How long did The Cambridge Grammar of the English Language take to write?
Rodney Huddleston conceived the idea shortly after writing his review of Quirk, Greenbaum, Leech, and Svartvik for Language (the review was published in 1988). By 1990-91 he was actively engaged in planning the book. He obtained a number of substantial grants from the Australian Research Council and began assembling a team of advisors. By 1995, by which time Huddleston had drafted several chapters, Geoff Pullum joined the project. Most of the book’s twenty chapters were completed in their present form between 1996 and the end of 2000. The manuscript was delivered to the press in January 2001. Copy editing, proofreading, indexing, and the production of the first printing took about 15 months after that.
