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Carregando... The Lexicographer's Dilemma: The Evolution of 'Proper' English, from Shakespeare to South Parkde Jack Lynch
Books Read in 2013 (607) Carregando...
Registre-se no LibraryThing tpara descobrir se gostará deste livro. Ainda não há conversas na Discussão sobre este livro. ( ) If you like words, or grammar, or language, you will love this book. How did English end up as the English we speak today? Where did all the grammar rules come from (such as not ending a sentence with a preposition)? Who decided these rules? How do dictionaries affect grammar and the choice of words that one uses? Much of the book deals with the two types of grammarians – the prescriptivists and the descriptivists. One wants to set hard and fast rules to the language, the other wants to describe it. Grammatical rules are relatively new to English. In the 17th century, John Dryden was one of the first to prescribe what proper English is. The 18th century prescriptivists along with Dryden imposed Latin grammar rules on the English language. They are why we all have been taught to not split infinitives or end sentences with prepositions and when to use who vs. whom. English is not Latin so in reality these rules make no sense. Reading this book, I recognized myself as a prescriptivist, always correcting grammar and spelling and word usage. The misuse of words could drive me crazy. One in particular is the word “decimate”. He shows how meanings change with time and there is nothing that can be done to change that and “decimate” is an example that he gives. Guess I will have to learn to take deep breaths from now on when I hear or read it ‘misused’. And if you are still a prescriptivist and want some type of government group or edict to set proper English, remember that in 1975 Gerald Ford signed a bill to convert the US to the metric system. How has that worked? Esta resenha foi escrita no âmbito dos Primeiros Resenhistas do LibraryThing. I am absolutely not a professional writer, but I did find this to be a fascinating look at how the English language, and the rules regarding usage to be much more interesting than I would have suspected. Other reviewers have gone into great depth about the views presented here, but I do not have the temerity to follow in their footsteps as I am not a professional. I did thoroughly enjoy reading the book!
... an entertaining tour of the English language ... ... spends a good deal of time on the evolution of dictionaries ... ... throughout this very readable book he makes clear that he thinks the grammar scolds need to shut up, or at least tone it down ...
In its long history, the English language has had many lawmakers--those who have tried to regulate or otherwise organize the way we speak. The Lexicographer's Dilemma offers the first narrative history of these endeavors and shows clearly that what we now regard as the only "correct" way to speak emerged out of specific historical and social conditions over the course of centuries. As historian Jack Lynch has discovered, every rule has a human history and the characters peopling his narrativeare as interesting for their obsession as for their erudition: the sharp-tongued satirist Jonathan Swift, who called for a government-sponsored academy to issue rulings on the language; the polymath Samuel Johnson, who put dictionaries on a new footing; the eccentric Hebraist Robert Lowth, the first modern to understand the workings of biblical poetry; the crackpot linguist John Horne Tooke, whose bizarre theories continue to baffle scholars; the chemist and theologian Joseph Priestly, whose political radicalism prompted violent riots; the ever-crotchety Noah Webster, who worked to Americanize the English language; the long-bearded lexicographer James A. H. Murray, who devoted his life to a survey of the entire language in the Oxford English Dictionary; and the playwright George Bernard Shaw, who worked without success to make English spelling rational. Grammatical "rules" or "laws" are not like the law of gravity, or even laws against murder and theft--they're more like rules of etiquette, made by fallible people and subject to change. Witty, smart, full of passion for the world's language, The Lexicograher's Dilemma will entertain and educate in equal measure. Não foram encontradas descrições de bibliotecas. |
Revisores inicias do LibraryThingO livro de Jack Lynch, The Lexicographer's Dilemma, estava disponível em LibraryThing Early Reviewers. Current DiscussionsNenhum(a)Capas populares
Google Books — Carregando... GênerosClassificação decimal de Dewey (CDD)423.028Language English Dictionaries of standard EnglishClassificação da Biblioteca do Congresso dos E.U.A. (LCC)AvaliaçãoMédia:
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