Watch your language! : mother tongue and her wayward children /
| Main Author: | |
|---|---|
| Format: | Book |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Reno, Nev. :
University of Nevada Press,
©1994.
|
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&scope=site&db=nlebk&AN=28133 |
Table of Contents:
- Modifiers: Misplaced and Squinting. Writing as a Balancing Act. Coordination and Parallel Form. Comparisons: Ears Like a Rabbit
- 5. Embalming Problems: Preserving Vestigial Remains. Saving Whom. Whom-Happiness. Whose for Things. An Ending that Doesn't Know Its Place. Verb Forms: The Past Becoming Present. Verbs that Can't Make Up Their Minds. Take Your Choice. Dialect Variations. Keeping Lie Alive. Pitfalls and Complications. Sitting Bull, Setting Sun, Rising Star, Raising Cain. Ghosts that Walk; Making Verbs Agree. How Many Is or Are a Committee? More than One Subject. Data, Media, None
- 6. Bishop Lowth to Miss Groby: Dealing with Rules. The Victory Over Ain't. Latin Grammar in the Van: Final Prepositions. Grandpa's Beard and Split Infinitives. Bad Algebra and the Double Negative. Rules and Possessives. The Ecclesiastical Shall and Related Rules. How Not to Start a Sentence. Leaky Rules and Useful Distinctions
- 7. Elegant English for You and I: Overcorrection. U and Non-U. How Do You Say It?
- Being Careful with Me and Him. How Does the Dog Smell? Fancy and Phony. Fancy Fillers and Pretentious Padding: Cereal in the Hamburger. Bondoony. Jammies and Other Cozzies
- 8. The Writing System: Conventions. How Do You Spell Fish? Spelling Reform. Silent Letter E. The Sounds of K and S. Compounds. Homonyms. Demons. Borrowed Plurals. Articles: A, An, The. Punctuating for Confusion: Errant Commas, Including Inverted Ones. Restrictive and Nonrestrictive. Ornamental Quotation Marks. Save the Semicolon. Conventions and Politeness. What Do You Call a Preacher?
- 9. Fun with Language. Metaphor: Happy as a Bear. Word Games. Highbrow Games. Playing with Sound. Glorified Cliches and Twisted Idioms. A Low Species of Wit and Shaggy Dogs. Language Traps for the Unwary. Punditry and Puntification. Swifties and Merriwells. Palindromes. Oxymorons, Some Moronic. Taking Words in Vain. Giggles of Geese and A Pure of Meadowlarks.