Starred review from December 15, 2023
A leading specialist in communication romps through the debates around the proper, improper, and colorful use of language. Curzan, a professor of English language, literature, linguistics, and education, knows enough about the rules of language to make fun of them when appropriate (look no further than the word funner in the subtitle). She acknowledges that she, like many other people concerned with language, is constantly fighting a psychological battle. One side is the "grammando," who wants to correct the technical mistakes of others; the other is the "wordie," delighting in the ever evolving landscape of language. With this in mind, the author happily dives into a host of current issues, including the conversion of nouns to verbs, double negatives, gender-neutral titles, the difference between less and fewer, and when to take literally literally. Many of these issues are the subject of heated discussion within the lexicographic community, but that's nothing compared to the arguments over commas, colons and semicolons, and--Curzan's personal favorite--dashes. Linguistically speaking, it's a jungle out there. Along the way, the author looks at the best ways to use conjunctions to start a sentence and prepositions to end them, as well as the changing status of apostrophes. With interesting anecdotes and examples, she largely comes down on the "wordie" side, noting that strict adherence to the rules of grammar can often end in a clumsy mess. Better, she advises, to look for clear and fair-minded communication, with writing that is stylistically pleasing and honest. "And there are lots of ways to use language effectively, far beyond what we may have learned as 'right' and 'wrong' in school," she writes. It's a suitable conclusion to a book that is, in a word, fun. As a guide through the labyrinth of language, Curzan provides a road map that makes for an enjoyable, informative journey.
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Starred review from January 22, 2024
In this spirited treatise, Curzan (Fixing English), an English professor at the University of Michigan, argues that readers should embrace the flexibility of language. “Debates about language are almost always about more than language,” she writes, reflecting on how power and authority affect what’s considered proper usage. Curzan explains that standardized English isn’t inherently more correct than other forms (hisself, she explains, actually follows the grammatical pattern established by myself, yourself, and herself more closely than himself does), it’s just the iteration chosen by “speakers with social, political, and economic power” to be the one against which others are judged. Readers should accept the evolving meaning of such contested phrases as “more unique,” Curzan contends, positing that though the phrase dilutes the literal definition of unique, such shifts in meaning are common and unavoidable (the definition of decimate was initially “kill one in every ten”). Instead of striving to evaluate whether usage is “correct,” Curzan encourages considering whether a “word is working effectively in context.” For instance, she suggests that as literally becomes increasingly understood to also mean figuratively, readers should be careful to “avoid unnecessary ambiguity” in formal writing while recognizing that its conversational use as an intensifier usually does little to impede understanding. Chock-full of fascinating trivia and persuasively argued, this will give grammar sticklers pause. Agent: Gail Ross, Ross Yoon Agency.
February 1, 2024
Ever evolving, the English language confounds those who demand hard-and-fast rules for usage, grammar, and punctuation. Nevertheless, writers, editors, and publishers want to impose structure and uniformity on their output to ensure that readers clearly comprehend a text's intent. Curzan, a dean and professor of English at the University of Michigan, sums up what she's learned about how the written language works. As a linguist, Curzan favors descriptive over prescriptive; she is loath to judge one person's expression against another's. She offers up two categories of English language enthusiasts: Wordies, who are fascinated with words and how people use them, and Grammandos, who obsess over "correct" and "standard" usage. She delves into contemporary meanings of such words as like, literally, good/well, hopefully, and many more. She addresses the function and use of pronouns, looking for some structure in our current age of gender neutrality. Her observations on the history of capitalization, commas, and apostrophes will perhaps soothe anxieties of writers so often perplexed by their quandaries. But those demanding absolute regulations to follow may be flummoxed. Curzan lays forth her incomparable erudition with deft lightheartedness that will appeal to wordies at all levels.
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Starred review from February 1, 2024
This cheerful usage guide for the English language stresses context, style, consistency, and kindness over supposedly immutable rules. Making grammatical decisions is effectively presented as an inner conflict that pits a writer or speaker's personal "grammando" (grammar stickler) against their "wordie" (appreciator of linguistic flexibility and creativity). Curzan (English and linguistics, Univ. of Michigan; Fixing English) explores many points of grammatical confusion that give rise to such conflicts between grammando and wordie. She uses broad categories to first identify common grammatical conundrums such as punctuation, verb forms, word order, and pronouns. Within each category, she then examines specific examples in greater detail, such as when and how to use double negatives, why "funnest" could be a word, and why the passive voice is sometimes useful. Curzan humanizes her own grammatical decisions with stories from her life as a linguist. She also invokes the Usage Panel of the American Heritage Dictionary, which until 2018 voted annually on preferred usage, as a barometer of changes over time. VERDICT Highly recommended for all writers and speakers of English who want to understand why the language works the way it does.--Karen Bordonaro
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