Perspectives on Grammar Writing

With over half the languages of the world currently in danger of extinction within a century, the need for high quality grammatical descriptions is more urgent than ever. Potential grammar writers, however, often find themselves paralyzed by the daunting task of describing a language. The papers in the present volume (originally published in Studies in Language 30:2 (2006)) provide suggestions and encouragement – from experienced grammar writers and users – regarding concrete methods for approaching the task of writing a descriptive grammar of a language. Salient "themes" emerging from the papers in this volume include: The necessity of community involvement in grammatical descriptions; The link between a grammar and the other products of a program of language documentation (a dictionary and collection of texts); The complementary functions of elicited vs. naturally occurring data; and grammatical description as 'art' as well as 'science'.

Harriet E. Manelis Klein, Stony Brook University, in Language 85(4): 944-947:
My conclusion from studying this book is that grammar writing (or a good grammar) must be both comprehensive and complete. A grammar must be written in a clear style and include many examples that are relevant and that have been carefully checked. The grammar should be readily accessible and appropriately presented, thereby enhancing the validity of the work and the author. These are also the basic concepts that all of the authors of this book address in differing but absolutely useful ways.