Collin Cobuild English Grammar

1 COLLINS COBUILD COLLINS Birmingham University International Language Database ENGLISH GRAMMAR COLLINS PUBLISHERS THE UNIVERSITY OF BIRMINGHAM COLLINS London and Glasgow Collins ELT 8 Grafton Street London W1X 3LA COBUILD is a trademark of William Collins Sons & Co Ltd ©William Collins Sons & Co Ltd 1990 First published 1990 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Alt rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission in writing of the Publisher. ISBN 0 00 370257 X Paperback ISBN 0 00 375025 6 Cased Printed and bound in Great Britain by Richard Clay Ltd, Bungay, Suffolk NOTE Entered words that we have reason to believe constitute trademarks have been designated as such. However, neither the presence nor absence of such designation should be lrAfyed as affecting the legal status of any trademark. Contents Contents 2 Editorial team 7 Introduction 8 Note on Examples 12 Guide to the Use of the Grammar 13 Glossary of grammatical terms 15 Cobuild Grammar Chart 23 Contents of Chapter 1 24 1 Referring to people and things 29 Introduction to the noun group 29 Identifying people and things: nouns 31 Things which can be counted: count nouns 31 Things not usually counted: uncount nouns 33 When there is only one of something: singular nouns 35 Referring to more than one thing: plural nouns 37 Referring to groups: collective nouns 39 Referring to people and things by name: proper nouns 40 Nouns which are rarely used alone 41 Sharing the same quality: adjectives as headwords 42 Nouns referring to males or females 43 Referring to activities and processes: '-ing' nouns 44 Specifying more exactly: compound nouns 45 Referring to people and things without naming them: pronouns 47 Referring to people and things: personal pronouns 47 Mentioning possession: possessive pronouns 50 Referring back to the subject: reflexive pronouns 50 Referring to a particular person or thing: demonstrative pronouns 52 2 Referring to people and things in a general way: indefinite pronouns 52 Showing that two people do the same thing: reciprocal pronouns 54 Joining clauses together: relative pronouns 55 Asking questions: interrogative pronouns 56 Other pronouns 56 Identifying what you are talking about: determiners 57 The specific way: using 'the' 58 The specific way: using 'this', 'that', 'these', and 'those' 61 The specific way: using possessive determiners 62 The general way 64 The general way: using 'a' and 'an' 65 The general way: other determiners 66 Contents of Chapter 2 70 2 Giving information about people and things 75 Introduction 75 Describing things: adjectives 75 Information focusing: adjective structures 77 Identifying qualities: qualitative adjectives 77 Identifying the class that something belongs to: classifying adjectives 78 Identifying colours: colour adjectives 79 Showing strong feelings: emphasizing adjectives 80 Making the reference more precise: postdeterminers 80 Special classes of adjectives 81 Position of adjectives in noun groups 83 Special forms: '-ing' adjectives 85 Special forms: '-ed' adjectives 87 Compound adjectives 89 Comparing things: comparatives 91 Comparing things: superlatives 92 Other ways of comparing things: saying that things are similar 94 Indicating different amounts of a quality: submodifiers 96 Indicating the degree of difference: submodifiers in comparison 100 Modifying using nouns: noun modifiers 102 Indicating possession or association: possessive structures 103 Indicating close connection: apostrophe s ('s) 104 Other structures with apostrophe s ('s) 104 Talking about quantities and amounts 105 Talking about amounts of things: quantifiers 105 Talking about amounts of things: partitives 108 Referring to an exact number of things: numbers 111 Referring to the number of things: cardinal numbers 112 Referring to things in a sequence: ordinal numbers 114 Referring to an exact part of something: fractions 115 Talking about measurements 117 Talking about age 118 Approximate amounts and measurements 119 Expanding the noun group: qualifiers 121 Nouns with prepositional phrases 121 Nouns with adjectives 124 Nouns with non-finite clauses 125 Contents of Chapter 3 126 3 Making a message 131 Indicating how many participants are involved: transitivity 131 Talking about events which involve only the subject: intransitive verbs 133 Involving someone or something other than the subject: transitive verbs 135 Verbs where the object refers back to the subject: reflexive verbs 138 Verbs with little meaning: delexical verbs 138 Verbs which can be used in both intransitive and transitive clauses 142 Verbs which can take an object or a prepositional phrase 144 3 Changing your focus by changing the subject: ergative verbs 145 Verbs which involve people doing the same thing to each other: reciprocal verbs 146 Verbs which can have two objects: ditransitive verbs 147 Extending or changing the meaning of a verb: phrasal verbs 149 Verbs which consist of two words: compound verbs 156 Describing and identifying things: complementation 157 Describing things: adjectives as complements of link verbs 158 Saying that one thing is another thing: noun groups as complements of link verbs 159 Commenting: 'to'-infinitive clauses after complements 160 Describing