Grammatical Complexity in Academic English uses corpus-based analyses to challenge a number of dominant stereotypes and assumptions within linguistics. Biber and Gray tackle the nature of grammatical complexity, demonstrating that embedded phrasal structures are as important as embedded dependent clauses. The authors also overturn ingrained assumptions about linguistic change, showing that grammatical change occurs in writing as well as speech. This work establishes that academic writing is structurally compressed (rather than elaborated); that it is often not explicit in the expression of meaning; and that scientific academic writing has been the locus of some of the most important grammatical changes in English over the past 200 years (rather than being conservative and resistant to change). Supported throughout with textual evidence, this work is essential reading for discourse analysts, sociolinguists, and applied linguists, as well as descriptive linguists and historical linguists.

Using corpus-based analyses, the book challenges widely held beliefs about grammatical complexity, academic writing, and linguistic change in written English.

About the Author
Douglas Biber is Regents' Professor of Applied Linguistics in the English Department at Northern Arizona University. Bethany Gray is Assistant Professor of English (Applied Linguistics and Technology) at Iowa State University.

Reviews
'This book is most useful for linguists or academic scholars interested in language change, textual features (especially as those features intersect with communicative or social functions), and/or corpus-based research.' Jessie Sams, Linguist List



Book Information
ISBN 9781107009264
Author Douglas Biber
Format Hardback
Page Count 292
Imprint Cambridge University Press
Publisher Cambridge University Press
Weight(grams) 570g
Dimensions(mm) 234mm * 157mm * 21mm