From the blurb: "From
the world's leading grammar publisher, the Cambridge Grammar of
English is a 'must-have' for any serious learner or user of the
English language. Using ground-breaking language research, it offers
clear explanations of spoken and written English based on real everyday
usage."
The
grammar of a language changes continually, but almost imperceptibly,
from the viewpoint of a human lifetime in any case. The appearance of a
major and genuinely innovative new explanation of that grammar
from a world authority on the subject is another matter.
Such is the case with
the Cambridge Grammar of English. I recently saw Ronald Carter
talking about English grammar, and was delighted with one of his
comments which is at the heart of this wonderful new book.
Carter
asserted that the grammar of our language, contrary to accepted wisdom
(if we've even actually bothered to think about it), comes from the
words we speak, not the words we write!
To put it another way,
new words and even new grammatical structures enter our language first
of all as unorthodox ways of speaking.
These are often
invented, introduced or adopted by particular age groups or exist as
regional variations until one day (or one edition), dictionary and
eventually grammar writers decide these wayward forms merit a mention.
They will then go
through a process of slow filtration until, if they pass the natural
selection process by being useful/catchy/popular enough, they are
officially adopted by the cognoscente, with their very own,
non-italicised, non-bracketised dictionary or grammar entry.
So that's the principle
for this new work which sets it aside from all other worthy contenders.
It's based on the Cambridge International Corpus which is now around a
billion words of spoken and written English and this has been the
guiding light in the production of the Cambridge Grammar of English.
The 15-page introduction
in itself makes fascinating reading, discussing some of the surprising
differences between spoken and written English. The authors argue for a
more balanced approach and there are special sections concentrating
specifically on spoken English for this purpose.
The spoken corpus is
used extensively throughout the book for the examples, and many of the
key words and phrases which feature in our everyday conversations are
mentioned and discussed.
Indeed, there are many
marvellous examples of conversations where traditional grammar rules are
wantonly abandoned and, included with an honesty and 'non-prescriptiveness'
which is particularly refreshing.
This is not to say that
written grammar has been ignored - far from it! What has happened is
that what would have simply been a fine contemporary grammar of written
English has been immeasurably enriched by the addition and integration
of a large dose of the spoken side of language.
So, much as I am tempted
to include lots of juicy examples, especially from the fascinating 'From
word to grammar: an A-Z' and 'Spoken language' sections, I'll keep it
short and snappy.
Oh, and I almost forgot,
the whole darn thing is on a little disk of shiny silver plastic - can
you believe that?! Well, of course it's de rigueur these days, but still
a marvel. You can easily search the whole book, there are audio
recordings of all the examples from the book, and links to the
Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary on-line for instant
definitions of new vocabulary. Nice.
The Cambridge Grammar
of English is an innovative and stimulating work which will be of
great interest to anyone from advanced language learners to linguists to
the curious layperson and word-lover. Any book of this calibre which
devotes a paragraph to the word 'thingy' is ok in my eyes.
Cambridge
Grammar of English