as well as talking about an action: other verbs with complements 161 Describing the object of a verb: object complements 162 Describing something in other ways: adjuncts instead of complements 164 Indicating what role something has or how it is perceived: the preposition 'as' 165 Talking about closely linked actions: using two verbs together in phase 165 Talking about two actions done by the same person: phase verbs together 166 Talking about two actions done by different people: phase verbs separated by an object 168 Contents of Chapter 4 171 4 Varying the message 176 Statements, questions, orders, and suggestions 176 Making statements: the declarative mood 177 Asking questions: the interrogative mood 177 'Yes/no'-questions 178 'Wh'-questions 179 Telling someone to do something: the imperative mood 182 Other uses of moods 183 Negation 184 Forming negative statements 184 Forming negative statements: negative affixes 189 Forming negative statements: broad negatives 190 Emphasizing the negative aspect of a statement 191 Using modals 192 The main uses of modals 192 Special features of modals 193 Referring to time 194 Indicating possibility 195 Indicating ability 195 Indicating likelihood 196 Indicating permission 198 Indicating unacceptability 199 Interacting with other people 199 Giving instructions and making requests 200 Making an offer or an invitation 201 Making suggestions 202 Stating an intention 203 Indicating unwillingness or refusal 203 Expressing a wish 204 Indicating importance 205 Introducing what you are going to say 205 Expressions used instead of modals 206 Semi-modals 208 Contents of Chapter 5 210 5 Expressing time 215 Introduction 215 The present 216 The present in general: the simple present 216 Accent on the present: the present continuous 217 Emphasizing time in the present: using adjuncts 217 The past 218 4 Stating a definite time in the past: the simple past 218 Accent on the past: the past continuous 219 The past in relation to the present: the present perfect 219 Events before a particular time in the past: the past perfect 219 Emphasizing time in the past: using adjuncts 220 The future 221 Indicating the future using 'will' 222 Other ways of indicating the future 222 Adjuncts with future tenses 223 Other uses of tenses 223 Vivid narrative 223 Firm plans for the future 223 Forward planning from a time in the past 223 Timing by adjuncts 224 Emphasizing the unexpected: continuing, stopping, or not happening 225 Time expressions and prepositional phrases 227 Specific times 227 Non-specific times 230 Subordinate time clauses 231 Extended uses of time expressions 232 Frequency and duration 232 Adjuncts of frequency 232 Adjuncts of duration 235 Indicating the whole of a period 237 Indicating the start or end of a period 238 Duration expressions as modifiers 239 Contents of Chapter 6 239 6 Expressing manner and place 244 Introduction to adjuncts 244 Position of adjuncts 245 Giving information about manner: adverbs 247 Adverb forms and meanings related to adjectives 248 Comparative and superlative adverbs 250 Adverbs of manner 251 Adverbs of degree 252 Giving information about place: prepositions 254 Position of prepositional phrases 255 Indicating position 256 Indicating direction 258 Prepositional phrases as qualifiers 259 Other ways of giving information about place 259 Destinations and directions 261 Noun groups referring to place: place names 263 Other uses of prepositional phrases 263 Prepositions used with verbs 264 Prepositional phrases after nouns and adjectives 265 Extended meanings of prepositions 265 Contents of Chapter 7 266 7 Reporting what people say or think .271 Indicating that you are reporting: reporting verbs 272 Reporting someone's actual words: quote structures 273 Reporting in your own words: report structures 275 Reporting statements and thoughts 276 Reporting questions 277 Reporting orders, requests, advice, and intentions 278 Time reference in report structures 280 Making your reference appropriate 282 Using reporting verbs for politeness 283 Avoiding mention of the person speaking or thinking 283 5 Referring to the speaker and hearer 284 Other ways of indicating what is said 286 Other ways of using reported clauses 287 Contents of Chapter 8 289 8 Combining messages 294 Adverbial clauses 295 Time clauses 296 Conditional clauses 299 Purpose clauses 302 Reason clauses 303 Result clauses 304 Concessive clauses 305 Place clauses 306 Clauses of manner 307 Relative clauses 308 Using relative pronouns in defining clauses 309 Using relative pronouns in non-defining clauses 309 Using relative pronouns with prepositions 310 Using 'whose' 310 Using other relative pronouns 311 Additional points about non-defining relative clauses 311 Nominal relative clauses 312 Non-finite clauses 313 Using non-defining clauses 313 Using defining clauses 314 Other structures used like non-finite clauses 314 Coordination 315 Linking clauses 315 Linking verbs 317 Linking noun groups 318 Linking adjectives and adverbs 319 Linking other word groups 320 Emphasizing coordinating conjunctions 320 Linking more than two clauses or word groups 321 Contents of Chapter 9 322 9 Making texts .327 Referring back 327 Referring back in a specific way 328 Referring back in a general way 329 