The Oxford English Grammar [Hardcover]

Sidney Greenbaum (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0198612508 | ISBN-13: 978-0198612506 | Publication Date: May 2, 1996 | Edition: 1

Written by one of the world's leading grammarians, The Oxford English Grammar is an authoritative review of and topic reference for English grammar.
Opening with an outline of national, regional, and social variation in English, the book details descriptive and prescriptive approaches and attitudes to English among both native and non-native speakers. This is followed by an account of the development of grammar, and a review of modern approaches to this complex subject. The central section of the book is a presentation of current English grammar at sentence, clause, phrase, and word level; with the last chapters covering grammar in relation to discourse, word-formation, lexis, pronunciation and intonation, punctuation, and spelling. A full index is provided, and examples of usage are drawn from a wide range of sources, including use of the new international Corpus of English at University College London. Written in a readable and absorbing style, The Oxford English Grammar is an essential reference for English speakers around the world.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Sidney Greenbaum is director of the Survey of English Usage at University College London where he was for seven years Quain Professor of English Language and Literature. He is also an associate editor of The Oxford Companion to the English Language.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 672 pages
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA; 1 edition (May 2, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0198612508
• ISBN-13: 978-0198612506
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 7.8 x 2.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #269,612 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

90 of 91 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars What a grammar book should be, October 25, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: The Oxford English Grammar (Hardcover)

As the other reviewer has said, this isn't a usage guide. It is partly a reference grammar, but also partly a textbook on the whole English language. Indeed, the title may be misleading, because most self-proclaimed grammars of English limit themselves to sentence-level syntax and a bit of morphology (inflections and such). Greenbaum includes chapters on phonology (the sounds of language) and morphology (word structure), and discourse (grammatical structure above the level of single sentences).

The material here is the most accurate you will find in a book directed at a general (non-linguistic) audience, and is essentially a condensed version of the material in *A Comprehensive Grammar of the English Language*, of which Greenbaum was a co-author, and which remains the best one-volume reference grammar of English. It is a sad fact that most grammar books marketed to a general audience perpetuate factual inaccuracies about English grammar. Greenbaum gives you English the way it really works, without descending into the complexities of contemporary linguistic theory.
My one complaint about the book is not about its content but about its production quality. My copy, at least, is printed on cheap paper and the few graphics are not the sharpest. I expect more from a $45 book.

68 of 69 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Thorough treatment of English Grammar. Not a usage guide., January 26, 2000

By 

Jeremie Wattellier "jeremie_w" (Callifornia, USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Oxford English Grammar (Hardcover)

I read this book from front to back. It is a thorough treatment of English grammar. For those looking for a usage guide- do not look here. It would probably serve as a good reference book for writers, teachers and non-linguistic scholars who would appreciate the abundance of examples given. For the average reader, they will tire of the enumeration of boring, useless-to-most-people aspects of grammar. On the other hand, if you're just curious about grammar, as I was, it can be very educational.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Lacks completeness; difficult for reference, April 17, 2010

By 

W. C. Rees (Memphis) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Oxford English Grammar (Hardcover)

First of all, I'm not a scholar. I wanted to learn greek, but found my English grammar lacking. In many areas this would certainly help in learning the grammar of a foreign language. The index uses sections rather than pages in looking up a subject. The sections can be quite long and finding the particular item may be timely. "Periphrastic tenses" for instance. I never could get a clear/complete definition of what this is. I still use it more than my other less complete/elementary grammar texts. But it is not ideal for what I need. I am still learning the layout of subject matter. It certainly is not intuitive--for a non-scholar anyway.