Looking for a good grammar

I love languages and conlangs and have been tinkering
with them for over 50 years.

BUT

I have no formal training in linguistics, and aside
from what little I learned, and promptly forgot about
grammar in high school and when I learned Latin and
German, I really know nothing about it.

I realized the depth of my ignorance when I tried to
name the tenses of some verbs.

SO...

Request number one:  What's a good general book on
grammar that would be comprehsensible to the
non-specialist.  But I don't want a book on how to
write better, but one about the theory or study of
grammar in general.

When I look up "grammar" on Amazon I get things like
the 1001 most common writing errors, and how to write
better science fiction, and blah, blah. blah.

Somebody please give me a title or two?

Thanks.

And...

Which of these are the same tenses and which are
different ways of expressing the same tense, and what
tenses are they anyway?

I am stubborn and I run.
I am being stubborn and I am running.
I will be stobborn and I will run.
I was stubborn and I ran.
I was being stubborn and I was running.
I had been stubborn and I had run.
I should have been stobborn and I should have run.
I have been stubborn and I have been running.
I will have been stubborn for ...
I would have been stubborn but ...
I will be being stubborn and I will be running.
I will have been being stubborn and I will have been
running for ...
...

I came up with about 30 of these, and I sure can't
remember 30 different names for the tenses, and I'm
sure some of them even have names.

--gary

Replies