Substituting for something already mentioned: using 'so' and 'not' 331 Comparing with something already mentioned 332 Referring forward 334 Leaving out words: ellipsis 335 Ellipsis in conversation 336 Contents of Chapter 10 338 10 The structure of information .343 Introduction 343 Focusing on the thing affected: the passive voice 344 Selecting focus: cleft sentences 347 Taking the focus off the subject: using impersonal 'it' 349 Describing a place or situation 349 Talking about the weather and the time 350 Commenting on an action, activity, or experience 350 Commenting on a fact that you are about to mention 351 Introducing something new: 'there' as subject 352 Focusing on clauses or clause elements using adjuncts 353 Commenting on your statement: sentence adjuncts 353 Indicating your attitude to what you are saying 354 Stating your field of reference 356 6 Showing connections: linking adjuncts 357 Indicating a change in a conversation 358 Emphasizing 359 Indicating the most relevant thing: focusing adverbs 360 Other information structures 361 Putting something first: fronting 361 Introducing your statement: prefacing structures 362 Doing by saying: performative verbs 362 Exclamations 363 Making a statement into a question: question tags 364 Addressing people: vocatives 365 Contents of the Reference Section .366 Reference Section 371 Pronunciation guide 371 Forming plurals of count nouns 372 Forming comparative and superlative adjectives 373 The spelling and pronunciation of possessives 375 Numbers 376 Cardinal numbers 376 Ordinal numbers 377 Fractions and percentages 378 Verb forms and the formation of verb groups 378 Finite verb groups and the formation of tenses 384 Non-finite verb groups: infinitives and participles 388 Forming adverbs 390 Forming comparative and superlative adverbs 391 Index 392 Editorial team Editor-in-Chief John Sinclair Managing Editor Gwyneth Fox Editors Stephen Bullon Ramesh Krishnamurthy Elizabeth Manning John Todd Assistant Editors Mona Baker Jane Bradbury Richard Fay Deborah Yuill Senior researcher Rosamund Moon Computer Officer Tim Lane Clerical Staff Sue Smith Jane Winn Consultants Gottfried Graustein M.A.K. Halliday Collins Publishers Annette Capel, Lorna Heaslip, Douglas Williamson Many other people have been involved with the project at both research and editing stages. Patrick Hanks, who was the Editorial Director of Cobuild throughout the project, made a valuable contribution both in policy and in detail. Dominic Bree, Jane Cullen, and Clare Ramsey worked as researchers in the early stages, and Ron Hardie helped from the beginning until quite late in the editing process. David Brazil gave us great help and encouragement during the early editing of the book. Without his support, this would have been a more difficult task. Helen Liebeck and Christina Rammell were influential in the early stages of editing. Michael Hoey and Charles Owen, members of the Department of English, University of Birmingham, and PhD and MA students in the department, in particular Richard Francis, Agnes Molnar, Iria Garcia, Ramiro Restrepo, Christopher Royal-Dawson, and Bob Walter, worked on and read drafts of the text. 7 The publishers and editorial team would also like to thank the following people who read and commented on the text John Curtin: Brazil; Henri Bejoint, John Hall, Sue Inkster, and Anne Pradeilles: France; Georgina Pearce and Herman Wekker: Germany; Marcel Lemmens: Holland; Nicholas Brownloes, Tony Buckby, Anthony Harvey, and Georgina Pert: Italy; Roger Hunt, Andy Kennedy, Christopher Pratt, and Tony Sanchez: Spain; Mary Snell-Hornby: Switzerland; Katy Shaw and Tom Stableford: UK; Adriana Bolivar: Venezuela. Teachers from many countries participated in workshops where material from the Grammar was presented. We are grateful to all of them for taking part in these workshops, especially those organized by the British Council, Singapore, the British Council, Paris, the Britannia School, Rio de Janeiro, the ENPULJ Conference, Natal, Brazil, and the JALT Conference, Okayama, Japan. Introduction This grammar is for anyone who is interested in the English language and how it works. Many people will come to this book because they are learning English and trying to master the structure of the language. As soon as they have enough practical English to master the text, they will find this grammar helpful to them although it has been written primarily for students of advanced level. The information the book contains, however, will also engage the attention of a different sort of student—those who make a study of English because they are simply interested in language and languages. They include teachers, examiners, syllabus planners and materials writers. The grammar has several unique features which will give them very useful information. The information in this book is taken from a long and careful study of present-day English. Many millions of words from speech and writing have been gathered together in a computer and analyzed, partly by the computer and partly by a team of expert compilers. It is the first grammar of its kind, and it is deferent in many respects from other kinds of grammar. This grammar attempts to make accurate statements about English, as seen in