Making Sense: The Glamorous Story of English Grammar

by David Crystal

Overview

In Making Sense, David Crystal confronts the foe of many: grammar. Once taught relentlessly to all students in the English-speaking world, grammar disappeared from most school curricula, so that terms such as "preposition" and "conjunction" now often confound children and adults alike. Explaining the nuts and bolts of grammar presents a special challenge, because - far more than is the case with spelling and punctuation - the subject is burdened with a centuries-old history of educational practice that many will recall as anything but glamorous. One of the world's foremost authorities on the English language, Crystal sets out to rid grammar of its undeserved reputation as a dry and intimidating subject, pointing out how essential grammar is to clear and effective speech and writing. He moves briskly through the stages by which children acquire grammar, along the way demystifying grammar's rules and irregularities and showing us how to navigate its snares and pitfalls. He offers the fascinating history of grammar, explaining how it has evolved from the first grammarians in ancient Greece to our 21st century digital environment of blogging, emailing, and texting. Many find grammar to be a daunting subject, but in this breezy, entertaining book, Crystal proves that grammar doesn't need to make us uneasy-we can all make sense of how we make sense.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780190660598
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	05/04/2017
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	240
File size:	2 MB

About the Author

David Crystal is Honorary Professor of Linguistics at the University of Wales, Bangor. He is the author of dozens of books on language, including The Oxford Dictionary of Original Shakespearean Pronunciation, The Story of English in 100 Words, Spell It Out: The Curious, Enthralling and Extraordinary Story of English Spelling, and Making a Point: The Persnickety Story of English Punctuation.

Table of Contents

Preface Epigraph Introduction Not knowing grammar: a student's tale Not knowing grammar: a child's tale Chapter 1 First steps in grammar Interlude: The first grammarians Chapter 2 Second steps: the big picture Chapter 3 Second steps: the small picture Chapter 4 Third steps: combining big and small Interlude: The first English grammarian Chapter 5 Inside the words Chapter 6 Talking about mouses Interlude: Learn by heart Chapter 7 What sentences do Interlude The first modern English grammarian Chapter 8 Sentence building Interlude: Grammatically precocious Chapter 9 Story time Chapter 10 Connecting Interlude: Did the teddy bear chase the panda? Chapter 11 Talking about grammar... Interlude: Victorian playfulness Chapter 12 Up with which we will not put Interlude: A shocking faux pas Chapter 13 Clarity and weight Interlude: Redistributing weight Chapter 14 Clarity and order Chapter 15 Grammar and meaning Interlude: Real and unreal ambiguity Chapter 16 Grammar and effect Chapter 17 Structure and use together Interlude: Define dog Chapter 18 A sense of style Chapter 19 Grammar on the job Chapter 20 Explanations Chapter 21 Grammatical change - now Interlude: pluralsy Chapter 22 Grammatical change - then Interlude: Thou vs you Chapter 23 Into living memory (almost) Chapter 24 Going transtlantic Interlude: Another pretty little Americanism Chapter 25 Going global Interlude: A good good example Chapter 26 Grammar online Chapter 27 Back from the grave Chapter 28 Why the delay? Interlude: Do as I say - government level Chapter 29 A top ten for the future Epilogue An appendix on teaching and testing References and further reading Index

Editorial Reviews

…a surprisingly entertaining historical and scholarly tour of the mechanics of English…[Crystal's] approach is to explain the points of grammar and their natural acquisition in the order in which a toddler develops language skills, a brilliant strategy that allows him to begin with the most basic concepts and build upon them while simultaneously exemplifying the descriptive nature of his work…masterly telling of why a living language's grammar, like its vocabulary, is not only unfinished, it is unfinishable. One could not have a more genial guide [than Crystal] for such a tour.

The New York Times Book Review - Peter Sokolowski

"A celebrated historian of the English language takes us on an entertaining stroll through the history of our grammar—from the beginning to last week. Throughout, the author is a gifted, agile, and amusing teacher."—Kirkus

"[David Crystal's] goal is not to flex his language knowledge, but to help clean up all the mess that prescriptive grammar teaching has caused... Crystal is on point."—Popmatters

"A surprisingly entertaining historical and scholarly tour of the mechanics of English... [Making Sense is a] masterly telling of why a living language's grammar, like its vocabulary, is not only unfinished, it is unfinishable. One could not have a more genial guide for such a tour."—New York Times Book Review

"For those new to grammar, Crystal's systematic, avuncular exposition painlessly introduces concepts, keywords, and grammatical reasoning. For aficionados, Crystal provides depth and perspective—and for teachers new ideas... Essential."—CHOICE Reviews

"For those new to grammar, Crystal's systematic, avuncular exposition painlessly introduces concepts, keywords, and grammatical reasoning. For aficionados, Crystal provides depth and perspective—and for teachers new ideas. The book first introduces parts of speech, clauses, and grammatical functions by tracing the language development of Crystal's daughter. Next comes a set of chapters on the role of grammar in communication and the importance of semantics and context. Crystal rounds out the book by discussing grammar change (and resistance to change) and the educational consequences of do-as-I-say-ism. Many chapters offers interludes, as the author calls them, in which the history of grammar and grammar teaching are brought to life. Making Sense ends with a summary of ten principles about grammar—not grammar rules but rather key ideas that encapsulate Crystal's view of grammar as an intellectual enterprise—along with an appendix on grammar teaching and testing." —Choice

"Crystal is the rock star of English linguistics studies, a writer and editor of more than 100 books targeted to both academics and civilians... Lucky for us, he writes with wit and charm, and is at home contextualizing language in the time of the Greeks as well as in the era of texting."—Journal of Magazine Media

From the Publisher

2017-04-10
A celebrated historian of the English language takes us on an entertaining stroll through the history of our grammar—from the beginning to last week.As prolific as he is knowledgeable about our language, Crystal has written with erudition and wit about subjects as varied as the pronunciation of Shakespeare's English (The Oxford Dictionary of Original Shakespearean Pronunciation, 2016) and the language's odd spelling (Spell It Out, 2013). Here, the author has several related intents: to explain what grammar is (and isn't), provide a history of our grammar, illustrate some common grammatical issues, show the varieties of English, chide (gently) our many unyielding prescriptivists (he does call them "pedants" a couple of times), and make general recommendations about the teaching and testing of grammar. The chapters are brief and tightly focused, many followed by an interlude that deals with a specific issue that lies, only slightly, outside the text—e.g., the ways we pluralize our nouns and some stories of the earliest grammarians. Crystal's prose is generally light and accessible, though there are times (see the chapter about the evolution of English from Old to today) when his diction and discussion could dissuade the timorous. Some fussy readers may be surprised (or pleased?) to see his use of "mindset" and "refers back," but he displays a similar joy in "catching" some recent grammar and usage absolutists who commit the very errors they condemn. Throughout, the author is a gifted, agile, and amusing teacher, traits we see in his passages about how it would go if we were able to chat with Beowulf, Chaucer, and Shakespeare. He also shows how prescriptive grammar rose and fell, replaced by descriptive, and how much standardized grammar testing for youngsters is flawed. Both a swift introduction for grammar rookies and an enlightening review and update for the veterans.

Kirkus Reviews