Consistent with the first edition, the 1999 edition is well organized, with careful examples, copious semantic and syntactic information, and a refreshing discussion of different scholars' theories on how and why English operates the way it does. This consistent treatment of each grammar point assists the teacher in understanding the explanations and in preparing to lead students into mastery of the language. The teaching suggestions and bibliography at the end of each chapter make this book a valuable tool for teachers in the field as well as in a training program. In addition, the appendix and the indices help make this book useful for independent study. This second edition is an even better resource than the first, with more information and more careful ordering of that information.
New chapters expand the coverage and allow for the better organization.
Having a separate chapter explaining the differences in terms such as tense, aspect, and time, for example, means that less time needs to be spent on that basic information when the authors come to those general topics. Several of the 1983 edition's chapters were expanded for 1999. What had been a single chapter on the tense and aspect system has become two chapters, one on tense and aspect and the other on discourse factors. Throughout the new edition, the treatment of different subjects has been reexamined and often redone. The previous edition's coverage of infinitives, gerunds, and participles has been reorganized to allow for the expanded chapter on adverbials.