Australian Literature: Postcolonialism, Racism, Transnationalism (Oxford Studies in Postcolonial Literatures)

from vpfluke

This book is a history of usage of the English language. As standard English more or less coalesced about 400-500 years ago, many people became obsessed with what "proper" English should sound and look like. It's the linguistic battle between prescriptivists and descriptivists. Crystal likes to s...

from SamTekoa

A very enjoyable book on the history and cultural issues that have brought us to our current usage of English today. He argues a bit too strongly to separate himself from the prescriptive barons of the English language. Yet at the end of the book we find that he too needs some prescriptive rules ...

from cjrecordvt

Inspired by another popular text, Crystal argues strongly for the descriptivist approach to language education and appreciation, especially in the bizarrenesses that are Modern English variants.

from Katya0133

A must for any descriptivist who's constantly fighting battles against language prescriptivism.

from LynnB

Having read, and enjoyed, Eats Shoots and Leaves, I just had to read this one. The subtitle hooked me: "How language pundits ate, shot, and left". David Crystal argues against a "zero tolerance" approach to punctuation changes and other evolutions in the English language. Language has evolved for...