Synopses & Reviews
Weve all been taught that this sentence--"Driving in from the airport, the flags flapped furiously"--is wrong, wrong, wrong. But is it, asks David Crystal. Everyone knows what this sentence means. No one actually thinks that the flags were driving the car. Is this sentence really incorrect.
In The Fight for English, Crystal offers a stimulating account of the struggle between various schools of grammar to control how we write and speak. Ranging back a thousand years, to the anguished concerns of Aelfric the Grammarian, and illuminating the contributions of Samuel Johnson, Noah Webster, and many others, the book sheds light on ten centuries of warfare over spelling, punctuation, pronunciation, and much more. The author takes to task such take-no-prisoners grammarians as the well-known Lynn Truss (whose Eats, Shoots, and Leaves was a giant bestseller), arguing that we should say no to zero-tolerance prescriptive rules. Indeed, as one of the world's leading authorities on the English language, Crystal offers an original and authoritative counter-argument to the prescriptive agenda. He shows for instance that context is very important, that the dangling participle "driving in from the airport" is not wrong because the context makes the meaning clear. Moreover, even the hope for a standard system of spelling is in vain, since approximately 25 per cent of the words in a standard dictionary have more than one spelling (such as dark room and dark-room and darkroom).
Hailed in The New York Times Book Review as "fascinating and insightful, often funny," The Fight for English is a welcome breath of fresh air in the often stultifying debate over English usage.
Review
"Manages to be genial and irascible at the same time...Crystal is fascinating and insightful, often funny." Patricia T. O'Conner, New York Times Book Review
Review
"Manages to be genial and irascible at the same time...Crystal is fascinating and insightful, often funny."--Patricia T. O'Conner, New York Times Book Review
"This volume is an excellent introductory essay on the development of the English language through the ages and on the rise of the prescriptivist movement, which is still very much alive. For both readers who consider themselves prescriptivists and those who consider themselves permissivists, this book will provide a quick lesson on why neither extreme makes sense, either historically or functionally. Crystal looks ahead to a more balanced view of English as an evolving and rich tool for communication."--Technical Communication
"This engaging book encourages one to make appropriateness rather than correctness the cornerstone of usage--and along the way offers fascinating bits of linguistic history. It belongs on the shelf next to [Lynne] Truss's book....Essential. All readers; all levels."--CHOICE
Synopsis
Tells the story of the battles surrounding English usage. This book combines a chronological survey of key influences in the area of usage with discussion of particular themes such as punctuation, spelling, and pronunciation.
Synopsis
- The story of a thousand years of argument about 'correct' English
- A world-renowned expert's personal view on the controversy
- How much do apostrophes and split infinitives matter?
- From the world's No. 1 language publisher
- Why we should say no to 'zero tolerance' in language
Lynne Truss's Eats, Shoots and Leaves injected new life into the long-standing arguments over rights and wrongs in English usage. Now David Crystal brings together his own distinctive style and unique expertise to provide the first thorough-going assessment of the ongoing debate.
With a lively, humorous, and accessible approach, Crystal charts the battles past and present, illustrating the characters and attitudes involved from a wide range of written sources. He combines a chronological survey of key influences in the area of usage with discussion of particular themes such as punctuation, spelling, and pronunciation. And he looks ahead to the future in the context of recent education policy shifts.
A positive and compelling case is made for variation in usage of English based on appropriateness of situation, arguing that 'zero tolerance' in relation to language is a profoundly flawed approach. Crystal offers an original and authoritative counter-argument to the prescriptivist agenda that has been expounded in many accounts of English usage over the years.
The Fight for English is the book that everyone concerned with English usage has been eagerly awaiting.
Synopsis
The story of battles--both past and present--surrounding English language usage,
The Fight for English explores why millions of people feel linguistically inferior. Unhappy with the "zero tolerance" approach to punctuation offered by Lynn Truss's
Eats, Shoots, and Leaves, David Crystal offers a view of the subject that is much more balanced. Instead of answering the claims made by other manuals of English usage, Crystal provides an explanation and analysis of the genre as a whole.
Crystal weaves an intricate and engaging account that traces the history of the English language and its development over time. From Anglo-Saxon to Modern English, Crystal addresses why the same language issues that were bothering people 250 years ago are still bothering people today. This is the story of the fight for English usage--the story of the people who tried to shape the language in their own image, but failed generation after generation. In short, they ate, shot, and left.
The Fight for English brings language to life on the page with a witty and engaging writing style. Broadening the perspective on the English language, this compellingly informative book has something for everyone interested in the topic. Move over Harry Potter. Here comes punctuation.
About the Author
David Crystal is the foremost writer and lecturer on the English language, with a world-wide reputation and over 100 books to his name. He is Honorary Professor of Linguistics at the University of Wales, Bangor, and has been awarded an OBE for services to the English Language.