Garners Modern American Usage

It is in many ways an atlas of the English language.

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Also, the extensive use of quotations throughout the entries is especially helpful to illustrate his points. For linguists and lexicographers seeking to understand whether a more realistic view of usage among 'descriptive prescribers' might be on the horizon, it may also prove an interesting volume. Oxford University Press; 4 edition April 8, Language: Don't have a Kindle? Try the Kindle edition and experience these great reading features: Share your thoughts with other customers.

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Read reviews that mention english usage garner modern modern english modern american american usage kindle version writers and editors new edition bryan garner reference book english language kindle edition fowler indispensable useful write entries page writer chicago. Showing of 55 reviews. Top Reviews Most recent Top Reviews.

There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later. This is the best work in its class. This edition makes 'Garner's Modern' arguably the best usage dictionary of English ever published. It is notably expanded from the final 'Modern American Usage' edition of , having an entire short book's worth of additional material.

Given the difference in page and print size, probably the entirety of 'The New York Times Manual of Style and Usage' could fit within the material Garner added in his new edition. The changes include not only internationalization, but also evidence-based evaluations of changing usage.

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In this, the work is presently unique, as well as timely, as we enter the second Internet generation. It also features a near-perfect balance between descriptive linguistics and prescriptive advice, with the latter based on logic and the goal of clear communication. In this respect, it like its earlier editions happily parts ways from the majority of the heavily prescriptive works, which have a tendency to arbitrary proclamations based on authorial or institutional preference often excessively nationalistic in ways that defy actual reality , and over-reliance on tradition to the point of ossification.

Garner, a lawyer as well as a lexicographer, is no something blogger who thinks making your text "pop" with "coolness" is more important than professional-quality prose that won't look ridiculous in 5 years when your precious buzzwords sound corny for a good laugh in this vein, pick up a used copy of the once oh-so-hip 'Wired Style: Principles of English Usage in the Digital Age'.

He is, however, careful about legitimate dialectal variance, and of the distinctions between different registers of formality. When Garner does get prescriptive, his tone can be a bit mock-harsh, and less coddling that some others' writing advice, but plenty of us would consider this a strength. Garner also has the lawyer's gift for weaving dry, isolated facts into a persuasive flow, making the book difficult to put down despite being mostly an alphabetical list of items that, taken individually, are trivia. The cross-referencing, consistency, and comprehensiveness of the work rapidly build up an unexpected level of synergy between entries after only a few page skimmings; in-depth reading is very rewarding, despite the entry-based format.

This kind of writing is solidly grounded in the "plain English" principles advanced by Orwell and Gowers, being concise, clear, and certain in its purpose, without being terse or dull. It's not like reading a Webster's dictionary.

Garner's Modern English Usage

Both 'Chicago' and 'New Hart's' are style manuals in the chapter-based sense, covering grammar, punctuation, capitalization, italics, citations, etc. It is no longer necessary to have a comprehensive paper dictionary around if you live or work in tight quarters, since the advent of OxfordDictionariesOnline.

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If you have more room, also get the aforementioned other usage dictionaries. It will be of more benefit to the average person than any guide to business or student writing when it comes to usage. It certainly contains much more value than a dozen of the cutesy little advice books with funny names.

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But get 'Garner's', too. Because this new edition is actually tracking the trajectories of many aspects of language change i. Snoots can rejoice with the release of Garner's Modern English Usage--the fourth edition of Garner's Modern American Usage, renamed to reflect the its wider scope.

I was looking forward to this new edition, and it's well worth it. Garner is a masterly lexicographer and his usage guides have always been authoritative, insightful, witty, and highly readable. This one is no exception. You'll find yourself looking up a word or phrase only to be sidetracked by other interesting entries that catch your eye along the way.

The most notable new feature of the fourth edition is the inclusion of data from Google Ngrams, which are explained in the preface. Garner incorporates this big data into his entries, and provides ratios of the number of times recommended forms are used in the Ngram database with the number of times a particular variant form is used. An abridged version of the first edition was also published as The Oxford Dictionary of American Usage and Style in The first edition was published in as A Dictionary of Modern American Usage , released in an abridged, paperback edition in as The Oxford Dictionary of American Usage and Style not republished under this title since.

In , the second full edition was published under the title Garner's Modern American Usage , with one-third more content than the original edition. An updated edition, taking advantage of Google N-grams , covering British and other World Englishes was released in April In the edition, Google N-grams were used to compare some 2, ratios of standard versus variant forms in English. Novelist David Foster Wallace said, "The fact of the matter is that Garner's dictionary is extremely good He commended Garner's stance on the linguistic descriptivism versus prescriptivism issue that lexicographers dictionary writers face.

Garner's dictionary is prescriptive in aiming to uphold good English usage, but also concedes to variant forms and usage errors that are so widespread that there is no lexicographical hope of changing them.

A Dictionary of Modern American Usage: Bryan A. Garner: www.newyorkethnicfood.com: Books

In fact, due to the strength of his work on GMAU, Garner was the grammarian asked to write the grammar-and-usage chapter for the venerable Chicago Manual of Style. His advice on language matters is second to none. Preface to the Third Edition. Preface to the Second Edition. Preface to the First Edition. List of Essay Entries. Key to the LanguageChange Index. Making Peace in the Language Wars.