like us on facebook
- Follow Bridging the Unbridgeable on WordPress.com
-
Join 518 other subscribers
Tags
Blogroll
- A Robert Lowth blog
- A Way with Words
- Alison Edwards
- Arnold Zwicky's Blog
- Arrant Pedantry
- Common Errors in English Usage
- David Crystal's Blog
- Genootschap Onze Taal
- Grammar Girl
- Grammar Monkeys
- Grammarianism
- HiPhiLangSci
- Jeremy Butterfield: making words work for you
- Langitudes
- Language Log
- Languagehat
- Lexicon Valley
- Lingua Franca
- Linguistics Readers Digest
- Mind Your Language
- Not One-Off Britishisms
- NWO Humanities
- On Language
- OUPblog Lexicography & Language
- Proper English Usage
- Sentence first
- Separated by a Common Language
- Sin and Syntax
- Strong Language
- The Web of Language
- Throw Grammar from the Train
- Turning over a New Leaf
- Wordlady
- World Wide Words
Search Results for: carré
Ian McEwan’s metalinguistic comments
During the final month of 2022 I read two of Ian McEwan’s novels, an earlier one, Saturday (2005), and his most recent Lessons (2022). Ever since reading his short story “Mother tongue” (2001) I’ve been keeping track of his metalinguistic … Continue reading
Le Carré’s main character spinning in his grave
Reading another spy novel by John Le Carré, this time Absolute Friends (2003), I didn’t expect to come across any metalinguistic comments relating to prescriptivism since most of the novel is situated in Germany. But I did find this absolute … Continue reading
The pedant in him …
… is sparked off by spotting an exclamation mark where a question would normally be expected. Or actually, by the vacuousness of the contents of the welcoming message found when booking into his hotel room. All this is part of … Continue reading
“Not Grammar, Diction”
by Paul Nance Reading a post written a few months ago on metalinguistic comments in John le Carré novels reminded me of the references to language usage in the works of Rex Stout. The novels and novellas feature detective Nero … Continue reading
Comments Off on “Not Grammar, Diction”
More prescriptive commentary in the Smiley trilogy
My reading of the last book of John Le Carré’s Karla trilogy, featuring George Smiley, Smiley’s People (1979), produced two more prescriptive comments. (There may have been more, but these caught my attention, possibly because both are in the HUGE … Continue reading
George Smiley a prescriptivist?
Eighteen months or so ago I wrote a post about John le Carré, because I’d discovered that, like Kingsley Amis, Len Deighton and Ian McEwan, he too writes metalinguistic usage comments in his novels. My post then was about a … Continue reading
Even John le Carré has them
Metalinguistic comments that is, as in the novels of Kingsley Amis, Len Deighton and Ian McEwan. Reading A Most Wanted Man (2008), I came across several references to accent but also one to who/whom: But for how long? And from who? … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Leave a comment
Bridging the Unbridgeable 