Says Who?

I used to be a grammar snob (“grammando” as per the author) until I realized that it was a form of white middle-class privilege. Fortunately, linguist and professor Anne Curzan is here to affirm the error of my ways. She carefully describes the origin of our prescriptive grammar rules (usually arbitrarily decided by white men), compares them with commonalities in 21st century English, and reminds us that languages are constantly evolving. The book starts with the verbing of “impact,” and then snappily moves on to other Grammando Hall of Shame entries, e.g., ending a sentence with a preposition; its vs. it's; the infamous Oxford comma, etc. Throughout, Curzan makes a plea for tolerance of, even appreciation for, many of the words and phrases that cause our inner grammando to cringe.

I still feel my blood pressure rise when I see “less” instead of “fewer” in august publications like The New York Times, but thanks to Dr. Curzan I no longer consider it a sign of the apocalypse.