Andreea S. Calude is a Senior Lecturer in Linguistics at the University of Waikato, New Zealand. She has a background in mathematics and linguistics and researches (spoken) grammar, language evolution, loanwords and just about any quantitative language-related question she can get data on. She is the Editor-in-Chief of Te Reo – the Journal of the Linguistic Society of New Zealand and the co-editor of Questions About Language, with Laurie Bauer (2020).Laurie Bauer FRSNZ is Emeritus Professor of Linguistics at Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand. He is the author of over twenty books including The Oxford Reference Guide to English Morphology (2013), which won the LSA’s Leonard Bloomfield Prize. In 2017 he was awarded the Royal Society of New Zealand’s Humanities Medal.

'In this exciting and innovative book Calude and Bauer demystify English grammar by cracking some of its hard nuts. Warmly recommended to anyone who is interested in the study of English syntax.'Bas Aarts, UCL, UK'This unconventional treatment of a wide selection of topics in English grammar calls many previous explanations into question. In citing factors which influence speakers' choices it goes beyond the narrow confines of traditional grammars to include overarching factors like on-going change, spoken-written differences, and the language variety of the speaker-user.'Stephan Gramley, Bielefeld University, Germany

• List of TablesPreface1 Introduction2. What you must say, what you can say and what you do not say: Grammar and norm 3. Over and out: Prepositions4. You’ll never get nowhere: Double negatives5. All the way from the Ukraine: The definite article6. A large amount of exceptions: Countability7. The author has finished this chapter last year: The present perfect8. An even more interestinger topic: Comparatives and superlatives9. I’m lovin’ it: The progressive10. The good, the bad and the ugly: Adjectives11. What it is is a nonstandard feature: Double be construction12. Human dogs and inhuman people: Gender and related matters13. The chapter that I put too many pronouns in it: Shadow pronouns14. There’s heaps of money to be won: Number agreement15. Because I’m worth it: Insubordinate clauses16. They are cleverer than she and I: Pronominal case17. Is that your wife again?: Possession18. ConclusionGlossary: Language for languageIndex

Andreea S. Calude is a Senior Lecturer in Linguistics at the University of Waikato, New Zealand. She has a background in mathematics and linguistics and researches (spoken) grammar, language evolution, loanwords and just about any quantitative language-related question she can get data on. She is the Editor-in-Chief of Te Reo – the Journal of the Linguistic Society of New Zealand and the co-editor of Questions About Language, with Laurie Bauer (2020).Laurie Bauer FRSNZ is Emeritus Professor of Linguistics at Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand. He is the author of over twenty books including The Oxford Reference Guide to English Morphology (2013), which won the LSA’s Leonard Bloomfield Prize. In 2017 he was awarded the Royal Society of New Zealand’s Humanities Medal.

'In this exciting and innovative book Calude and Bauer demystify English grammar by cracking some of its hard nuts. Warmly recommended to anyone who is interested in the study of English syntax.'Bas Aarts, UCL, UK'This unconventional treatment of a wide selection of topics in English grammar calls many previous explanations into question. In citing factors which influence speakers' choices it goes beyond the narrow confines of traditional grammars to include overarching factors like on-going change, spoken-written differences, and the language variety of the speaker-user.'Stephan Gramley, Bielefeld University, Germany

• List of TablesPreface1 Introduction2. What you must say, what you can say and what you do not say: Grammar and norm 3. Over and out: Prepositions4. You’ll never get nowhere: Double negatives5. All the way from the Ukraine: The definite article6. A large amount of exceptions: Countability7. The author has finished this chapter last year: The present perfect8. An even more interestinger topic: Comparatives and superlatives9. I’m lovin’ it: The progressive10. The good, the bad and the ugly: Adjectives11. What it is is a nonstandard feature: Double be construction12. Human dogs and inhuman people: Gender and related matters13. The chapter that I put too many pronouns in it: Shadow pronouns14. There’s heaps of money to be won: Number agreement15. Because I’m worth it: Insubordinate clauses16. They are cleverer than she and I: Pronominal case17. Is that your wife again?: Possession18. ConclusionGlossary: Language for languageIndex