Understanding English Grammar

By Martha J. Kolln

Book Overview

Key Benefit:
The acclaimed Understanding English Grammar fosters readers' innate language expertise as they study sentence grammar. It begins with an overview of English as a world language and provides an updated list of further readings. Users appreciate the self-teaching quality that incremental exercises provide throughout the chapters, with answers at the end of the book. Respected scholars Loretta Gray and Joseph Salvatore bring their special expertise in linguistics and creative writing--as well as long experience in teaching grammar and writing--to the Tenth Edition.

Key Topics:
INTRODUCTION: The Study of Grammar: An Overview. THE GRAMMAR OF BASIC SENTENCES: Words and Phrases; Sentence Patterns; Expanding the Main Verb; Changing Sentence Focus. EXPANDING THE SENTENCE: Modifiers of the Verb: Adverbials; Modifiers of the Noun: Adjectivals; The Noun Phrase Functions: Nominals; Sentence Modifiers; Coordination. WORDS AND WORD CLAUSES: Morphemes; The Open Classes; The Closed Classes; Pronouns. GRAMMAR FOR WRITERS: Rhetorical Grammar; Purposeful Punctuation. Glossary of Grammatical Terms; Appendix: Sentence Diagramming; Answers to the Exercises; Index.

Market:
This text is a must-have for English language teachers and provides a useful reference for anyone who wants to understand English grammar fully.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0134014189
• ISBN13: 9780134014180
• Release Date: January 2015
• Publisher: Pearson Education
• Length: 432 Pages
• Weight: 1.41 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 6.1" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

Textbook

The book arrived within days of purchasing and in condition described. Would purchase from them again.

The best I've found!

I own the 3rd edition of this book. I don't know if the comments I have will still apply to this edition, but here they are anyway. I looked everywhere for a book that illustrated grammar instruction through diagramming sentences, and this is the only one I've found! If you aren't into that, don't let it discourage you. They are only used as illustrations and to show the similarities and differences between sentence types. This book takes a very logical approach to grammar that I was very thankful for and which was very easy for me to follow, as it added just the right next bit of information as I was ready for it. It was just what I was looking for.

Good Book, Good Grammar, Happy Tummy

I'm a fiction writer. And there are four books within reach of my writing desk. The most recent addition has been Martha Kolln's Understanding English Grammar. This bad boy has it all, folks. If you're like me, you get tripped up on lie and lay like the rest of us, and those kinds of words (and the rules underlying them) are at the very heart of what UEG sets out to clarify. I think I first went to Kolln's masterpiece for help with prepositions. I don't know who first introduced prepositions into the English language, man, but I'd like beat him with a wet dish rag!As Kolln says on page 320: "Prepositions are among the most difficult words in the language for foreign speakers to master." I'd take this a step further; I'd say they're the most difficult words for _English_ speakers to master. A couple of examples she lists:Be sure to fill out the form carefully.Be sure to fill in the form carefully.He wasn't fired.He didn't get fired.Can _you_ spot the correct usage above? Well, if it gives you pause then Understanding English Grammar may be the book for you. It is a model of grammatical clarity and a wonderful reference book to turn to in times of grammatical doubt:~)Other books I keep close by my writing desk include: "The Merriam-Webster Dictionary of Synonyms and Antonyms," Richard Lanham's "A Handlist of Rhetorical Terms," and The Holy Bible. If cleanliness is next to Godliness, grammatical perfection is like Zen awareness. You know it's possible to attain, but achieving it is another matter altogether. Kolln's book can help -- with the grammar, that is.Yours,Stacey

A (very rare) compendium of English structural grammar

It turns out that this handbook makes a huge success of introducing the structural work on English syntax. This compendious guide will never prove to be a disppointment to those who see the value of structuralism.