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the Charybdis of parents who want the 'best' Englishfor their children. Despite its shortcomings, the bookshould be included in reading lists of teacher trainingcourses, setting out as it does the linguistic, social,and cultural contexts for so much of the world'sEnglish language teaching. This would surelyincrease teachers' insight into the characteristics ofthe English of students from the 'other tongue' areas.The book should also be studied by exam boardsdealing with these areas, with a view to formulating amore suitable policy towards local varieties.John Norrish, Institute of Education, University ofLondonReferencesArmah, A. K. 1968. The Beautyful Ones are Not YetBorn. London: Heinemann.Bickerton, D. 1983. 'Comments on Valdman'screolization and second language acquisition' in R.Andersen Pidginization and Creolization asLanguage Acquisition'. Rowley, Mass.: NewburyHouse.Halliday, M., A. Mclntosh and P. Strevens. 1964.The Linguistic Sciences and Language Teaching.London: Longman.Kaplan, R. 1980. 'Cultural thought patterns inintercultural education' in K. Croft (ed.) Readingson_English as a Second Language. 2nd ed.Cambridge Mass.: Winthrop.Medgyes, P. 1983. 'The schizophrenic teacher'. ELTJournal 37/1:2-6.Medgyes, P. 1986. 'Queries from a communicativelanguage teacher'. ELT Journal 40/2:107-12.Norrish, J. 1984. Review: The Other Tongue editedby B. Kachru. ELT Journal 39/2: 135-8.Phillipson, R. 1992. Linguistic Imperialism. Oxford:Oxford University Press.Prator, C. 1968. 'The British heresy in TESOL' in J.A. Fishman, C. A. Ferguson, and J. Das Gupta(eds.) Language Problems of Developing Nations.

New York: Wiley.Rampton, M. B. H. 1990. 'Displacing the "nativespeaker": expertise, affiliation, and inheritance'.ELT Journal 44/2:97-101.Sey, K. 1973. Ghanaian English. London:Macmillan.The reviewerJohn Norrish worked in Asia and Africa teaching atsecondary and university levels before returning tothe UK to work at the Institute of Education,University of London. He has since worked on manyteacher training projects in Europe and the ThirdWorld. He has also worked extensively with RSA/UCLES on a number of their teacher trainingschemes. He has published internationally in anumber of areas in ESOL.

A University Course in EnglishGrammarAngela Downing and Philip LockePrentice Hall International 1992 652pp 14.95ISBN 0 13 952490 8 (paperback)This volume provides the most thorough coverage ofEnglish grammar based on Michael Halliday's'systemic gram mar' model that you will findanywhere. For those who believe that this is the mostsuitable model available for language learners andteachers, this is a necessary book. It is certainly onethat is the fruit of long grammatical collection andrecollection by its authors.The book is divided into thirteen chapters. The firstgives an overview of basic grammatical concepts, onsystemic lines. These include Halliday's three 'meta-functions' of language (p. xithis should surely bereferred to as 'mega-functions') the ideational(which the authors usually label 'experiential'), theinterpersonal and the textualand the notions ofunits of structure (clause, group, word, morpheme)and the rank order of units. This overview isimportant as the basis for the treatment later of thegrammatical devices of embedding and recursivenesswithin units of structure. The emphasis is on the firsttwo units in the 'rank scale': the clause (whichreplaces the sentence as the highest range of unit insystemic grammar) and, next below it, the group.Chapters 2 to 7 focus upon clause structure. Chapter 2introduces basic syntactic categories, such as subject,predicator (the verbal component of a clause), object,complement, and adjuncts, disjuncts, and conjuncts.Chapter 3 covers verb-patterns w ith the various kindsand numbers of objects and com plements, Chapter 4the ideational 'mega-function', the clause asrepresentation, and the notion of transitivitystructures. Chapter 5 describes the interpersonal,particularly in terms of mood structures in the clause.Chapter 6 focuses on the clause as message and itsthematic structures (the textual function). Chapter 7deals with the 'clause com plex ', a term that Downingand Locke use to cover the traditional terms 'sim ple ','compound', and 'complex' sentence. Chapters 8 to13 concentrate on the structures of the various groups,i.e. nominal, verbal, adjectival, adverbial, andprepositional.Each chapter contains a num ber of modules, sixty inall, upon which the section numbering system isbased. Each module is headed by a generally veryhelpful summary of its contents. At the end of eachchapter there are sets of tasks for each module, and atthe end of the book, a key containing answers to manyof them.Downing and Locke set out four aims: to deepenstudents' knowledge of the language through

