Randolph Quirk (1920–2017)

My usual disclaimer with school readings of this sort applies--I only read one article, the Kachru on concentric circles of English usage (normative, norm-developing, and norm-dependent) and what that perhaps means for the future of the language and our study of it. This article has perhaps suffered a little for being first--a lot of what Kachru says now sounds like truism; some of the interesting ideas aren't followed up--indeed, what would a model of language learning that presumed show more multilingualism look like? In terms of the theories I've been involved with this summer, possibly soon to be discarded as not appropriate on a thesis based in sociolinguistic variation and overseen by a variationist not a phonologist (and oh, isn't it funny, this business of academe--"This is what I believe! And if you don't like it,I can change!" Not that I don't have my own problems with OT), it raises all kinds of questions about differentiation of grammars in the multilingual learner; in terms of exemplar dynamics, it raises the question of sorting exemplars into different languages--or rather doesn't, since that's not the project. Anyway, the central framework and the notion of global Englishes and norms developing at their own speed make sense, but it can't help but come across as a little commonsensical, even if it was no doubt innovative in its time. show less

Not textbook, but an excellent deescriptive grammar of modern English. Just look up verbs, for instance, and you'll be amazed at the complexity of what you do when you use them. For instance, this explains why we don't say, "I am having a car," but we do say "I am washing the car." And that's just for starters The only grammar book better than this is the unabridged version of this tome.

I disagree wwith his approach, but it is better than the usual prescriptive fare. At least he knows what he's talking about, which is more than Safire does

Important issues of how the style of speech contributes to meaning