Monthly Archives: August 2013

How funny are they?

Posted on August 23, 2013 by Ingrid Tieken

One of the characteristics of English usage guides is that they often include tongue-in-cheek remarks, actual jokes or just plain witticisms. As the Fowler brothers wrote, when they were working on The King’s English, “we try to throw in a little elegant flippancy … Continue reading →

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Favourite language blogs (results)

Posted on August 20, 2013 by Robin Straaijer

The what-are-your-favourite-language-blogs poll posted in June is now closed. Surprisingly, a little more than half of the answers were given as write-ins in the option ‘other’. Here are the results. First, a thank-you to those who voted for this blog, we’re very … Continue reading →

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Eenermost: a gross corruption?

Posted on August 19, 2013 by Ingrid Tieken

In the one instance in which this word occurs in Jane Austen’s letters it doesn’t mean what the spelling appears to suggest (innermost?): he said the fleas were so starved when he came back from Chawton that they all flew … Continue reading →

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Back to school: buy Fowler

Posted on August 16, 2013 by Ingrid Tieken

I was just forwarded an email from OUP USA which announces a Back to School 2013 offer of a 65% reduction on book prices. The list of books on offer include Fowler’s Modern English Usage, at half-price, which is good, … Continue reading →

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Peter Trudgill on less and fewer

Posted on August 13, 2013 by Ingrid Tieken

Reading students’ papers this summer, I kept stumbling over their use of less for fewer. But it is not a typically Dutch error (as I have to see it in my role as their teacher), nor is it new. For … Continue reading →

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Edmund Weiner and English usage guides

Posted on August 9, 2013 by Ingrid Tieken

We probably all know Edmund Weiner  as one of the editors of the Oxford English Dictionary. But he is also the writer of a usage guide: The Oxford Guide to English Usage. The book first came out  in 1983, and … Continue reading →

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Class in British society

Posted on August 7, 2013 by Ingrid Tieken

In relation to my research on John Honey, I’ve decided I need to read more on the British class system. Joan Beal already told me about the discussion on the subject in VariationList (thanks to which I read John Rickford’s … Continue reading →

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The world’s worst written sentence

Posted on August 7, 2013 by Carmen Ebner

Consider the following sentence: “Yet the nightmare cast its shroud in the guise of a contagion of  a deer-in-the-headlights paralysis.”   According to columnist at The Economist, the above sentence would qualify to be nominated as “the world’s worst written … Continue reading →

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