This book is a selected distillation of linguistic scholarship which describes from both a historical (diachronic) and a contemporary (synchronic) viewpoint that conglomerate set of dialects and idiolects called English. The emphasis is on contemporary American English. But foreign language examples are also given in an attempt to demonstrate the universality of some of the linguistic descriptions and to show some features which many modern languages have in common. Besides introducing the reader to certain basic principles of language study, this book is designed to give a quick overview of the history of our language and a short resume of the history of grammar. Chapters include: "The Nature of Language,""The English Language; Yesterday,""Grammar Study; Then and Now,""English Grammar Today; A Transformation-Generative Approach,""English Phonology Today; A Feature Approach,""Dialectal Variations in Today's English,""Usage and Lexicography; Yesterday and Today," and "Implications for Teachers." A table of special symbols and an index conclude the book. (RB)