Lost For Words: The Mangling and Manipulating of the English Language

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Our readiness to accept indiscipline in language is an invitation to those who wish to manipulate it to hoodwink us. If people, young or old, are to be alert to this, I think they need sharper tools than your rather vague notion of regularities provides them with. They need to be able to complain about usage and explain why they are complaining.

Dear John , Alexander Pope, as you know, wrote in the high era of Classicism, a time when rules really did rule! Yet I do agree with you about creativity: Nor am I immune from being bothered and baffled by changes in language: Have we lost the word "small"? I don't tango; but do you remember that moving Australian film Strictly Ballroom where the "rules" of different cultures meet, where youth learns from age, where the corrupt old is left behind - idealistically and romantically - for something truly marvellous and fresh?

John Humphrys and Gunther Kress debate the English language | UK news | The Guardian

It's my favourite image for that difficult mix of stability and creativity. I'd like to make it work, and not only in the movies. All the very best , Gunther. Dear Gunther , Sadly, we have lost too many good words.

That's more than sad; it's dangerous. Let's remember why we need good, simple English. Orwell put it nicely: A basic grasp of the rules makes it less likely that we will use slovenly language. So let me offer you one more quotation, this time from the Roman theoretician Quintilian, writing 2, years ago: Dear John , Your book Lost for Words: The Mangling and Manipulation of the English Language is just about to come out. Having spent a good bit of my working life unpicking the ways this mangling and manipulation of the English is done, I can't wait to read it.

Best wishes , Gunther Dear Gunther , I'm not about to start slagging off Hoon or Blair - it's more than my job's worth, guv - but the language of modern politics in this country has become the language of the market.

John Dear John , You talk of the need for "rules" and "respect". Best , Gunther Dear Gunther , Of course the young, like everyone else, should be free to "wrench language around".

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Yours , John Dear John , You will agree that it matters how we use words: Best , Gunther Dear Gunther , I'm not hung up on the word "rule", though as a rule I think it can be used without summoning up the spectre of class oppression. Should we not have some respect for the rules of the tango if we want to tango?

Yours , John Dear John , Alexander Pope, as you know, wrote in the high era of Classicism, a time when rules really did rule! All the very best , Gunther Dear Gunther , Sadly, we have lost too many good words. In the war-torn cities of Syria, government forces wage a bloody war against their own people.

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No more loose talk

John Humphrys has not publicly given his opinion of the outcome, either in terms of politics or of the standard of the English used - but I suspect that he would have more harsh things to say. Ruensiri Aug 25, This is a wonderful book, that will especially appeal to those who are particular about grammar, spelling and punctuation, like me. However, in between the wry and sometimes withering comments, you get the sense that Humphrys really cares about the English language and his gentle scolding is an attempt to get everyone else to feel the same way.

He says the sort of things that I find myself shouting at the radio and railing at in the newspapers and on the news. This title exposes the depths to which our use of the English language has sunk and offers many examples of the most common atrocities. The author also dispenses some sensible guidance and insists that language should be simple, clear and honest.

Lost For Words

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This book written in is a polemic against the standard of the English language used in British public life. Ruensiri Aug 25, This is a wonderful book, that will especially appeal to those who are particular about grammar, spelling and punctuation, like me. Tselja Jun 16, I think John Humphrey has got it spot on.

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