Watch your language! : mother tongue and her wayward children /
Most language mavens seem to come not to praise English, but to bury it; they constantly warn us of the imminent demise of our mother tongue. Not to worry, says Robert Gorrell. In this lively, playful celebration of the joys and power of language, he points to all the signs that show English to be a...
| Основен автор: | Gorrell, Robert M. |
|---|---|
| Формат: | Електронна книга |
| Език: | English |
| Публикувано: |
Reno, Nev. :
University of Nevada Press,
℗♭1994.
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| Предмети: | |
| Онлайн достъп: |
http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&scope=site&db=nlebk&AN=28133 |
| Подобни документи: |
Print version::
Watch your language!. |
Съдържание:
- 1. Language and Society; Society and Language. Turning Black to White: Public Doublespeak. Jew's Harp and French Horn: Language and Racism. Fighting Words and Flaming Flags. Desexing the Language. Mind-Softening: Lying and the Teflon Effect. 51 Percent Truthful
- 2. Words and Their Ancestors: Family Trees. Folk Etymology and Punch and Judy. Birds and Animals. Names into Words. Family Trees with Straight Branches. Portmanteau Words. Etymologists at Play
- 3. Growing Pains: Dealing with Linguistic Changes. Semantic Change. New Kids on the Block. Workaholic and Suffixaholism. Autoantonyms. Conflicting Compounds. Positives and Negatives. Semantic Change and Reading Shakespeare. Draining Meaning: Making Words Empty. Words that Don't Change. Put Up, Put Out, Put In, Put Off, Put Over
- 4. The Ordinary Sentence: Grammar and Meaning. Square Pegs and Round Holes: Meaning and Grammar. Two Plus Two Equals Four, Not Five. Equations with Modifiers. Varying the Pattern. Modifiers: Dangling.
- Modifiers: Misplaced and Squinting. Writing as a Balancing Act. Coordination and Parallel Form. Comparisons: Ears Like a Rabbit
- 5. Embalming Problems: Preserving Vestigial Remains. Saving Whom. Whom-Happiness. Whose for Things. An Ending that Doesn't Know Its Place. Verb Forms: The Past Becoming Present. Verbs that Can't Make Up Their Minds. Take Your Choice. Dialect Variations. Keeping Lie Alive. Pitfalls and Complications. Sitting Bull, Setting Sun, Rising Star, Raising Cain. Ghosts that Walk; Making Verbs Agree. How Many Is or Are a Committee? More than One Subject. Data, Media, None
- 6. Bishop Lowth to Miss Groby: Dealing with Rules. The Victory Over Ain't. Latin Grammar in the Van: Final Prepositions. Grandpa's Beard and Split Infinitives. Bad Algebra and the Double Negative. Rules and Possessives. The Ecclesiastical Shall and Related Rules. How Not to Start a Sentence. Leaky Rules and Useful Distinctions
- 7. Elegant English for You and I: Overcorrection. U and Non-U. How Do You Say It?
- Being Careful with Me and Him. How Does the Dog Smell? Fancy and Phony. Fancy Fillers and Pretentious Padding: Cereal in the Hamburger. Bondoony. Jammies and Other Cozzies
- 8. The Writing System: Conventions. How Do You Spell Fish? Spelling Reform. Silent Letter E. The Sounds of K and S. Compounds. Homonyms. Demons. Borrowed Plurals. Articles: A, An, The. Punctuating for Confusion: Errant Commas, Including Inverted Ones. Restrictive and Nonrestrictive. Ornamental Quotation Marks. Save the Semicolon. Conventions and Politeness. What Do You Call a Preacher?
- 9. Fun with Language. Metaphor: Happy as a Bear. Word Games. Highbrow Games. Playing with Sound. Glorified Cliches and Twisted Idioms. A Low Species of Wit and Shaggy Dogs. Language Traps for the Unwary. Punditry and Puntification. Swifties and Merriwells. Palindromes. Oxymorons, Some Moronic. Taking Words in Vain. Giggles of Geese and A Pure of Meadowlarks.