Minding the language

People should not feel so intimidated by English grammar, according to one of the co-authors of a ground-breaking new book on the structure of the English language.

University of Queensland Emeritus Professor Rodney Huddleston says many students have been browbeaten by the teaching of unenlightened 'prescriptive' grammar, containing rules for 'correct' English often at odds with actual usage.

Professor Rodney Huddleston?s desire for a more accessible English grammar has led to him writing one! In an 1860-page book, The Cambridge Grammar of the English Language (Cambridge University Press), he describes comprehensively the grammatical rules of different forms of English.

It is the first comprehensive grammar reference book of standard international English in nearly 20 years.

The book was co-authored with University of California Professor Geoffrey Pullum in collaboration with an international research team of more than a dozen linguists spanning five countries.

Professor Huddleston (pictured left) said the major aim of the project was to present a new analysis of English grammar taking account of linguistics' research over the past half-century.

"There is a huge gap between the traditional grammar taught in schools, and assumed in dictionaries or usage manuals, and the descriptions proposed by those working in the field of linguistics," Professor Huddleston said.

"The aim of this book is to bridge that gap, presenting a grammar faithful to the principles of modern linguistics but still accessible to readers without formal linguistics training."

The new analysis simplifies many areas of English grammar by doing away with irrelevant traditional categories inherited from Latin. "We have been more careful in the selection of grammatical categories. In simplifying such areas, we hope the book is more relevant to a modern audience," he said. Professor Huddleston, who has held research positions in Edinburgh, London and Reading, first began this project 13 years ago when, as a UQ researcher, he unfavourably reviewed the last comprehensive grammar of English.

Booked

Other books published by UQ academics over the past year include:
  • International Macroeconomics by Associate Professor Tony Makin (UQ Business School) - is set to replace existing texts in international economics, which tend to project the United State's perspective rather than that of other more globalised advanced and emerging economies.
  • The Wolf Man's Burden (Cornell University Press in New York) by Dr Lawrence Johnson (School of English, Media Studies and Art History) - examines the relationship between Sigmund Freud and his most famous patient, "Wolf Man", and the influence this had on the origins of psychoanalysis. The book doubles as a Freud biography and was written with the commercial market in mind.
  • Out of Line: Australian Women and Style (UNSW Press) by Dr Margaret Maynard (School of English, Media Studies and Art History) - challenges beliefs that a specific national identity is exclusive to men's dress. She contends the study of fashion in Australia is not only a legitimate one, but crucial to any understanding of the nation's social practices and identity.
  • Pain: A Textbook for Therapists (Churchill Livingstone Press) co-authored by Professor Jenny Strong (School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences) -fills a gap in school curricula specialising in occupational therapy and physiotherapy. It has been eagerly sought by the health professions and has already been adopted by the University of Dalhousie at Halifax. Professor Strong said there was a great need for a comprehensive textbook to assist physiotherapists and occupational therapists to become more informed about, and more sensitive and understanding towards people with pain, and more effective and evidence-based in their approach to treating and managing people with pain.
  • The Intimate Empire: Reading Women's Autobiographies (Cassells) by Professor Gillian Whitlock (School of English, Media Studies and Art History) - won the 1999-2000 Walter McRae Russell Award for literary criticism. The award began in 1983 for the best book of literary scholarship on an Australian subject and is sponsored by the Association for the Study of Australian Literature. Professor Whitlock's award represented the fourth time academics from UQ's School of English, Media Studies and Art History have won the prestigious prize. Professor Whitlock travelled to several countries including Canada and South Africa as part of her nine-year research for the book and became interested in the area in 1992 while reading the 1831 autobiography of a Caribbean slave Mary Prince. The book contains commentary on more than 30 autobiographies including travel diaries, memoirs and slave narratives as well as a compilation of the experiences of the "Stolen Generation" called Past Tense.
  • Yarn Spinners: A Story in Letters (University of Queensland Press) by Dr Marilla North (School of English, Media Studies and Art History) - a compilation of letters written over almost 30 years between three famous Australian women authors, Miles Franklin, Dymphna Cusack and Florence James. The book tells a tale of Sydney's post-World War II newspaper circulation wars, of attempted literary suppression in the climate of the late 1940s Cold War, deception, intrigue and deals between politicians and press barons. But it is also the story of a great and enduring friendship between three women, chiefly Dymphna Cusack and the generation-older Miles Franklin, author of the classic Australian novel My Brilliant Career. Last year was the centenary of the novel's first edition with its preface by Henry Lawson who had taken the manuscript with him to London to find a publisher for Franklin.
Research team

Co-authors
Professor Rodney Huddleston (UQ)
Professor Geoffrey K. Pullum
(University of California, Santa Cruz)
Chief Investigators in ARC project
Professor Rodney Huddleston (UQ)
Associate Professor David Lee (UQ) www.uq.edu.au/uqresearchers/researcher/leeda.html
Associate Professor Peter Collins (UNSW)
Dr Peter Peterson (University of Newcastle)
Contributors to the book also included:
Professor Laurie Bauer
(Victoria University of Wellington, NZ)
Assistant Professor Betty J Birner
(Northern Illinois University)
Dr Ted Briscoe (University of Cambridge)
Associate Professor Emeritus Anita Mittwoch
(Hebrew University of Jerusalem)
Professor Geoffrey Nunberg
(Stanford University)
Dr John Payne (University of Manchester)
Professor Frank R Palmer
(formerly of University of Reading)
Dr Lesley Stirling (University of Melbourne)
Professor Gregory Ward
(Northwestern University, Illinois)

Funding

Two ARC large grants for three years each:
1991 ($50,000), 1992 ($41,400)
1993 ($41,400), 1994 ($50,000)
1995 ($40,935), 1996 ($42,032)
(1993-1998) ARC Australian Senior Research Fellowship

Email
r.huddleston@uq.edu.au

Web links
www.cambridge.org/cgel
www.ucsc.edu/public

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