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Loading... The Fight for English: How Language Pundits Ate, Shot, and Leftby David Crystal
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will love Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book. A must for any descriptivist who's constantly fighting battles against language prescriptivism. (  ) Katya0133 | Mar 2, 2009 |  This book is a history of usage of the English language. As standard English more or less coalesced about 400-500 years ago, many people became obsessed with what "proper" English should sound and look like. It's the linguistic battle between prescriptivists and descriptivists. Crystal likes to see local dialects be preserved and likes a wide latitude for English. This is pretty well-written, somewhat more oriented to the situation in Britain than perhaps in the rest of the world, although he acknowledges the richness of the English language beyond the North Sea area extensively. ( )3  vpfluke | Jul 26, 2008 | I enjoy David Crystal's writings on language very much and having read - and loved - Lynn Truss' Eats, Shoots and Leaves, to which this book is somewhat of a response, I was excited to read this. It is both a historical survey of the evolution of the idea of "correct" language - how there came to be such an idea - and a thematic survey of what the sticking points have been in defining "correct language". Crystal is more broad than Truss, focusing on more than just punctuation, which was nice. The strongest points of the book were the explanatory chapters. Crystal shows how the English language used to allow a much wider range of variation in spelling, grammar, punctuation, etc. than it has come to do. The weakest points are when Crystal goes on the attack against Truss and others espousing rigid ideas about language "correctness." These sections seem petty, irrelevant, and tacked on in an attempt to capitalize on the success of Truss' book. Fortunately, despite what the title may indicate, these episodes are fairly minor and are confined mostly to the latter part of the book. Overall, this book was acceptable to me. I did not find many new ideas in it but it reinforced concepts about language change that I had previously touched on in other readings. (  )1 fannyprice | Oct 8, 2007 | Having read, and enjoyed, Eats Shoots and Leaves, I just had to read this one. The subtitle hooked me: "How language pundits ate, shot, and left". David Crystal argues against a "zero tolerance" approach to punctuation changes and other evolutions in the English language. Language has evolved for centuries; the only languages that don't evolve are dead. Mr. Crystal chronicals some of the evolutions in usage, pronunciation, spelling and punctuation. He argues that the understanding of changes and of the appropriatness of different usages in different contexts is more important than learning strict rules of grammar. I agree...although I still get angry when I see a sign in a parking lot saying "small car's only"! (  )1 LynnB | Jul 6, 2007 |  no reviews | add a review
Amazon.com Product Description (ISBN 019920764X, Hardcover)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. (retrieved from Amazon Fri, 24 Apr 2009 07:58:16 -0400) The first test round has been closed. Visit the Open Shelves Classification group for details. |
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