Hello all,

I have realized over the past few days that the way we use English
grammatical terms may color how we think about the grammatical usage of
pali words/compounds, as well as make it hard to see commonalities in
two different explanations of the grammatical workings of a particular
word in a sentence, etc. I am not looking to rewrite the English
language or its grammar, and so I would like to have an excellent
English grammar reference at my disposal so that I can more specifically
state, when dealing with a pali term in a particular phrase, what the
analogous grammatical usage of a word in English would be called.

For example, I would like to be able to read in depth what the
difference is between an "adjective," either predicative or attributive,
an "adjectival phrase," an "adjectival dependent clause," and a
"relative clause," which also seems to have an adjectival function,
etc. All of these are obviously not the same exact thing, though they
may have similarities. I think that understanding and using the specific
grammatical terms such as these, in relation to discussion of pali
grammar, would be a good idea to avoid confusion.

Anyway, for those of you who are well versed in English grammar, what
reference would you recommend? I found reviews of a couple of books
that seem good, if a bit pricey:

The classic:

*A Comprehensive Grammar of the English Language (Hardcover)*
by Randolph Quirk
<http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/search-handle-url/index=books&field-author-exact=Randolph%20Quirk&rank=-relevance%2C%2Bavailability%2C-daterank/104-6466460-9719921>,
Sidney Greenbaum
<http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/search-handle-url/index=books&field-author-exact=Sidney%20Greenbaum&rank=-relevance%2C%2Bavailability%2C-daterank/104-6466460-9719921>,
Geoffry Leech
<http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/search-handle-url/index=books&field-author-exact=Geoffry%20Leech&rank=-relevance%2C%2Bavailability%2C-daterank/104-6466460-9719921>,
Jan Svartvik
<http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/search-handle-url/index=books&field-author-exact=Jan%20Svartvik&rank=-relevance%2C%2Bavailability%2C-daterank/104-6466460-9719921>


and the more up-to-date:

*The Cambridge Grammar of the English Language (Hardcover)*
by Rodney D. Huddleston
<http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/search-handle-url/index=books&field-author-exact=Rodney%20D.%20Huddleston&rank=-relevance%2C%2Bavailability%2C-daterank/104-6466460-9719921>,
Geoffrey K. Pullum
<http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/search-handle-url/index=books&field-author-exact=Geoffrey%20K.%20Pullum&rank=-relevance%2C%2Bavailability%2C-daterank/104-6466460-9719921>



I am leaning towards the latter, but would appreciate any feedback from
those of you in the know.

With metta,

Alan