coll. - Collins COBUILD English Grammar

Copyright

Published by Collins

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Bishopbriggs

Glasgow G64 2QT

Fourth Edition 2017

HarperCollins Publishers 2017

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Ebook Edition March 2017 ISBN: 9780008213145

Version: 2017-03-01

About COBUILD

When the first COBUILD dictionary was published in 1987, it revolutionized dictionaries for learners. It was the first of a new generation of language reference materials that were based on actual evidence of how English was used, rather than lexicographer intuition.

Collins and the University of Birmingham, led by the linguist John Sinclair, developed an electronic corpus in the 1980s, called the Collins Birmingham University International Language Database (COBUILD). This corpus, which for several years was known as the Bank of English, became the largest collection of English data in the world. COBUILD dictionary editors use the corpus to analyse the way that people really use the language.

The Collins Corpus now contains 4.5 billion words taken from websites, newspapers, magazines and books published around the world, and from spoken material from radio, TV and everyday conversations. New data is added to the corpus every month, to help COBUILD editors identify new words, grammatical structures, and meanings from the moment they are first used.

All COBUILD language reference books are based on the information our editors find in the Collins Corpus. Because the corpus is so large, our editors can look at lots of examples of how people really use the language. The data tells us how the language is used; the function of different structures; which words are used together; and how often these words and structures are used.

All of the examples in COBUILD language materials are examples of real English, taken from the corpus. The examples have been carefully chosen to demonstrate typical grammatical patterns, typical vocabulary and typical contexts.

COBUILD English Grammar is no exception: Collins editors and researchers have been able to use this wealth of information to establish a unique and full description of English grammar, and to track the development of certain grammatical structures over time.

The corpus lies at the heart of COBUILD, and you can be confident that COBUILD will show you what you need to know to be able to communicate easily and accurately in English.

If you would like to learn more about COBUILD and the Collins Corpus, go to www.collinselt.com and click on 'COBUILD Reference'.

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank those authors and publishers who kindly gave permission for copyright material to be used in the Collins Corpus. We would also like to thank Times Newspapers Ltd for providing valuable data.

FOUNDING EDITOR-IN-CHIEF: John Sinclair
FOR THE PUBLISHER: Maree Airlie, Robin Scrimgeour, Lisa Todd, Celia Wigley
CONTRIBUTORS: Penny Hands, Kate Mohideen, Julie Moore, Damian Williams

Acknowledgements

The publishers would like to acknowledge the following for their invaluable contribution to the third edition:

Managing Editor

Penny Hands

Editorial Consultant

Roger Berry

Lingnan University, Hong Kong

Founding Editor-in-Chief

John Sinclair

We would also like to thank the following people for their contributions to previous editions of the text:

Maree Airlie, Mona Baker, Henri Bjoint, Adriana Bolvar, Jane Bradbury, David Brazil, Dominic Bree, Nicholas Brownlees, Tony Buckby, Stephen Bullon, Annette Capel, Michela Clari, Jane Cullen, John Curtin, Richard Fay, Gwyneth Fox, Richard Francis, Iria Garcia, Gottfried Graustein, John Hall, M.A.K. Halliday, Patrick Hanks, Ron Hardie, Anthony Harvey, Lorna Heaslip, Michael Hoey, Roger Hunt, Sue Inkster, Andy Kennedy, Lorna Knight, Ramesh Krishnamurthy, Tim Lane, Marcel Lemmens, Helen Liebeck, Alison Macaulay, Elizabeth Manning, Agnes Molnar, Rosamund Moon, Sue Ogden, Charles Owen, Georgina Pearce, Georgina Pert, Anne Pradeilles, Christopher Pratt, Christina Rammell, Clare Ramsey, Ramiro Restrepo, Christopher Royal-Dawson, Toi Sanchez, Katy Shaw, Sue Smith, Mary Snell-Hornby, Tom Stableford, John Todd, Bob Walker, Laura Wedgeworth, Herman Wekker, Douglas Williamson, Jane Winn, Deborah Yuill

Contents

Introduction

This grammar is suitable for anyone who is interested in the English language and how it works in everyday current contexts. It has been written mainly for advanced-level students and their teachers, but any serious learner will find it a valuable reference tool.