Happy Birthday, Henry Fowler: inventor of that/which rule is 150 on Monday, March 10

[Wilson Gray]

Not only "=20", but also "=92" and =93."

-Wilson

On Sat, Mar 8, 2008 at 4:18 PM, Mark Mandel <thnidu at gmail.com> wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
>  Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>  Poster:       Mark Mandel <thnidu at GMAIL.COM>
>  Subject:      Re: Happy Birthday, Henry Fowler: inventor of that/which rule is
>
>               150 on Monday, March 10
>  -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>  BTW, am I the only one for whom most of the lines of this post, and many
>  others, end in "=20"? I presume it is some program's unhelpful indication of
>  an inserted line break after a space (ASCII x20).
>
>  m a m
>
>
>
>  On Sat, Mar 8, 2008 at 1:25 AM, Dennis Baron <debaron at uiuc.edu> wrote:
>
>  > There's a new post on the Web of Language --
>  >
>  > Happy Birthday, Henry Fowler: inventor of that/which rule is 150 on =20
>  > Monday, March 10
>  >
>  > March 10, 2008, is the 150th birthday of Henry Watson Fowler, high =20
>  > school Latin teacher, lexicographer, and author of the Dictionary of =20
>  > Modern English Usage (1926), the most important book on English usage =20=
>  >
>  > of the 20th century (sorry Strunk and White, you lose hands down).
>  >
>  > So here=92s my e-card to the man who single-handedly invented the =20
>  > difference between that and which and convinced thousands of copy =20
>  > editors that Druids had carved it on an ancient pillar at Stonehenge....
>  >
>  > (picture here -- you have to go onlline to see it)
>  >
>  > Actually, Fowler never hid the fact that he wasn=92t given the that/=20
>  > which rule on Mt. Sinai. Quite the opposite: he insisted that =93the =20
>  > relations between that, who, & which have come to us from our =20
>  > forefathers as an odd jumble, & plainly show that the language has =20
>  > not been neatly constructed by a master-builder=94 (Modern English =20
>  > Usage, 1926, that, s.v.; I=92m not going to recount Fowler=92s rule =
>  > here, =20
>  > because it=92s too complicated, requiring a discussion of restrictive =20=
>  >
>  > and nonrestrictive clauses that=92s not particularly entertaining).
>  >
>  > So Fowler decided to improve this jumble because, as he put it, =93the
>  > =20=
>  >
>  > temptation to show how better use might have been made of the =20
>  > material to hand is sometimes irresistible.=94....
>  > Read the rest at the Web of Language
>  >
>  >
>  >
>  > DB
>  >
>  >
>  > Dennis Baron
>  > Professor of English and Linguistics
>  > Department of English
>  > University of Illinois
>  > 608 S. Wright St.
>  > Urbana, IL 61801
>  >
>  > office: 217-244-0568
>  > fax: 217-333-4321
>  >
>  > www.uiuc.edu/goto/debaron
>
>
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
>  The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>



--
All say, "How hard it is that we have to die"---a strange complaint to
come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
-----
                                              -Sam'l Clemens

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org