I second Brock's votes for the Crystal encyclopedias. I actually use the
 one about English as one of the texts in my History of the Language class.

I must tout again Randolph Quirk et al's various grammars of
English--the giant 'A comprehensive grammar of the English language' and
shorter 'a grammar of contemporary English'. While these certainly can
be called grammar scholarship, there is a great deal of information
about vagaries of usage in different discourse contexts,
British/American differences, etc. I consider them great reference works
about the language. It is possible to sample them at greater or lesser
levels of detail.

Another book I would recommend (not a reference book but a good
introduction to linguistics) is Steven Pinker's 'The Language Instinct'.
Though he rather one-sidedly pushes the transformational agenda, it is
also a great resource for scientific information about language. The
reader just needs to take his innateness and modularity claims with a
grain of salt, and realize that there are competing theories.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Johanna Rubba   Assistant Professor, Linguistics
English Department, California Polytechnic State University
One Grand Avenue  • San Luis Obispo, CA 93407
Tel. (805)-756-2184  •  Fax: (805)-756-6374 • Dept. Phone.  756-259
• E-mail: [log in to unmask] •  Home page: http://www.cla.calpoly.edu/~jrubba
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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