The Longman Grammar of Spoken and Written English is revolutionary– the first entirely corpus-based grammar of English. It is an essential reference tool for serious students of English and linguistics as well as people involved in ELT methodology and materials writing.

Features
"Anyone with a serious interest in English grammar will have to take into account the information this book contains." David Crystal

Over 350 tables and graphs show the frequency of constructions in different contexts, from conversation to fiction to academic prose.
Entirely corpus-based with 6, 000 authentic examples from the 40-million-word Longman Corpus Network
Suggests the reasons why we choose a particular structure in a particular context
Compares British and American English
Shows the difference between spoken and written English

Areas covered include basic grammar: description and distribution, key word classes and their phrases and complex structures. Each area is subdivided into more detailed content.

Douglas Biber is Professor of Applied Linguistics (English Department) at Northern Arizona University.  His books and articles deal with language use in spoken and written discourse.


Author(s): Douglas Biber, Stig Johansson, Geoffrey Leech, Susan Conrad, Edward Finegan
No. of pages: 1216
Year: 1999