From Publishers WeeklyUnlike Lynne Truss, person responsible of the bestselling Eats, Shoots & Leaves, Australian linguist Burridge sees her role concerning expressions given that additional descriptive than prescriptive. But Truss’s fans may possibly furthermore get pleasure from dipping into this glimpse at the ever-morphing English language. Burridge’s essay advanced delight in a episodes of shortest pieces she wrote given that her down-under transistor show, also it’s a endearing usher to the complexities plus idiosyncrasies of the English language. The author’s own prose is graceful furthermore relaxed given that she explains why Eliza Doolittle stated “absobloominlutely” plus not “abbloominsolutely” in addition to how irregularities a terms “are ordinarily relics of ancient times regularity.” Brief sidebars focal point on detailed illustrations of her subject, such for the reason that the 12th-century advent of the pronoun “she” (which prevented English indulge in producing a gender-neutral third-person pronoun) in addition to the riddle of the disappearing l (think of “calm” as well as “walk”). Anyone spellbound by the vagaries of English will benefit from acquiring a stroll inside Burridge’s thriving linguistic garden.
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Review”Unique in the middle of books regarding the social aspects of the English terminology published inside this decade, this make effort combines an impressive aspect furthermore depth of studying also a regular unite also a readable style.” Library Journal
“Popular drugs of English usage abound. But this essay brings a clean angle to the subject comic strip an analogy between ‘weeds’ inside a garden as well as so-called errors of English usage. This metaphor is continued all the way through the textbook furthermore beyond doubt helps the reader find out that voluminous usages that we condemn since ‘weeds’ (e.g. ain’t or dual negatives) were at single instant slightly regular members of the linguistic ‘garden’.” Charles F. Meyer, University of Massachusetts
About the AuthorKate Burridge is Professor of Linguistics at Monash University. She is at any rate found out for the reason that her makes known on ABC Radio’s Soundback.
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Beginners Guide Gardening Conran Editions Photo
Beginners Guide Gardening Conran Editions Photo
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Beginners Guide Gardening Conran Editions Photo
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Most helpful customer reviews
13 of 14 people found the following review helpful.
 Delightfully addictive
By Bronny O
I had the pleasure of hearing Kate present many of her radio segments, which were always filled with intriguing snippets about the English language. Now she has made this information available to a wider public. Her writing style is very easy-going, and each chapter in the book can be dipped into individually. There were so many fascinating parts that it would be hard to single out my favourite, although the range of language used in St Valentine’s Day messages was eye-opening and hilarious, and the way letters appear and disappear through the centuries was fascinating. I was taught very correct grammar and it was very interesting to discover that many of these “golden rules” have no basis for their adoption and in fact in some cases are totally wrong.
A delightful book from beginning to end.
10 of 12 people found the following review helpful.
Good layman’s tour through linguistic territory
By J. Bragdon
Burridge writes about linguistically interesting phenomena, but in a style that a layman reader can grasp without much difficulty. She packs each page with copius examples that run the gamut of our fascinating English language. As a linguistics instructor, I intend to hang on to this one for the clarity of its style and substance of content. As an American English speaker I also find her Australianisms very interesting!
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful.
 Erudition lightly worn
By Simon G. Barrett
Not without its pleasures (once upon a time we could be kempt, corrigible, ert and wieldy, and full of ruth and list – and the singular of quince, chintz and bodice was quin, chint and body!) If Richard Lederer’s your wacky, over-the-toppo uncle (and he is, he is) she’s a companionable, and formidably erudite, auntie – but maybe one for the ‘loobry’ (as she puts it on p18), not the study.
As a sample of the erudition carelessly on display (p80) coney used to be pronunced like honey (or indeed bunny) – it changed when the word (spelt cunny) became a synonym for a female body part with an uncomfortable proximity to another such term. Cunny Island, anyone? It’s time we brought cock back instead of rooster, too – a fine upstanding vocable. Then there’s the archaic word for fart on p50 that I can’t find anywhere else (is it April 1?) and a French dialect term stuck improbably midway between gallus (cock) and cattus (cat) and meaning either, but she doesn’t tell us what it is! (Is all this going to get past the firewall, I wonder?)
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