Usage and grammar guides Books

Book SynopsisThe Best Grammar Workbook Ever! is a comprehensive instructional guide for ages 10-110. It covers grammar basics, common grammar problems, punctuation, capitalization, and word usage. In addition to a Pretest and Final Test, there are more than 100 practice exercises and tests at the end of each chapter. A complete list of answers is included in one of the appendixes. Other appendixes include commonly misspelled words, commonly mispronounced words, Greek and Latin word roots, and writing tips. The book is written in a friendly and easy-to-use tone. There are helpful hints throughout and a complete index.

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Book SynopsisAnyone writing texts in English is constantly faced with the unavoidable question whether to use open spelling (drinking fountain), hyphenation (far-off) or solid spelling (airport) for individual compounds. While some compounds commonly occur with alternative spellings, others show a very clear bias for one form. This book tests over 60 hypotheses and explores the patterns underlying the spelling of English compounds from a variety of perspectives. Based on a sample of 600 biconstituent compounds with identical spelling in all reference works in which they occur (200 each with open, hyphenated and solid spelling), this empirical study analyses large amounts of data from corpora and dictionaries and concludes that the spelling of English compounds is not chaotic but actually correlates with a large number of statistically significant variables. An easily applicable decision tree is derived from the data and an innovative multi-dimensional prototype model is suggested to account for the results.Trade Review'The investigation successfully explains why and how English compounds are orthographically represented … The book will therefore prove convenient mainly for researchers with an interest in morphology and the lexicon who appreciate an empirical corpus-based approach to language. These readers will readily recognise the vast majority of concepts and models discussed, and at the same time they will easily become familiarized with the new ones thanks to the clear distribution of contents, evolving from simpler to more complex. All in all, this publication is a valuable resource for anyone who wishes to understand the variables affecting compound spelling and has previous experience in corpus analysis and research.' Jesús Fernández-Domínguez, LINGUIST ListTable of Contents1. Introduction; Part I. Theoretical Background: 2. Delimitating the compound concept; 3. The normative background; Part II. Empirical Study of English Compound Spelling: 4. Material and method; 5. Potential determinants of English compound spelling; Part III. Modelling English Compound Spelling: 6. Compound spelling heuristics; 7. Modelling English compound spelling; 8. Summary and conclusion.

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Book SynopsisThis volume introduces the letters of the Syriac alphabet a few at the time, and each set of letters is accompanied by guides to pronunciation and the correct way to write the letters, including helpful charts and illustrations.

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Book SynopsisAn English translation of a Latin work on the Syriac grammatical tradition (''Historia artis grammaticae apud Syros'') by the 19th-century German theologian and linguist, Adalbert Merx.

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Book SynopsisTraditional Greek grammars are based on the philological method that assumes meaning resides in single words and that learning a language consists of memorising vocabulary and nominal and verbal paradigms. The linguistic method, developed during the twentieth century, argues that meaning resides in units of speech, like sentences, not in single words, and that what is needed to learn a language is familiarity with its basic sentence patterns (its syntax), not memorisation of vocabulary lists.Originally published in three volumes in 1973, Robert Funk’s classic Beginning-Intermediate Grammar of Hellenistic Greek utilises the insights of modern linguistics in its presentation of the basic features of ancient Greek grammar. Since modern linguistics aims to be descriptive, rather than prescriptive, Funk’s Grammar highlights the bread-and-butter features of New Testament Greek, rather than how it deviates from classical Greek. Now redesigned and reformatted for ease of use, this single-volume third edition makes Funk’s ground-breaking work available once more. Students who use this Grammar will learn how to read Greek in one year, rather than having to depend on ponies or interlinear editions of the Greek New Testament.

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Book SynopsisThis book documents modern Baba Malay, a critically endangered Austronesian-based contact language with a Sinitic substrate. Formed via intermarriage between Hokkien-speaking male traders and indigenous women in the Malay Peninsula, the language has less than 1,000 speakers in Singapore and less than 1,000 speakers in Malacca, Malaysia. This volume fills a gap for reference grammars of contact languages in general. Reference grammars written on contact languages are rare, and much rarer is a reference grammar written about a critically endangered Austronesian-based contact language. The reference grammar, which aims to be useful to linguists and general readers interested in Baba Malay, describes the language’s sociohistorical background, its circumstances of endangerment, and provides information regarding the phonology, parts of speech, and syntax of Baba Malay as spoken in Singapore. A chapter that differentiates this variety from that spoken in Malacca is also included. The grammar demonstrates that the nature of Baba Malay is highly systematic, and not altogether simple, providing structural information for those who are interested in the typology of contact languages.

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