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'exploration and analysis'; to give students 'a globalvision of English'; to see grammar as a relation of'form to meaning and meaning to situation', and to'provide a basic terminology which . . . will enablestudents to make these relationships explicit' (p.xi).In this review I shall attempt to assess how far andwell their aims have been met.A key question about a grammar book is: what do youuse it for? As a reference booka kind of problem-solving device, analogous to the use of a dictionaryfor lexical questionsor as a practice book, a meansof improving accuracy in the use of the language?Many grammar books attempt to fulfil both functions,of course, and A University Course in EnglishGrammar is one such. The second function is metchiefly through the end-of-chapter tasks. These, as Isampled them, do indeed test your grammaticalability and sensibility. They are varied in format;many are designed for use by the individual learner,others for small group and teacher-with-class use. Iliked the way that a number are based on texts ratherthan isolated sentences. The use, in fact, of illustrativetexts, from contemporary sources, and across a rangeof spoken as well as written fields, is one of the bestfeatures of this grammar, and fulfils the third (andperhaps the second) aim very well.The most important and innovative contribution thatthe authors make to our range of English grammars isthe consistent way in which they make links betweenthe levels of traditional syntax and discourse:sentences, they make it clear, exist not as isolatedoccurrences but as connected sequences. They startfrom the basic concept that 'language is forcommunication' (p.2), and that 'although we startfrom the grammar rather than from the text, therelationship between the two is of primary interest.'(p. 17).Throughout the book they juxtapose the syntactic andsemantic dimensions of grammar. A typical exampleis the treatment of the prepositional group. Module 58deals with its syntactic, and Module 59 with itssemantic features. The most prolonged treatment ofthe syntactic/semantic interfaceI would say, in fact,pragmatic rather than semantic comes in Chapter 5.Its six modules explore the ways that the majorillocutionsassertions, interrogatives, exclamations,and imperativesare realized in syntax. However,here, and elsewhere in the book, Downing and Lockeare rightly careful to point out that there is no one-to-one relationship between syntactic form andsemantic/pragmatic function.Chapter 6 is one of the most innovative chapters, forthe detailed and useful attention it pays to theinterface between sentence-grammar and discourse.Its treatment of theme and rheme (Module 28) isthorough, although Downing and Locke have theirfair share of problems with the notion of topica

notoriously difficult concept in discourse. Theirdistinction between 'basic-level and subordinatetopics' (see section 28.2) does not adequatelydescribe the use of topic at the clausal level. InModule 29, however, their treatment of intonationfeatures, as part of their discussion of informationfocus, is most helpful.One of the most forbidding aspects of grammars, forall but the most dogged and dedicated grammarians,is the metalanguage they employ, the necessarytechnical terms of a grammar. In this respect, andconcerning the authors' aim of providing a basicterminology, this book may cause readers a number ofproblems since the metalanguage is demanding andplentiful, especially for those not familiar withHallidayan grammar. For example, the authors preferthe use of the systemic terms 'parataxis' and'hypotaxis' to the much more familiar 'co-ordination' and 'subordination' of sentences(clauses). Other rather forbidding terms are'synd etic' and 'asyn detic', referring to the two formsof co-ordination, as in 'bits and pieces' (syndetic) and'up, up, up went the balloon' (asyndetic). In Chapter 9(on tense , aspect, and modality in the verb group), wecome across 'intrinsic' and 'non-epistemic' and'extrins ic' and 'ep istem ic' modality. On page 430 wemeet 'metonyms', but this one is not included in theindex. To be fair, all the m etalanguage is explained indetail at some point in the book, although technicalterms are not always explained when they are firstintroduced. The term 'deictics ' appears first on page39, for example, but its definition (pointing to 'anentity as being near or not near the speaker in space ortime (this book, that reason)') does not come untilpage 409and it is not highlighted there. Theterminology, then, is thorough, and in being so , muchmore than 'basic'.In a work of grammar, the index is a more thanusually important feature. You are constantly using it,as a work of reference, to get to the section you need,or for cross-referencing once you are under way.Complete coverage of terms and ample cross-referencing are essential. A problem I found is thatthe first mention of a number of items is missing.Examples are deictic, deixis, dynamic/stative verbs(their first mentions on p.99 are not indexed) andperformative verbs (p.90, but indexed as p. 170). Themost noticeable omission concerns the entry 'thin g'.Most of Module 21 (pp. 147-52) is given to thistreatment of a key grammatical process,nominalization, and Downing and Locke'sinteresting notion of 'grammatical metaphor'. Theonly index entry, however, is for the passing mentionon p.315.In conclusion, A University Course in EnglishGrammar quite definitely achieves thefirst hree of itsaims. It allows for much exploration and analysis ofReviews 285

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the language, it gives a thorough and theoreticallycoherent (i.e. systemic) coverage of the grammar, andconsistently links form to meaning. The fourththeprovision of 'a basic terminology'is abundantly,perhaps over-abundantly, achieved.Regarding the two purposes of grammars m entionedearlier, A University Course in English Grammar ismost certainly a compendious reference source of thelanguage, and indeed, an excellent, practicalintroduction to Hallidayan grammar and analysis.How ever, as a grammar book to develop and practiceskills in accuracy, this would not be an automaticchoice. Other books serve that function moremanageably, notwithstanding the frequentlyexcellent and challenging tasks.So, in conclusion, who is this book for? In theirintroduction, Downing and Locke are quite explicit.Their book is aimed at students of EFL or ESL inhigher education, who they assume have 'anintermediate standard of knowledge and operationalability in the language' (p.xi). This assumption

embraces knowledge about the forms and'grammatical behaviour' of determinatives (p.436),about which prepositions go with which nouns(p.592), and a familiarity with the morphology ofEnglish adjectives (p.513). I would say that the bookis more suited for advanced learners thanintermediate, and especially suitable for those whohave a professional academic interest in the language.There is a great deal in A University Course inEnglish Grammar for the materials or textbookwriter, for the syllabus designer and, perhaps most ofall, for the university teacher of the 'intermediatestudent' Downing and Locke target at the beginningof their work.The reviewerMike Reynolds teaches applied linguistics andsociolinguistics at the University of Sheffield. Hebegan his teaching career in 1963, and has taughtEFL, ESP , and TEFL in Europe, South A merica, andthe Middle and Far East. His special interests aremanagement in ELT, curriculum development,testing and evaluation, and critical discourse analysis.

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