the huge Birmingham Collection of English Texts. The main patterns of English are picked out and described, and the typical words and phrases found in each pattern are listed. This is what a grammar ought to do, but only very recently has it been possible. For a long time there has been a credibility gap between a grammar and the language that it is supposed to describe. Many of the rules seem too abstract to apply to actual examples. There is no room to show how the strong structural patterns can be varied and developed to allow users great freedom of expression. A Grammar of Functions People who study and use a language are mainly interested in how they can do things with the language—how they can make meanings, get attention to their problems and interests, influence their friends and colleagues and create a rich social life for themselves. They are only interested in the grammatical structure of the language as a means to getting things done. A grammar which puts together the patterns of the language and the things you can do with them is called a functional grammar. This is a functional grammar: each chapter is built around a major function of language, such as 'concept building', 'making up messages', and 'reporting what someone said'. Each of these functions is regularly expressed in English by one particular structure. For example, concept building is usually expressed structures built around a noun, called noun groups; messages are very often expressed in clauses; and reports typically involve a pair of clauses, with one of them containing a reporting verb such as 'say', and the other one beginning with 'that' or having quote marks (' ') round it. This grammar is based on these important correspondences between structure and function, which are set out in the Cobuild Grammar Chart on the following pages. The skeleton of English grammar is seen in this chart. However, there are many minor features of English that cannot appear on a simple summary chart. The grammar of a language is flexible, and with the passage of time there are changes in meaning and use of grammatical forms. For example, although it is true to say that the noun group is the structure we choose for the things we want to talk about, it is not the only one. Sometimes we want to talk about an event or an idea that is not easy to express in a noun group. Instead we can use a clause as the subject of another clause. All I want is a holiday. We can also use a clause as the object or complement of another clause. 8 That's what we've always longed for. By extending the basic grammar occasionally, speakers of English can express themselves more easily and spontaneously. The same kind of extension works in the other direction also: noun groups are not only used as subjects, objects and complements. They can function as adjuncts of time, for example, among a range of minor uses. He phoned back with the information the very next day. But there is a major area of English grammar based on prepositions (see Chapter 6), which allows noun groups to be used in all sorts of subsidiary functions in the clause. I went to a village school. This has been my home for ten years now. With a click, the door opened. So it can be seen that the structural patterns can have more than one function, and that different structures can have similar functions. This may sound confusing, and it can be confusing if the grammar is not carefully organized around the major structures and functions. This grammar follows up each major statement (often called 'rule' in other grammars) with a detailed description of the usages surrounding that statement—including 'exceptions'. Other ways of achieving the same sort of effect are then presented, with cross-references to the main structural patterns involved. Later in the chapter, the various extensions of use of a structure are set out, with cross-references to places where those functions are thoroughly treated. These extensions and additions to the functions of a structure are not just random. Usually they can be presented as ways of widening the scope of the original function. For example, the basic, central function of reporting verbs (Chapter 7) is to introduce what someone has said. He said he would be back soon. It can easily be extended to include what someone has written: His mother wrote that he had finally arrived home. Then it can be widened to include thoughts and feelings; these do not need to be expressed in words, but the report structure is very convenient. The boys thought he was dead. From this we can see the reporting clause as a more general way of introducing another clause. The reporting clause becomes a kind of preface, commenting on the other clause, which contains the main message. It is true that some children are late talkers. The subject of the reporting clause is the pronoun 'it', which refers forward to the 'that'-clause. The verb is now a link verb (Chapter 3) and not a special reporting verb. A Grammar of Examples All the examples are taken from texts, usually with no editing at all. It is now generally accepted that it is extremely difficult to invent examples which sound realistic, and which have all the features of natural examples. I am convinced that it is essential