A Grammar of Contemporary English

The publication of this important volume fills the need for an up-to-date survey of the entire scope of English syntax. Though it falls short of a perfectly balanced treatment of the whole system, it touches upon all the essential topics and treats in depth a number of crucial problems of current interest such as case, ellipsis, and information focus. Even the publishers’ claims are vindicated to a surprising degree. The statement that it “constitutes a standard reference grammar” is reasonably well justified. Recent investigations, including the authors’ own research, are integrated into the “accumulated grammatical tradition” quite effectively. But whether it is “the fullest and most comprehensive synchronic description of English grammar ever written” is arguable. No one acquainted with Poutsma’s work would agree with that. Very advanced foreign students o r native speakers of English who want to learn about basic grammar will find some of thel sections suitable for their needs, such as the lesson about restrictive and nonrestrictive relative clauses, though even here some of the explanations require very intensive study. Most of the chapters are rather like an advanced textbook for teachers or linguists. The organization and viewpoint give the impression of a carefully planned university lecture supplemented by diagrams, charts, and lists. A good example is the lesson on auxiliaries and verb phrases, which starts with a set of sample sentences demonstrating that “should see” and “happen to see” behave differently under various transformations and expansions. After the essential concepts are explained and exemplified-lexical verb, semi-auxiliary, operator, and the like-lists and paradigms are given as in the usual reference work. A particularly useful feature of this chapter is the outline of modal auxiliaries with examples of their divergent meanings.