Presenting the linguistic basis for courses and projects on translation, contrastive linguistics, stylistics, reading and discourse studies, this book illustrates grammatical usage through authentic texts from a range of sources, both spoken and written. This new edition has been thoroughly rewritten and redesigned to include many new texts and examples of language in use. Key features include: - chapters divided into modules of class-length materials - a wide variety of authentic texts and transcriptions to illustrate points of grammar and to contextualise structure - clear chapter and module summaries enabling efficient class preparation and student revision - exercises and topics for individual study - answer key for analytical exercises - comprehensive index - select biography - suggestions for further reading - a companion website. This up-to-date descriptive grammar is a complete course for first degree and postgraduate students of English, and is particularly suited for those whose native language is not English.