Chinese: A Comprehensive Grammar (Routledge Grammars)

Rating:
Summary: Reads like a medical book
Review: I just received this book and gave up reading it after the first few pages. It's definately a reference book but seems to be a thorough reference book. There are many linguistic terms that the reader will also need a dictionary. This makes the book a bit hard to read. It's more for advanced students. I've been studying Chinese for a year and wanted something a bit easier to read without too much detail. I'm going to return this one and try Basic Chinese : A Grammar and Workbook by the same author.

Rating:
Summary: Way Too Expensive
Review: This book must be used in a college setting due to its price. It seems college books are automatically priced 50 to 75 percent more than non-college books. I ordered this book and had it returned due to the size/content vs price. This would be an excellent book for around 30.00.

I think the content is good but should have much more examples and explanations.

If the book was priced at around 30.00 and had more examples and explainations I could give it 5 stars.

For an alternative, I found A Reference Grammar of Chinese Sentences by Henry Hung-Yeh Yee to be a better selection for me.

Rating:
Summary: Chinese: A Comprehensive Grammar
Review: This is a very comprehensive book, with many well-explained examples. The book makes full use of simplified chinese characters (as used on the Chinese mainland), pinyin, and in some cases literal translations, as well as full english translations.

Key language concepts are well explained, and emphasis is placed on features which may pose an extra challenge to the learner of chinese as a foreign language.

This book treats the language from a fairly academic point of view. Thus it is excellent for those wishing to attain a deep understanding of the language, rather than to learn a few superficial phrases as is too often the case with travellers' phrase books.

However, this book 'is intended for readers who have some knowledge of the (chinese) language and are at ease with its written form'. This is certainly the case, as the book employs a wide range of complex vocabulary right from the outset. Thus, not for beginners.

Overall, an excellent reference book for those who already have at least a basic knowledge of chinese. Not recommended for beginners, but a separate book by the same authors entitled 'Basic Chinese' is a superb book for those new to chinese.