I found another one! And once again in a novel by Marilyn French (1929-2009), this time My Summer with George (1996). The novel is situated in 1991 (p. 236), and it is about the dream of an affair in late middle … Continue reading
One of our blog authors recently tackled the “whom issue”, and it made me wonder if this word is really dying out. Our readers will also remember several posts featuring the split infinitive, the pedants’ pet peeve. I have decided … Continue reading
Letters to the editor (LTE) sections in historical newspaper databases are rich sources for investigating the language pedants’ pet peeves. The split infinitive seems to be among the prominent causes for their perpetual discussions. A 1904 article in the Washington … Continue reading
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… is the title of a book by Mark Liberman and Geoffrey K. Pullum, published in 2006. Based on their blog Language Log, it contains items on English usage but also topics that “might provoke a good laugh or draw … Continue reading
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The quotation in this title is from an article by David Crystal on the split infinitive which appeared in English Today in 1985. It was taken from a book by Robert Burchfield, The English Language, which had come out that … Continue reading
We have just published the sixth usage poll, which we hope you will have time to complete during the upcoming Christmas break. You will find it under the tab Usage polls just under the banner of this blog. We’re temporarily … Continue reading
Mind Your Language is a fantastic blog run by The Guardian on usage problems, the use of style guides and many related matters. Particularly the entries by David Marsh are well worth reading. Among the usage items dealt with we find: … Continue reading
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We would very much like to know whether readers consider the sentence in the title to this post problematic or not. It is of course – as aficionados will immediately recognise – from the Startrek trailer, and the construction in question is … Continue reading
Bridging the Unbridgeable 