A Comprehensive Grammar of the English Language

by Randolph Quirk, Sidney Greenbaum, Geoffrey N. Leech

Book by Randolph Quirk, Sidney Greenbaum, Geoffrey Leech, Jan Svartvik

Genres: Linguistics, Language, Nonfiction, Reference, Writing, British Literature

1779 pages, Hardcover

First published May 20, 1985

About the author

Quirk was born at Lambfell, in Michael on the Isle of Man, the son of Thomas and Amy Randolph Quirk. He attended King William's College on the Isle of Man and then went to University College London to read English under Albert Hugh Smith. His studies began in 1939 but were interrupted by the war in 1940, to be completed from 1945 to 1947. He was awarded MA, PhD, and D.Lit and became a lecturer in English at UCL from 1947 to 1954. He was also a Commonwealth Fund Harkness Fellow, at Yale and Michigan from 1951 to 1952. In 1954 he became Reader at the University of Durham, becoming Professor there in 1958. He returned to UCL as Professor in 1960 and in 1968 succeeded Smith as Quain Professor, a post he held until 1981.
Quirk lectured and taught seminars at University College, London, in Old English (Anglo-Saxon) and in History of the English Language. These two disciplines were part of a ten-discipline set of Final examinations in the undergraduate syllabus. At that time, Old and Middle English, along with History of the English Language, were all compulsory subjects. He also worked closely with A.C. Gimson and J.D. O'Connor of the Phonetics Department, sitting in as an examiner for Phonetics oral examinations on occasion.

Reviews

[Preetam Chatterjee · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a classic. However, my experience with this tome has been two-fold. Right in the days of my High School, our Grammar instructor had asked us (read 'forced us') to go through this tome. I do not so much know about my classmates, but, I was lost in the enormity of the text. Frickin' 1700 plus pages. My mid-18 year mind would be aghast to discover that each topic from Nouns to Determiners, from Verbs to Syntax, from Prepositions to Case and Clauses have been dealt in encyclopaedic detail. I shelved the book and ran off.

And then I would rediscover this book post 25. I was an established educator by then. Yet my mind was yearning for more and more detail on Grammar and Style.

That was when I rediscovered this book. And I proposed to her. She obliged me by saying 'Yes'. We read our vows and consummated the bond.

She has been with me ever since. She is my consort. My soul mate.

[Fahad Khan]

A good Book..

[Kem Phalkun]

I think this book is very good for me learning and teaching

[Julia Wahl · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolute beauty

[Ngwuta Chimaobi Wisdom]

Cool

[Dave Wiz · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is for university level english students who want a detailed description about any matter regarding the grammar of the English language

[Ojeifo Ohis · Rating 4 out of 5]

A really interesting book dealing key areas in syntax, a must read for every student of the english language.