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When You Catch an Adjective, Kill It: The Parts of Speech, for Better and/or Worse
Ben Yagoda
#UB9752
Paperback, 241 pages; 2008 (2007)
$12.95
 Members' Price: $11.01
Author, English professor, and unabashed grammar enthusiast, Ben Yagoda has written a lighthearted and humorous—yet quite scholarly— extended meditation on the ever-evolving English language. Chapters devoted to adverbs, articles, conjunctions, pronouns, etc., explore usage from the points of view of literary trends (the title is a quotation from Mark Twain's letter to a young writer), linguistic scholarship, and even pop culture. On the grammarian continuum, Yagoda places himself somewhere between a prescriptivist, who despairs at society's increasing disregard for grammatical rules, and a descriptivist, who promotes acceptance of unorthodox language trends. As he puts it, his linguistic study is "governed by the idea that language artfully used can make you happy to be alive." If you can relate to that sentiment, you'll relish this entertaining and educational book.
(AG)
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