for a learner of English to learn from actual examples, examples that can be trusted because they have been used in real communication. From a Cobuild perspective, no argument is needed. At Cobuild there are file stores bulging with examples, and we do not need to invent any. By examining these real examples closely, we are gradually finding out some of the ways they differ from made-up examples. Until we know a lot more about naturalness in language we do not think it is safe to use invented examples. There is a special note developing this point, which can be found immediately after this Introduction. A Grammar of Classes The actual words and phrases that are regularly used in each structure are printed in the grammar in a series of lists. Instead of just a few illustrative examples, this grammar gives information about the grammar of a large number of words. The student can get a good idea of how large or small a grammatical class is, how many words a certain rule applies to. The teacher has the raw material for making up exercises that suit a particular group of students, and can point to general features of a grammatical class. Most of these lists, as far as we know, have never been available before. They are worth detailed investigation by student and teacher, because these lists provide the main link between the abstractions of grammar and the realities of texts. 9 In grammar lists of this kind are called 'classes'; a class is the grouping together of words and phrases which all behave in the same way. Hence this grammar is very much a grammar of classes because it features so many lists of words and phrases. The job of preparing the lists has been one of the most interesting and challenging problems in the preparation of this book. The computer does the first stage, and produces a fist by searching out all the words that fit a pattern it is given. For example, it might be asked to pick all the words that end in '-ing' and do not have a corresponding form without the '-ing'. The first list it produces includes such words as 'overweening', and 'pettifogging', which are not very common, and which in our view can be left to a later stage of language learning. Also found are 'blithering' and 'whopping', which have a special function and are treated in a separate paragraph 2.41. A few words fit the pattern well but are only found in very restricted combinations, or collocations. 'Piping' goes with 'voice', and 'gangling' goes with 'youth' or 'boy'. Since grammar mostly deals with generalities, we feel that it could be misleading to print them in fists which are intended to encourage composition. At present the computer has difficulties in detecting similarities and differences of meaning. But in the Cobuild database notes on meaning are made by the compilers, and the computer can also report back on this information. So, for example, it will know that in the case of 'fetching', there is a verb to 'fetch', but it does not have the same meaning. In most cases we omit a word like 'fetching' from our lists, to avoid confusion; otherwise the grammar would be full of special notes. If we put it in, we give an appropriate warning. In the summer of 1989 I worked with a large number of English teachers in Europe, South East Asia and South America, to find out their reactions to our lists and to have their suggestions for revising them and editing them. The clear message was that the lists, to be teachable, should be orderly and comprehensive. Problem cases, on the whole, should be omitted rather than explained in a grammar at this level: on the other hand words which an experienced teacher would expect to find in a list should be there, or there should be an explanation. The results of aft this careful editing can be found in the lists at, for example, 2.77, 2.78, and 2.79. Wherever we can see a good reason, we put the words and phrases in a list in a meaningful arrangement. This approach was suggested in the teachers' workshops, and on that basis, for example, we put verbs with a prefix (2.79) in a different list from other verbs (2.78) which behave in the same way. Another good example of this can be found at 1.21, where in a single list we put in separate groups animals, fish, words ending in '-craft', foreign words ending in '-s', and a miscellaneous list. These all share the same feature, namely that they can be either singular or plural nouns without any change of form—moose, salmon, aircraft, corps, crossroads. From a purely grammatical point of view they could all go in a single alphabetical list: however from a teaching and learning point of view it is helpful to have them further classified. A Grammar of Meanings Many English words have several meanings and uses. This is particularly true of the common words which make up most of our everyday language. Because of this it is difficult to make statements about the grammatical behaviour of a word, as this can vary according to its meaning. For example, in one meaning a verb may be transitive, and in another meaning intransitive. An instance of this is 'manage', which in its meaning of 'be responsible for controlling an organization, business, or system' is transitive, and in its meaning of 'be able to continue with a reasonable way