Better Ways With Verbs

Abstract

John Platt, Professor of Linguistics at Monash University, is well-known for his work on the English of Malaysia and Singapore (EMS) as well as new Englishes in general (e.g. Platt & Weber, 1980; Platt et al., 1984). This new book is, however, a departure from his previous publications as it is a more pedagogically oriented handbook for teachers and learners of English, rather than more theoretically oriented research for academics.

The book is divided into 49 chapters, each only two or three pages long. Each deals with a specific problem concerning verbs, which is introduced by means of a short dialogue. Each problem is then elaborated on by examining the EMS version(s) and standard English version(s), in terms not only of correctness but also of the difference in semantic interpretation of different versions. As one would expect of a sociolinguist of Platt's stature, there is discussion of variants between standard British, American and Australian English.