Can you recommend good textbooks for learning the technical aspects of the English language?

Strunk & White’s Elements Of Style.

Everyone who reads this, please give papaya a Great Answer. This is exactly what I was looking for, and it seems very highly recommended on Amazon.

Thank you again @papayalily.

@squirbel No problem. It’s sorta the… gold standard, the rule of thumb, the unofficially official manual of the English language (especially in academia). If it doesn’t answer all your questions, shoot me a pm and I’ll give you all the other books I like.

Actually there is controversy among linguists over the authority of Strunk & White. Some writers and copy editors denounce it as an execrable menace to the language. Google around. See here for instance.

@gasman It’s not incorrect – it is sometimes dated. But there are huge debates over things like passive/active voice anyway. But that’s a level of nuance you debate when you have a grasp on the subject at hand.

You can find Strunk & White online, for free.

You might want to begin by looking at what is available through some of the better online writing sites that have been developed by college writing centers for their students, such as the Purdue Online Writing Laboratory.

If you want a definitive reference book that is focused specifically on traditional grammar, rather than style, rhetoric, or general linguistics, you might invest in a copy of Oxford English Grammar. At the other extreme, you could just get one of those study guides they sell in college bookstores—the ones that are printed on a single 8.5“x11” plastic card.

If you want more than just grammar, and something more portable than OEG, there are a number of handbooks that are designed to be used in college composition classes. These typically offer some variant of Strunk & White’s style recommendations, but also go into more detail on grammar, and may include basic concepts of rhetoric and logic, advice on research methods for term papers, and a summary of citation formats. The Harbrace Handbook is one that has been around for decades and has gone through several editions.

If you want to look at language the way a linguist does, which is not necessarily the way an English teacher looks at it, I’d recommend Language Files, by the OSU Dept. of Linguistics. This is a good introduction to general linguistics.

Please don’t read Strunk & White – it’s full of inaccuracies and bad advice.
I reccomend A Student’s guide to English Grammar by Huddleston and Pullum.

Plus, the question was for a linguistics book that dealt with English grammar in detail. Elements of Style is not that book – it’s a style guide for writing essays.

You can find the whole English grammar with clear, short and perfect explanations online, here: EnglishClub.com. And much more other stuff.Check it!

Ah… I was not looking for style guides :(

I was really looking for linguistics oriented material dealing with English grammar in detail.

Thanks morphail, I’ll take a look. Sad I bought the book already :(

@squirbel I got the title wrong – it’s A student’s introduction to English grammar

or if you’re rich: The Cambridge Grammar of the English Language

If you’re looking for something from an ESL perspective, I’ve heard The Grammar Book: An ESL/EFL Teacher’s Course by Celce-Murcia and Larsen-Freeman is good.

I received Elements of Style yesterday, it was not at all what I was looking for.

To be specific about what I’m looking for – it is a book that goes through all of the nuances of the English language, explaining all of the parts and pieces of the language. ie, What subjects, verbs, particles, adjectives, etc are; sentence structure, the different ways the language works together.

Not ESL, sorry.

Edit: I took a look at the Google book you linked, morphail! THAT’S what I was looking for! Thanks, I’ll be reading a lot tonight :) Thank God for Google Books ^.^

Awww… limited view :(