Garner's Modern English UsageBryan Garner is the most trusted living usage expert of our day, and Garner's Modern English Usage is the preeminent guide to the effective use of the English language. With well over 6,000 entries on English grammar, syntax, word choice, punctuation, capitalization, spelling, and style, this book is adored by professional writers and general readers alike. In this major update to a timeless classic, Bryan Garner has dramatically expanded coverage of international English usage, making the volume for the first time a guide not only to American English usage, but to English usage around the globe. Interest in the English language is greater than ever; English is the lingua franca not only of higher education and academia, but of science, business, computing, aviation, and even - arguably - entertainment. An awareness of global English matters today as never before. To ensure that Bryan Garner's clear, unambiguous advice resonates with English-speakers worldwide, more than 2,000 entries have been revised to account for the nuances of English not only in the United States, but in Australia and New Zealand, the United Kingdom, Canada, and South Africa. Not everything has changed: readers will still find the popular "Garner's Language-Change Index" which registers where each disputed usage in modern English falls on a five-stage continuum from non-acceptability (to the language community as a whole) to acceptability, giving the book a consistent standard throughout. Bryan Garner's tools for scientific accuracy are, however, fully updated: this fourth edition benefits from usage data generated by Google Ngrams, which charts frequencies of any word or short sentence in sources printed after 1800. With thousands of concise entries, longer essays on problematic areas such as subject-verb agreement and danglers, and meticulous citations of the New York Times, Newsweek, and other leading journalistic sources, this fourth edition of Garner's Modern English Usage provides priceless reference information to anyone hoping to improve as a writer - worldwide. |
Contents
Preface to the Fourth Edition | ix |
Preface to the First Edition | xiii |
Acknowledgments | xix |
List of Essay Entries | xxi |
List of Abbreviations | xxvii |
Pronunciation Guide | xxix |
Key to the LanguageChange Index | xxxi |
Making Peace in the Language Wars | xxxiii |
L | 547 |
M | 573 |
N | 612 |
O | 642 |
P | 667 |
Q | 756 |
R | 764 |
S | 803 |
The Ongoing Tumult in English Usage | xlvii |
A | 1 |
B | 89 |
C | 136 |
D | 240 |
E | 313 |
F | 373 |
G | 420 |
H | 445 |
I | 478 |
J | 535 |
K | 542 |
T | 887 |
U | 925 |
V | 938 |
W | 951 |
X | 977 |
Y | 978 |
Z | 982 |
Glossary of Grammatical Rhetorical and Other LanguageRelated Terms | 985 |
A Timeline of Books on Usage | 1037 |
| 1049 | |
| 1053 | |
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Common terms and phrases
19th century adjective adverb Advocate Baton Rouge AmE and BrE American appears avoid BACK-FORMATION become better Boston Globe called Chicago Trib common connotations contexts COUNT NOUNS court Current ratio Daily Dallas Morning David denotes dialectal dictionaries error especially example fact frequently front matter full key Fully accepted H.W. Fowler Herald hyphenated idiom John July June l-li language LANGUAGE-CHANGE INDEX Latin less linguistic mass noun means ment modern NEEDLESS VARIANT Newsday Newsday N.Y. ngrams occasionally Orlando Sentinel past participle person PHRASAL PHRASAL VERBS phrase plural Post Post-Gaz predominant preposition print sources pronounced pronunciation readers REDUNDANCY reference Rejected sense sentence Sept singular someone speech spelled-not Sports Stage 1 Current standard spelling Star style suffix syllable term thing tion tive Today traditionally Ubiquitous usage usually Wash Widely shunned Widespread word writers xxxi