A Comprehensive Grammar of the English Language is the most thorough and most definitive grammar of modern English ever written. Professors Quirk, Greenbaum, Leech and Svartvik, who are acknowledged to be leading authorities in the field of English language, have made this the climax of twenty years of collaborative work. Building on the strength of their previous work, especially A Grammar of Comprehensive English - unchallenged since its publication in 1972 as the standard reference work in the field - the authors have produced an even more comprehensive and perceptive synthesis of current grammatical description. They have drawn collectively on the most recent research, including new findings not only in grammar but also in the neighbouring fields of semantics, pragmatics and text linguistics. Discourse features are prominent throughout, as well as being the theme of an entire chapter entitled 'From Sentence to Text'. The grammatically analysed data in the Survey of English Usage, together with other collections of material, both American and British, has again proved an invaluable source of new insights, and, equally important, has provided authentic examples of use. Copious examples for clarification are a hallmark of the work of Professors Quirk, Greenbaum, Leech and Svartvik and of course are of immense help to all students and teachers of language, but particularly those whose first language is not English.