This book has a very specific purpose. Between the First certificate and Proficiency Examinations, students have to build up a far greater knowledge of idiomatic English and they have to learn to eliminate grammatical and stylistic mistakes. This involves a systematic revision of all the most important aspects of grammar and construction, and this book is designed to help in this task

Except for the correction of a few typographical errors, this version of my thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of  Philosophy on 31 March, 1988 is materially identical to the copies deposited with the  Faculty of Arts and the Department of Linguistics at the University of Sydney. However, in order to make this web version more readable on a screen, some of the fonts have been changed, as well as other small changes made to the appearance of some tables and figures. These changes have resulted in changes to the pagination of the original thesis.

Guenter A Plum

June 2004

 

 

Dictionary of Multiple Sclerosis includes over 600 fully referenced terms and definitions from clinical neurology, genetics, molecular biology, biochemistry, immunology, pathology, pathogenesis, epidemiology, radiology, and clinical trial methodology. This is not a textbook but rather a desktop resource that provides convenient definitions to each term, supported by key references. With an ever-increasing amount of information available from a wide variety of sources, often presented in jargon that can be convoluted, confusing, and difficult to understand, this book is a welcome addition to the literature. It is an invaluable reference tool for clinicians and paraclinical personnel, as well as those personally affected by MS.

This work is full of things better left unsaid: hackneyed phrases, idioms battered into senselessness, infuriating Gallicisms, once-familiar quotations and tags from the ancient classics. It makes a formidable list, amplified as it is with definitions, sources, and indications of the cliches, venerability in every case.