of life, even though you do not have much money' is intransitive, usually followed by an adverbial phrase. Drouet returned to Ecuador to manage a travel agency. I don't know if I can manage much longer. Each meaning of a word may well have its own grammar, and it is unlikely that the statements about a word will cover all its meanings. However, the grammar would be very long and cumbersome if each statement had to indicate which meaning was being referred to. Throughout this grammar, therefore, the examples and the lists have been chosen so that the relevant meaning is the one that should first come to mind. Many users will need a little time to adjust to this; we have lived so long with the assumption that grammar is independent of lexical meaning that it will be surprising to many people to see that grammar and lexis are very closely related. Where the choice of one word in a structure is 10 [...]... examples they used to work with This book, along with the Cobuild Dictionaries and the Cobuild English Course, gives a first glimpse of what it is like to have access to real examples John Sinclair Editor-in-Chief Cobuild Professor of Modern English Language University of Birmingham Guide to the Use of the Grammar The Collins Cobuild English Grammar is designed to be used both for quick reference and... Introduction sets out the principles from which the grammar has been developed It explains the close relationship which exists between function and structure, which is the basis of this Grammar, and it explains the type of functional approach that is taken Cobuild Grammar Chart The Cobuild Grammar Chart sets out in schematic form the contents of the grammar It shows the progression from word to group... productive features, in this grammar we have only introduced the main and most obvious ones If we find that this approach is popular with teachers and learners, it may be possible gradually to shift the whole perspective away from grammar as a list of arbitrary problems, and towards grammar as a means of free expression We have tried to produce a grammar of real English the English that people speak and... of current English, including The Times newspaper I believe this to be a sound basis for a grammar, and I think that it is very important for learners and other users to examine and study only reel instances of a language This is particularly important when they are using the examples as models for their own usage Some great grammars of English for example Otto Jespersen's A Modern English Grammar support... you are using newly-learned English words correctly There is also a book of Cobuild Grammar Exercises, in which the lists are used as the basis of many exercises, for those students who want more practice in a particular area of grammar Additional contents In addition to the main text, there are various other sections which are included to help you to get the most out of this Grammar These additional... will be something like 'problem', 'point', or 'position'—nouns describing messages A Grammar for Access When using a grammar, it is often difficult to find the information that you want This is often the biggest single problem for users of grammars, and a good reason why grammars are often unpopular with students This grammar makes a special effort to support the user, and there are several interlocking... the user a safe place to experiment Other places in the grammar allow very little variation, and the learner must simply keep to the rules in these cases Many grammar books concentrate on these restrictive rules, and make grammar appear to be a dangerous area where the main job is to avoid mistakes 'You do this, and you don't do that.' In this grammar we concentrate on positive statements, and relate... explains the meaning of grammatical terms It features the terms that are systematically used in this grammar, and also includes terms that are used in other grammars, with a cross-reference to the term used in this book, where appropriate For example, this grammar talks about 'noun groups', whereas some other grammars call them 'noun phrases' or 'nominal groups' All three of these terms are mentioned in... chart feature the main concerns of each Chapter, as well as illustrating the overall progression through the Grammar 23 Contents of Chapter 1 page Contents 2 Editorial team 7 Introduction 8 Note on Examples 12 Guide to the Use of the Grammar 13 Glossary of grammatical terms 15 Cobuild Grammar Chart 23 Contents of Chapter 1 24 1 Referring to people and things 29 Introduction... readable and interesting A Grammar for Production The main purpose of this grammar is to help students to choose structures which accurately express the meanings they want to create Hence the book is largely organized around the functions or meanings In particular, we set out many 'productive features' to guide the student towards confidence in personal expression In some areas of grammar the rules are . 1 COLLINS COBUILD COLLINS Birmingham University International Language Database ENGLISH GRAMMAR COLLINS PUBLISHERS THE UNIVERSITY OF BIRMINGHAM COLLINS. Editor-in-Chief Cobuild Professor of Modern English Language University of Birmingham Guide to the Use of the Grammar The Collins Cobuild English Grammar is