Quite Literally: Problem Words and How to Use Them free download online
Title: Quite Literally: Problem Words and How to Use Them Author(s): Wynford Hicks Pages: 355 Publisher: Routledge Publication date: 2004 Language: English Format: PDF ISBN-10: 0203670566 ISBN-13: Description: Whats an alibi, a bete noire, a celibate, a dilemma? Should underway be two words? Is
the word meretricious worth using at all? How do you spell realisewith an s or a z
and should bete be bete? Should you split infinitives, end sentences with prepositions,
start them with conjunctions? What about four-letter words, euphemisms, foreign words,
Americanisms, cliches, slang, jargon? And does the Queen speak the Queens English?
This book tries to answer questions like these. Its intended for readers and writers,
professional and amateur, established and aspiring, formal trainees and those trying to
break in; students of English, both language and literature, and their teachers.
It concentrates on writing rather than speech. It certainly doesnt offer advice on how
to pronounce wordstheres nothing here about spoken accents. On the other hand, the
advice given on how to use words in writing can usually be applied to formal speech
what is carefully considered, broadcast, presented, scripted or prepared for delivery to a
public audienceas opposed to informal, colloquial speech.
The book is intended to be practicaland also fun. Many of the points made are
illustrated with quotes. These come mainly from newspapers, magazines and booksin
other words from sources that are publicly available. Although the emphasis is on British
usage, papers like the New York Times and the Australian are included with the Times
and the Guardian.
Some of the quotes are from language experts. This is not an attempt to embarrass
them. It is because I have consulted books about languagedictionaries, style and usage
books and those written by academic linguistsfor their content and in passing found
useful examples of usage. See page 250 for a list of books referred to.
Its noticeable that there is something of a divide among those who write about
language between the conservatives and the radicals.
Quite Literally: Problem Words and How to Use Them free download links:
Title: Quite Literally: Problem Words and How to Use Them