The Book Depository Oxford Modern English Grammar by Bas Aarts
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Price: £20.00
Brand: The Book Depository
Description: Oxford Modern English Grammar : Hardback : Oxford University Press : 9780199533190 : 0199533199 : 22 May 2011 : Oxford's new and definitive guide to grammar is written by a leading expert in the field and covers both British and American English. Its impressive coverage ranges from the very basic to the most complex aspects of grammar, all of which are explained clearly. An authoritative and engaging guide to what grammar is and how it can be used. The Book Depository Oxford Modern English Grammar by Bas Aarts - shop the best deal online on thebookbug.co.uk
Category: Books
Merchant: The Book Depository
Product ID: 9780199533190
MPN: 0199533199
GTIN: 9780199533190
Author: Francis
Rating: 5
Review: I never know English grammar can be dissected so organized and systematical. This book is surely not for a non native English speaker of level far from advance. In the book, very often, it will use just few sentences to explain some very important grammar usage and one also needs to be very careful in understanding the various terminologies used in order to follow the explanations and usage. I believe it will take me many years before I can assimilate most of the materials in the book.
Author: Simon J. Harpham
Rating: 2
Review: Given the reviews I expected great things of this book but have been consistently disappointed. Although it's comprehensive in scope, the use of jargon and an irritatingly technical style of writing tends to obscure the points being made and this has meant I've spent more time trying to work out what the author means than I have on brushing up my grammar. Add to this the use of circular logic and the book becomes less a reference work to be consulted when in difficulty or doubt, and more a pain in the neck to spend hours poring over in a vain search for understanding. One prime example of all this comes in the chapter on nouns. At the beginning of the chapter we are told that the definition of nouns as 'thing' words doesn't tell us very much until we know what a 'thing' is. Next we are told (using unnecessarily noumenous language) that it may be more helpful to consider nouns as the head of a noun-phrase. Unfortunately a noun-phrase is then defined as a phrase whose head is a noun, which - given that we haven't been told what a noun is - doesn't tell us how to distinguish a noun-phrase from a verb-phrase, adjective-phrase, and so on. Not only is this an excellent use of circular logic, it's also pointlessly complicated, and it introduces the simple idea of noun-phrases in such a confusing way I spent a good hour reading just one page in a vain attempt to make some sense of it. Personally I wouldn't recommend this book to any foreign language students: There are far clearer, less technical, books on the market that deal with the same subject matter more directly and are more useful as references.
