According to Kory Stamper, a writer of (of all things)
dictionaries at Merriam-Webster, there’s no logical basis for a law that says
it’s wrong to wantonly split an infinitive. Even more startling, I can even
pick any preposition I like to end a sentence with! And, as if that weren’t
enough, its historically and grammatically consistent to drop the apostrophe
from the “it-is” contraction and to put one in it’s possessive.
Just another sign that the world of order and certainty is
crumbling into chaos! Definitely a good time to practice living in the not
knowing.
I love words. I enjoy playing with words. And I get a kick
out of plays on words. Yet, I’ve always felt strapped by my self-imposed anal compulsion
to stick to and enforce the rules. Now, at last, an authoritative source has
set me free! (Why do I need an authoritative source to begin with? Well, that’s
a whole nother story. Or maybe even two nother stories.) So, let freedom wring
all the creativity it can muster out of those words!
I first heard of Ms. Stamper and her new book Word by Word: The Secret Life of
Dictionaries on April 19, 2017, when she was interviewed by Terry Gross on NPR’s Fresh Air.
(You can listen to it here.)
I have bought the book (print edition, if you please) and am thoroughly
relishing the wit and wisdom she writes with.
She closes one chapter with the
following, which, in my mind, pretty much sums up her thesis:
“We think of English as a fortress
to be defended, but a better analogy is to think of English as a child…. