Bad English: A History of Linguistic Aggravation, by Ammon Shea
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Bad English: A History of Linguistic Aggravation, by Ammon Shea
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The author of Reading the OED presents an eye-opening look at language “mistakes” and how they came to be accepted as correct—or not. English is a glorious mess of a language, cobbled together from a wide variety of sources and syntaxes, and changing over time with popular usage. Many of the words and usages we embrace as standard and correct today were at first considered slang, impolite, or just plain wrong.Whether you consider yourself a stickler, a nitpicker, or a rule-breaker in the know, Bad English is sure to enlighten, enrage, and perhaps even inspire. Filled with historic and contemporary examples, the book chronicles the long and entertaining history of language mistakes, and features some of our most common words and phrases, including:DecimateHopefullyEnormityThat/whichEnervate/energizeBemuse/amuseLiterally/figurativelyAin’t IrregardlessSocialistOMGStupiderLively, surprising, funny, and delightfully readable, this is a book that will settle arguments among word lovers—and it’s sure to start a few, too.
Bad English: A History of Linguistic Aggravation, by Ammon Shea- Amazon Sales Rank: #639597 in Books
- Brand: Shea, Ammon
- Published on: 2015-06-02
- Released on: 2015-06-02
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 1
- Dimensions: 8.25" h x .69" w x 5.43" l, .53 pounds
- Binding: Paperback
- 272 pages
Review "Language is funny, and so is Ammon Shea. His excellent new book tours our irrational prejudices about language, showing that an appreciation for the quirks and ironies of language history can put our understanding on a firmer basis and restore our sense of humor."—David Skinner, author of The Story of Ain't"On the playground of language, there is no more mischievous laddie than Ammon Shea. I plan to use his new book to split the lip of the next insufferable language prig who saunters into my office to accuse me of bad English." —Roy Peter Clark, author of The Glamour of Grammar and How to Write Short“In Bad English, Ammon Shea wastes no time challenging widely held beliefs about just what English is bad. His subtitle, “A History of Linguistic Aggravation,” gets in an opening jab at sticklers like me, who know that “irritate” means annoy while “aggravate” means “make worse.” Shea, having read the OED to write Reading the OED, is well qualified to tell us we probably don’t know as much as we think we do.”—Washington PostPraise for Reading the OED:"Oddly inspiring...Shea has walked the wildwood of our gnarled, ancient speech and returned singing incomprehensible sounds in a language that turns out to be our own."—Nicholson Baker, New York Times Book Review"Delicious...a lively lexicon."—O, The Oprah Magazine"Readworthy."—William Safire, The New York Times Magazine“Shea, an avid collector of words, displays an assortment for our pleasure as he wends his way through the alphabet.”—The Boston Globe
About the Author Ammon Shea is the author of Reading the OED: One Man, One Year, 21,730 Pages along with Depraved English, Insulting English, and The Phone Book. A dictionary collector, he has worked as a consulting editor of American dictionaries at Oxford University Press. He has also contributed to the "On Language" column in Sunday's New York Times and has reviewed language books for the New York Times Book Review. He lives in Brooklyn, New York.
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24 of 24 people found the following review helpful. A fun debunking of "proper" speech By John E. Mack There are two schools of thought among lexicographers and grammarians -- prescriptivists and descriptivists. The prescriptivists think that their profession includes guidance on speaking and writing "proper" English. The descriptivists believe that their job is just to describe how English is actually used. Most lexicographers and grammarians are a little bit of both. Shea tilts very much toward the descriptivist end of the spectrum -- I can only think of one place where he finds a usage to be improper. Along the way, he debunks prescriptivist claims about the improper or unhistorical nature of many words and word usages, such as "ain't," "compact," dangling prepositions, split infinitives, inappropriate apostrophes, etc. His researches into word history are learned and extraordinary, and effectively demolishe claims that certain disfavored usages are new or unattested in good authors. Furthermore, the book is a fun read. He uses humor to demonstrate that staid and proper grammarians do not know what they are talking about. His central thesis seems to be that there is no one such thing as "good English."One could wish for a little more reflection from Shea, however. Like anything which evolves over time, language changes because more useful locutions drive out older, less useful ones. How does this happen, and why? Linguist evolution requires two things -- a certain degree of stability of usage, or people could not understand each other at all, and a certain degree of change, or language could not adapt to new conditions. It seems to me that Shea underplays the role of the former. Language serves many functions, but surely the most important of them is intelligibility. Change words and usage too fast and people cannot understand each other: indeed, one of the tactics used by "in groups" is to modify language in ways sufficiently radically that they cannot be understood by the general public. How much "incorrect" usage -- i.e. linguistic change -- can a language tolerate before it becomes another language? Why does language change? Is there an overall pattern to linguistic change, or are its changes purely arbitrary? Shea touches on such questions, but does so lightly and in passing. It would be beneficial if he would write another, more philosophical, book that address these deeper questions. Still, a very good book and an excellent introduction to issues confronting language and its usages.
31 of 36 people found the following review helpful. The language books usually are not too interesting, while going through this one you’ll have a great time By Helpful Advice The books that teach language usually are not too interesting, to put it politely, instead of saying boring or tiresome. ‘Bad English’ by Ammon Shea certainly does not fall into this category, although out of it reader will learn a lot, but equally important – have a great time.This is the first book I read from this author (didn’t read his ‘Reading the OED’) and as not native speaker, using Shea book I managed to learn a lot about many “mistakes” in English I didn’t knew earlier, which now became more or less accepted as correct.On the book pages author tries to give a background on history of English language, describing the ways how the language slowly developed, using numerous sources and constantly changing through the long times of its usage.Reading it, it is possible to learn about many modern and common English words these days that you would never say that they were treated as a misspelling or considered indecent, but due to the author style who provided his story in an interesting way, offering numerous examples, these three hundred pages will fly.Therefore all recommendations to this funny but also educational work with which certainly will not be bored.
17 of 19 people found the following review helpful. Why is it we English speakers can't seem to nail down exactly what good grammar is? By Sharon Isch In his latest language book, Ammon Shea, the author of "Reading the OED: One Man, One Year, 21,730 Pages," looks into the "history of linguistic aggravation." Take, for example, the confusing history of the apostrophe and the seven ways we can use it... the pros and cons of splitting infinitives... a history of "ain't" and the many ways "like" is used and abused. There's also a chapter on words that are not words, like "stupider," "irregardless" and "preventative." And sins of grammar--for example, turning a noun like "impact" into a verb or "fun" into an adjective. So why, unlike with other languages, doesn't there exist a regulating body to "guard English against the pernicious efforts of foreigners, poets and teenagers, all of whom seek to render it impure?" Shea tackles that question, too.The author ends his book with a quiz: Of 14 quotations he lists, he challenges us to pick which are by Shakespeare and which come from the disparate world of hip-hop/rap. Sounds easy? Don't be so sure.There's also a list of 221 words now in common use that were once frowned upon, along with who said so and why. Among them: awful, balding, bogus, bus, coincidence, date, debut, donate, fine, fun, funny, happening, healthy, hectic, hopeful, hurry, ice cream, invite, lovely, nice, rotten, sick, thanks, vest, upcoming, zoom.A good read. Useful, too.
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