| Edition |
1st U.S. ed. |
| Description |
viii, 326 p., [16] p. of plates : ill. ; 22 cm. |
| Bibliography |
Includes bibliographical references (p. 297-313) and index. |
| Contents |
Vulgarities of speech: homo sapiens learns to talk -- The age in which I live: John Dryden revises his works -- Proper words in proper places: Jonathan Swift demands an academy -- Enchaining syllables, lashing the wind: Samuel Johnson lays down the law -- The art of using words properly: Joseph Priestley seeks genuine and established principles -- The people in these states: Noah Webster Americanizes the language -- Words, words, words: James Murray surveys anglicity -- The taste and fancy of the speller: George Bernard Shaw rewrites the ABCs -- Direct, simple, brief, vigorous, and lucid: Henry Watson Fowler shows the way -- Sabotage in Springfield: Philip Gove Stokes the flames -- Expletive deleted: george carlin vexes the censors -- grammar, and nonsense, and learning: we look to the future. |
| Summary |
What does proper English mean, and who gets to say what's right? Lynch has discovered every rule of English usage has a human history, and makes sense only in a historical context. They're more like rules of etiquette, made by fallible people and subject to change. |
| Subject |
English language -- Lexicography.
|
|
English language -- History.
|
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English language -- Style.
|
|
English language -- Usage.
|
| ISBN |
9780802717009 |
|
0802717004 |
|
