Strong linguistic and ecological pressures are gradually pushing Koromfe, the local language spoken in the north of Burkina Faso, West Africa, towards extinction. Spoken by, at the most, 10,000 people, Koromfe has defied political and cultural domination by other local languages. Few other researchers have studied Koromfe in such detail and this is the first detailed linguistical analysis of its kind. Consequently, data is provided which sheds light on many previously unanswered questions ...

Oxford Modern English Grammar is Oxford's brand new and definitive guide to English grammar. This book has been written by a leading expert in the field, covers both British and American English, and makes use of authentic spoken and written examples. Arranged in four clear parts for ease of use, its comprehensive coverage ranges from the very basic to the most complex aspects of grammar, all of which are explained clearly yet authoritatively. This descriptive source of reference is invalu...

In clear, congenial style Barry Blake explains how language works. He describes the make-up of words and how they're built from sounds and signs and put together in phrases and sentences. He examines the dynamics of conversation and the relations between the sound and meaning. He shows how languages help their users connect to each other and to the world, how they vary around the world, why they never stop changing, and that no two people speak a language in the same way. He looks at how l...

Language is primarily a tool for communication, yet many textbooks still treat English grammar as simply a set of rules and facts to be memorised by rote. This new textbook is made for students who are frustrated with this approach and would like instead to understand grammar and how it works. Why are there two future tenses in English? What are auxiliaries and why are they so confusing? Why are English motion verbs hard to use? Why are determiners so important in English? These and many o...

First published in 1978, Reading Greek has become a best-selling one-year introductory course in ancient Greek for students and adults. It combines the best of modern and traditional language-learning techniques and is used widely in schools, summer schools and universities across the world. It has also been translated into several foreign languages. This volume provides full grammatical support together with numerous exercises at different levels. For the second edition the presentations ...

What is Morphology? is a concise and critical introduction to the central ideas of morphology, which has been revised and expanded to include additional material on morphological productivity and the mental lexicon, experimental and computational methods, and new teaching material.Introduces the fundamental aspects of morphology to students with minimal background in linguisticsIncludes additional material on morphological productivity and the mental lexico...

The Teacher's Guide to Grammar is unique in focusing directly on the aspects of grammar that teachers need to know. Assuming little or no formal linguistic education, this concise and accessible book provides the necessary background knowledge required in the classroom context. There are detailed chapters on the nuts and bolts of language: words, morphology, sentences, phrases, verbs, and clauses. Other important educational issues concerned in the teaching of English are discussed: the gr...

Hungarian: An Essential Grammar is a concise, user-friendly guide to the most important structures of this fascinating language.All students of Hungarian, whether beginners or at intermediate and advanced levels, will welcome its clarity of presentation and jargon-free explanations. It is ideal for those studying independently or following a taught course.Topics include:verbal prefixesaspect and tenseword-formation mechanisms...

Greek: A Comprehensive Grammar of the Modern Language has become firmly established as the leading reference guide to modern Greek grammar. With its detailed treatment of all grammatical structures, its analysis of the complexities of the language and its particular attention to areas of confusion and difficulty, it is the first truly comprehensive grammar of the language to be produced. It provides a study of the real patterns of use in contemporary GreekThis second editi...

Cohesion in English is concerned with a relatively neglected part of the linguistic system: its resources for text construction, the range of meanings that are speciffically associated with relating what is being spoken or written to its semantic environment. A principal component of these resources is 'cohesion'. This book studies the cohesion that arises from semantic relations between sentences. Reference from one to the other, repetition of word meanings, the conjunctive force of but, ...

Korean: An Essential Grammar is a concise and convenient guide to the basic grammatical structure of standard Korean. Presenting a fresh and accessible description of the language, this engaging Grammar uses clear, jargon-free explanations and sets out the complexities of Korean in short, readable sections.Key features include:clear explanations of grammatical termsfrequent use of authentic examplesthe Korean alphabet used alongsi...

The Functional Analysis of English is an introduction to the analysis and description of English, based on the principles of systemic functional linguistics. It sets out the tools and analytic techniques of Hallidayan grammar with clear explanations of terminology and illustrates these with examples from a variety of texts, including science, travel, history and literary sources. This revised third edition incorporates references to recent research, better explanations of complex ...