Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)We study the initial value problem for the generalized Boussinesq equation and prove existence of local and global solutions with singular initial data in weak-L(P) spaces. Our class of initial data for global existence is larger than that of Cho and Ozawa (2007) [7]. Long time behavior results are obtained and a scattering theory is proved in that framework. With more structure, we show Sobolev H(1) and Lorentz-type L((p,q)) regularity properties for the obtained solutions. The approach employed is unified for all dimensions n >= 1. (C) 2010 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.250523722388Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)