The Fight for English: How Language Pundits Ate, Shot, and Left"Angst over the apostrophe and hysteria over hyphens: the English language has become a combat zone. Why are people so passionate about language? How has the fighting over English usage come about?" "David Crystal charts the clashes from Anglo-Saxon times via the language of Shakespeare and Samuel Johnson to our own time of texting and the greengrocer's apostrophe. While others have fought to impose their views on spelling and grammar, David Crystal - as ever scholarly yet entertaining - explains why we should say no to zero tolerance."--BOOK JACKET. |
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Common terms and phrases
accents and dialects ambiguous apostrophe apostrophe marks asked called Caxton Chapter Chesterfield clarity Cockney colloquial comma context correct course criticism Curriculum David Crystal decades Dictionary Dryden early educated eighteenth century English grammar English language English spelling English usage example express French George Puttenham happened historic present John Humphrys Johnson later Latin learned letter Lindley Murray linguistic listeners London Lynne Truss meaning Middle English modern National never pedants Plain English Campaign polite preposition prescriptive grammar prescriptive grammarians printers problem programme pronounced pronunciation punctuation marks radio regional accents rules schools Scouse sense sentence Shakespeare Shoots and Leaves sixteenth century social society speak speakers speech spelling reform split infinitives standard English standard language talking teachers teaching tell thing tion variation vocabulary voice vowel words worry writing written zero tolerance
References to this book
Language Anxiety: Conflict and Change in the History of English Tim William Machan Limited preview - 2009 |