Accidence Will Happen

by Oliver Kamm

Overview

Are standards of English alright—or should that be all right? To knowingly split an infinitive or not to? And what about ending a sentence with a preposition, or for that matter beginning one with "and"?We learn language by instinct, but good English, the pedants tell us, requires rules. Yet, as Oliver Kamm cleverly demonstrates in this new book, many of the purists' prohibitions are bogus and can be cheerfully disregarded. Accidence Will Happen is an authoritative and deeply reassuring guide to grammar, style, and the linguistic conundrums we all face.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781681771892
Publisher:	Pegasus Books
Publication date:	07/05/2016
Sold by:	SIMON & SCHUSTER
Format:	eBook
Pages:	320
File size:	718 KB

About the Author

Oliver Kamm is a chief columnist for the London Times. As a self-confessed reformed pedant he is the newspaper's unofficial expert on language and style, a subject he tackles in his long-running immensely popular weekly column "The Pedant." He writes two weekly columns: "The Pedant," on language; and a "Notebook" on economics, international affairs, and culture. He is a regular columnist for the Jewish Chronicle, and his writings have also appeared in The Guardian, The New York Times, the New Republic, Foreign Policy, the New Statesman, and many other publications. He lives in England.

Table of Contents

Introduction viii

Author's Note xvii

Part 1

1 The State of the Language 3

2 The Errors of Pedantry 25

3 The Usage Debate 78

Part 2

Usage Conundrums from A to Z 105

Acknowledgements 279

Notes 281

Index 291

Editorial Reviews

Accidence Will Happen is a unique and indispensable guide to usage. It's distinguished by the author's keen discernment, his reliance on scholarship rather than dogma and superstition, and an ability to cite literary examples of contested constructions that is literally (yes, literally) awesome (yes, awesome).

Steven Pinker

Entertaining and refreshing. A welcome corrective to the notion that there is an objective standard we should strive for, and a celebration of a language in flux.

Ian Critchley - The Sunday Times

Accidence Will Happen is a joyous and joyously liberating assault on the 'rules' of grammar... It is he most sensible style guide I have read, not least became Kamm always puts clarity first. I have only had Accidence Will Happen for a week, and have already referred to it dozens of times. If tis book is a bestseller, as it may well be, its monument will be the liberated prose of the writers Kamm has freed.

Nick Cohen - The Spectator

An engaging and sympathetic style guide.

Booklist

A spirited argument for why modern English and its regional variants enrich and strengthen the language.

Shelf Awareness

The English language is not your enemy and Oliver Kamm is your best friend to help you navigate it. Never has a book on language been so illuminating and funny.

Agnès Poirier

English language sticklers should relax and give our language the freedom it needs to flourish. It sounds a liberating project and he really does manage to make pedants look ridiculous.

The Daily Telegraph

This is the most intelligent and entertaining book about the English language I've ever read, one that has transformed how I think about usage. It should be required reading for anyone who loves the language, especially those entrusted to teach it. Pedants are going to hate this book — and quietly take its lessons to heart.

James Shapiro

A joyous and joyously liberating assault on the 'rules' of grammar which are little more than a hodgepodge of contradictory superstitions. Kamm's weapons are erudition and raw polemical vigor. It is the most sensible style guide I have read.

The Spectator

An engaging and sympathetic style guide.

Booklist

★ 06/01/2016
Kamm, an award-winning UK Times columnist, has written a much-needed book that challenges those who want to entomb English, a living language that is in no danger of being destroyed or corrupted by occasional grammatical missteps. The author's tolerance of and even welcoming misuse of grammatical conventions may seem subversive at first. Yet, especially refreshing is Kamm's appreciation of the organically evolving American English, which adds a sense of exuberance to our "living language." The cliché that the United States and the UK are "divided by a common language" is reinterpreted as the strength of a cross-fertilization of differing dialects of the same language. VERDICT With many practical examples of valid "misuses" of commonly used words and phrases, this highly recommended work will be a valuable addition to collections on usage and a readable account for general audiences who take joy in affirming their own contributions to our ever evolving language.—Herbert E. Shapiro, Lifelong Learning Soc., Florida Atlantic Univ., Boca Raton

Library Journal