商品簡介
A brilliant history and witty guide to the English language, masquerading as mischievous advice on its misuse and abuse.
Nothing rouses the wrath of pedants more than coinages such as 'operationalisation', slipslops like 'a steep learning kerb', or -- most heinous of all -- the widespread confusion over 'disinterested' and 'uninterested'. For pedants, these horrible words must be kept out of the English language at all costs. But are they right?
In this provocative and hugely entertaining book, Rebecca Gowers shows that linguistic pedantry is often based on misinformation, illogical reasoning and straight-up snobbery. A tongue-in-cheek call to arms to the abusers and misusers of the language, her book is also a fascinating history of English, an accessible guide to linguistics and above all, a bold manifesto about what language is and how it should be used.
作者簡介
REBECCA GOWERS is the author of The Swamp of Death, shortlisted for the CWA non-fiction Golden Dagger Award, and of two novels,When to Walk and The Twisted Heart, both longlisted for the Orange Prize. She has also revised and updatedPlain Words, the classic guide to the use of English, written by her great-grandfather, Sir Ernest Gowers.
