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Title: Merriam-Webster's Dictionary of English Usage by Merriam-Webster ISBN: 0-87779-132-5 Publisher: Merriam-Webster, Inc. Pub. Date: 01 November, 1994 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $27.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.6 (20 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Informative and entertaining
Comment: If you want a useful, well-researched guide to the way English is actually used by real creative writers, past and present, buy this book. If you want to be entertained while reading about English grammar (not easily done!), buy this book. If you prefer to blindly follow rigid rules which, rather than reflecting the way the language is actually used, reflect the way some 18th or 19th century usage writers thought it ought to be used, maybe this isn't for you (though I still think you should read it, maybe you'll learn something).
Don't be misled into thinking that this book is simply applying an "everything goes" philosophy. On the contrary, the editors clearly explain and illustrate the way words and phrases are commonly used by writers in Britain and America, and advise you to avoid what is not commonly accepted. They also cite numerous usage writers, whether they agree with them or not (though they quote one writer as saying that if usage writers read more, they would argue less -- an observation that could also apply to some of the reviewers on this page...). They also make clear distinctions between what is acceptable in formal and informal writing. Many of the things that they "permit" (read the entry on permissiveness, by the way) they still recommend be avoided in formal writing.
I don't think that the rules this book skewers represent "the accumulated wisdom of thousands of writers." More accurately, they represent the thinking of a few conservative usage writers (and there's a big difference between usage writers and creative writers -- who would you rather read, Bishop Loweth or Shakespeare?), given added weight by the herd mentality of many generations of grammar teachers. To give one example, grammarians like to insist that "each other" should refer to two people and "one another" should refer to three or more, but as the examples in this book show, it just ain't (fingernails on chalkboard, anyone?) so.
As for "Where's it at?", unfortunately I don't have my copy of the book with me and I don't remember what they had to say about it. I have the pocket version (handy, but lacking the examples and the entertaining discussions), which simply points out that it has been part of American speech for a century (which doesn't imply that it should be used in formal writing). Yes, the dictionary definition of "where" is indeed "in or at what place" but if you go around blindly substituting the dictionary defintion for every word I'm sure you'll discover a lot more seemingly redundant phrases.
This book dicusses the usage history of various words and phrases and gives you examples of how great (and not-so-great) writers throughout history have used them. It gives you clear guidelines rather than setting down rigid rules for you to follow. And if you're obsessed with rules, then maybe you should consider law instead of writing.
Rating: 5
Summary: The Only Guide to Grammar and Usage That's Worth a Damn
Comment: Peruse the bookstore sections on Grammar and Usage, and you'll see there has never been a lack of experts who want to tell you how to write. But the problem with just about every one of these books is that their explanations of grammatical phenomenona are misleading: they're not researched at all. In fact, they're not so much based on English as real writers actually use it, so much as they're based on how the writer fancies everyone ought to use it.
But "Merriam Webster's Dictionary of English Usage" is the only guide to grammar and usage I've found that's worth a damn. Along with Joseph Williams's "Style: Ten Lessons in Clarity and Grace", this is the only book in the genre that I would recommend. Too many books in this genre have little to say that hasn't already been said a thousand times, and they're just too hyper-focused on mistakes, a focus which has a way of inculcating a sort of paranoia amongst writers who follow the one-size-fits-all dictums too rigidly. Imagine the way a runner might tip-toe through a minefield. That's the kind of writing these other books bread.
"English usage today is a discourse", this book begins, and that key observation is central to its approach. This observation might seem obvious to some, but almost every other grammar book (Strunk and White's "The Elements of Style" and Diana Hacker's "Rules for Writers", for instance) is written in a bubble outside of this discourse, and they read like theirs is first, and the definitive treatise on correctitude in English. This is the grammar book tradition, which sadly has changed very little in the past 300 years (See Haussamen's "Revising the Rules" for discussion). "Merriam Webster's" diverges from the grammar book tradition by stepping back and summarizing the history of the discourse in a way that puts modern quibbles in a perspective that's sorely missing. It turns out that most contemporary controversies are nothing new; they date back decades, if not centuries. The authors cite liberally from language commentators and armchair grammarians, often in ways that make the "experts" sound clownish. For instance, the authors note how commentators have been wrongly predicting the deaths of the subjunctive and of "whom" for over a century.
