American English Grammar introduces students to American English in detail, from parts of speech, phrases, and clauses to punctuation and explaining (and debunking) numerous "rules of correctness," integrating its discussion of Standard American grammar with thorough coverage of the past sixty years’ worth of work on African American English and other ethnic and regional non-Standard varieties. The book’s examples and exercises include 500 real-world sentences and longer texts, drawn from newspapers, film, song lyrics, and online media as well as from Mark Twain, Stephen King, academic texts, translations of the Bible, poetry, drama, children’s literature, and transcribed conversation and TV and radio shows. Based on twenty years of classroom testing and revision, American English Grammar will serve as a classroom text or reference that teaches students how to think and talk not only about the mechanics of sentences but also about the deep and detailed soul and nuance of the most widely used language in human history.
A Descriptive Grammar of English is a concise pedagogical reference grammar, highlighting the fundamentals of contemporary English grammar, clearly illustrated with unambiguous and pertinent examples of modern usage.
Speakers of British and American English display some striking differences in their use of grammar. In this detailed survey, John Algeo considers questions such as: •Who lives on a street, and who lives in a street? •Who takes a bath, and who has a bath? •Who says Neither do I, and who says Nor do I? •After 'thank you', who says Not at all and who says You're welcome? •Whose team are on the ball, and whose team isn't? Containing extensive quotations from real-life English on both sides of the Atlantic, collected over the past twenty years, this is a clear and highly organized guide to the differences - and the similarities - between the grammar of British and American speakers. Written for those with no prior knowledge of linguistics, it shows how these grammatical differences are linked mainly to particular words, and provides an accessible account of contemporary English in use.
A New English Grammar, a grammar of American English, is the American version of the author's acclaimed Descriptive Grammar of English. While the grammar of American English and of British English (or International English) are essentially the same, there are some differences, and in this new American English version of the grammar, priority is given to American usage, making this an ideal reference book for teachers and students in high school, and for anyone else wanting to gain a clearer understanding of English grammar. A review of the Descriptive Grammar of English in EFL Magazine commended it for the "clarity of explanations and wealth of examples" For the purposes of this American English edition, examples of grammar usage have been selected to reflect the life and interests of readers in the United States, making them relevant to the experiences of American students or international students wishing to familiarize themselves with life and culture in the USA. This English Grammar uses American English spelling in those few cases where it differs from British English. It is important however to stress that American English and British English are one and the same language. The biggest differences between the two are phonetic, not grammatical. Native English speakers can usually tell if a speaker is from North America or from Britain, or maybe from Australia or some other part of the English-speaking world; but they will find it much harder to notice, without actually thinking about it, whether a written document is in American English or in British English. There are a few telltale signs; Americans write realize where the British will write realise; Americans write traveled while the British write travelled... and in this case it is the American spelling that respects the traditional rules concerning the doubling or not of consonants in English. In the twenty-first century however, there is so much movement of both written texts and audio documents that the differences between American English and British English are becoming blurred. People in the USA read books and magazine articles, not to mention websites, written in British English, and people in the UK read plenty of books, articles and websites written in American English. While most people in the USA who use a spell-checker when writing will use one that is set up for American English, some will use one set up for British or international English.... and if a few alert readers may notice the difference, most will not, and hardly any will be unduly worried. Still it makes sense for anyone in the USA, or international users who have more contact with American speakers, to look at grammar in an American context, which is what this grammar book does.
The purpose of Grammar for Teachers is to encourage readers to develop a solid understanding of the use and function of grammatical structures in American English. It approaches grammar from a descriptive rather than a prescriptive approach; however, throughout the book differences between formal and informal language, and spoken and written English are discussed. The book avoids jargon or excessive use of technical terminology. It makes the study of grammar interesting and relevant by presenting grammar in context and by using authentic material from a wide variety of sources.
Presenting the linguistic basis for courses and projects on translation, contrastive linguistics, stylistics, reading and discourse studies, this book illustrates grammatical usage through authentic texts from a range of sources, both spoken and written. This new edition has been thoroughly rewritten and redesigned to include many new texts and examples of language in use. Key features include: chapters divided into modules of class-length materials; a wide variety of authentic texts and transcriptions to illustrate points of grammar and to contextualise structure; clear chapter and module summaries enabling efficient class preparation and student revision; exercises and topics for individual study; answer key for analytical exercises; comprehensive index; select biography; suggestions for further reading; and a companion website. This up-to-date descriptive grammar is a complete course for first degree and postgraduate students of English, and is particularly suited for those whose native language is not English.
It is well known that British and American English differ substantially in their pronunciation and vocabulary - but differences in their grammar have largely been underestimated. This volume focuses on British–American differences in the structure of words and sentences and supports them with computer-aided studies of large text collections. Present-day as well as earlier forms of the two varieties are included in the analyses. This makes it the first book-length treatment of British and American English grammar in contrast, with topics ranging from compound verbs to word order differences and tag questions. The authors explore some of the better-known contrasts, as well as a great variety of innovative themes that have so far received little or no consideration. Bringing together the work of a team of leading scholars in the field, this book will be of interest to those working within the fields of English historical linguistics, language variation and change, and dialectology.
