and Written English (with D. Biber, S. Johansson, S. Conrad and E. Finegan) (1999); Word Frequencies in Written and Spoken English: based on the British National Corpus (with P. Rayson and A. Wilson) (2001); Longman Student Grammar of Spoken and Written English (with D. Biber and S. Conrad) (2002)
--This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
simply good,
By
This review is from: Meaning and the English Verb (3rd Edition) (Paperback)
Exhaustive and inspiring, this is a monumental descriptive study on English verbs and their semantic aspects. For non-native English learners who have trouble understanding the bahaviors of English verbs, no other book could be more useful. The author, Geoffrey Leech, says in Introduction that one of the main causes that make English a difficult-to-learn lanaguge for non-natives is somewhat elusive behaviors of its verbs(or especially auxilialiy verbs), and my own experience(I am a non-native learner of English) strongly bolsters this view, because notwithstanding the fact that I have spent many years learning the language, I cannot comprehend the behaviors of many ordinary English verbs, far less those of auxiliary ones, and this to such a degree that still now, I cannot write a brief passage confidently without having it proofread by native speakers. Hence it is that this book, which analyzes closesly and elucidates exaustively the semantic aspects of basic English verbs, is a must for non-native learners-at least if they are to learn grammatically correct English.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent presentation, manageable length,
By Seasoned Writer (New York City) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Meaning and the English Verb (3rd Edition) (Paperback)
Geoffrey Leech's book is an excellent reference tool that is concise and intelligently organized. It covers material you won't find in most style and usage guides. There's just enough information on each topic to make the coverage throrough but not overly complex. Difficult subjects, such as backshift, the subjunctive, and modality, are covered with clarity and sufficient detail. Whether you agree with every position or not, you'll find the treatment informative and useful. This book should be on the desk of anyone who wants to understand tense, mood, aspect, and the breadth of expression accessible through the use of English verbs.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
An insightful descriptive study,
This review is from: Meaning and the English Verb (Paperback)
This is a book that looks a grammar book about verbs but actually a significant study about verbal "semantics" and aspects of words. So it is somewhat technical and it could be difficult to read it quickly. Nevertheless the descriptions of verbal usages are so suggestive for ordinary people, not students on linguistics, as to understand the correct way of speaking and writing the English words, which have a lot of difficult faces. I expect other books concerning verbs to be as descriptive as this work by Professor Leech.
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