This is not a book for those who want over-simplified pronouncements of what's "right" and what's "wrong". Correctness is not a binary, it's a polarity. But "Merriam Webster's" never falls into the correct/incorrect trap, because the authors are grounded in the systematic study of language. How refreshing! The truth is that the writers of most grammar books are not linguists-they're just writers. And that means that they're out of their ballpark when they try to explain the maddening complexities of the English language.
Whereas other grammar books like to fabricate example sentences to fit their prescriptions, "Merriam Webster's" bases all its claims on real-life usage. 20,000+ illustrative citations show how respected writers actually use English. What's most interesting is that for every tsk-tsk rule of writing that your seventh grade English teacher might have taught you, this book provides ample examples of writers that follow them, and writers that flout them. Thanks to the authors' diligent research, we can see that Shakespeare would have failed a quiz on how we are traditionally taught to use "who" and "whom".
An alphabetical listing of 2,300+ entries covers just about every sticking point in the English language that any language-watcher has ever commented on. I've read dozens of grammar and usage guides (which never agree on what should be listed) and "Merriam Webster's" covers every single controversy I've heard, plus many I never imagined existed. Even seemingly uncontroversial words like "claim" and "gap" have made it into this book. More complicated usages-such as the choice of objective or nominative pronoun-are broken into separate sub-issues. The discussions are scholarly and objective. They steer clear of those imperatives and directives that are part of the grammar book tradition, and instead allow you to draw your own informed conclusions.
Rating: 5
Summary: Nothing else even comes close...
Comment: If you are involved with the English language in any sort of responsible or professional way, you need this book. It is entertaining, informative, and spot on. An additional fun feature is that it apparently put a number of self-appointed amateur "language mavens" out of business, including the ones who suddenly decided that the word "hopefully" was an offense that needed to be punished by hanging. Unfortunately, it turns out that many English sentences begin with "general adverbs." (There's one, right there.)
It also has an excellent overview of the hoo-ha surrounding the word "data" -- an English word where many self-taught amateurs stand ready to pounce, with the almost completely irrelevant fact that "data" is (in the Latin language) the plural form of "datum." None of these amateurs will know that there is an actual English word "datum" -- used by land surveyors -- which has a plural, "datums" believe it or not.
But the great thing about this book is that it gives you ALL the information you need to make an informed decision. I decided that "data" was to be used just as we use "information" -- it's a mass noun, like "snow" or "air" or "justice." Mass nouns take the singular verb, have no plural, and are used with "much" -- not "many." But you may go right ahead and declare that it is a plural, and type such odd-sounding sentences as "Not many data are present." After all, the ultimate arbiter will not be you, it will be your editor! :-)
Highest possible recommendation!
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Title: Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, 11th Edition by Merriam-Webster ISBN: 0877798095 Publisher: Merriam-Webster, Inc. Pub. Date: July, 2003 List Price(USD): $26.95 |
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Title: The Chicago Manual of Style, 15th Edition by University of Chicago Press Staff ISBN: 0226104036 Publisher: University of Chicago Press (Trd) Pub. Date: 01 August, 2003 List Price(USD): $55.00 |
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Title: Merriam Webster's Dictionary of Synonyms: A Dictionary of Discriminated Synonyms With Antonyms and Analogous and Contrasted Words by Merriam-Webster Staff, Merriam-Webster, Philip B. Gove ISBN: 0877793417 Publisher: Merriam-Webster, Inc. Pub. Date: June, 1984 List Price(USD): $22.95 |
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Title: Garner's Modern American Usage by Bryan A. Garner ISBN: 0195161912 Publisher: Oxford University Press Pub. Date: October, 2003 List Price(USD): $39.95 |
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Title: The Oxford Dictionary of American Usage and Style by Bryan A. Garner ISBN: 0195135083 Publisher: Getty Ctr for Education in the Arts Pub. Date: January, 2000 List Price(USD): $17.95 |
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