accidentals and substantives

red-letter day

It was waiting for me on my desk chair this morning: the majestic Cambridge Grammar of the English Language--more than 1800 pages of technical detail teeming with examples and showcasing the omnifarious knowledge of its compilers, Rodney Huddleston and Geoffrey K. Pullum. I've been coveting the hefty tome for almost a year now, dropping frequent hints to Matt, so it really wasn't much of a surprise to find it finally in my possession today, my birthday, but it was a thrill. (Thank you, Matt!!)

I immediately tested the CGEL coverage by flipping to the entry for conditional constructions (e.g., if you don't eat your citrus fruits, then you'll surely develop scurvy), which didn't disappoint: it's easily the most exhaustive, authoritative reference treatment of the subject I've found to date, devoting nearly thirty pages--thirty pages!!--to if-then statements. I'm fascinated by these constructions for a number of reasons, not least for the role they play in programming languages.

My next stop on the CGEL tour of English grammar? The subjunctive mood.