Grammar, Usage, Standards: Passe?

[Amy West]

On 6/9/10 12:01 AM, Automatic digest processor wrote:
> Are there any other forums where my questions would be better asked?=A0 Any=
>   PRINT publications, for the layman?
> =A0
> Are there any=A0books that deal with this, and recent changes in the langua=
> ge?=A0 In, say, the last 5, 10 or 15 years?

For print sources for the layman:

_

_The Student's Introduction to English Grammar_ by Huddleston and Pullum
for a real descriptive grammar that discusses prescriptivist stuff as well.

_Merriam-Webster's Dictionary of English Usage_ which discusses
prescriptivist rules, examines what people actually do, looks at how
things have changed, and then gives you some wise advice.

Woe Is I_ by Patricia O'Conner or _The Origins of the Specious_ by
Patricia O'Conner and Stewart Kellerman. The first is middle-ground
handbook -- still doling out "it is done this way" guidelines, but
throwing out the more ridiculous prescriptivist dicta. The latter is
more on false etymologies, but one chapter is a redux of the ridiculous
prescriptivist dicta.

First chapters of _Word on the Street_ by John McWhorter, specifically
"Leave Your Language Alone: The 'Speech Error' Hoax."

_The Fight for English_ by David Crystal, written specifically in
response to the zero-tolerance attitude of such works as Eats, Shoots
and Leaves. It's a history of language punditry.

Similarly, the recent _The Lexicographer's Dilemma_ by Jack Lynch.

More academic: _Grammar and Good Taste_ by Dennis Baron for the politics
and ideology of prescriptivism, reform, and punditry

_Language Myths_ edited by Bauer and Trudgill -- mostly British English
focused but still relevant to American English issues.

Read The Word column in the Boston Globe by Jan Freeman and Erin McKean;
On Language by Ben Zimmer; listen to A Way with Words with Grant Barrett
(I listen to the podcast).

--
---Amy West

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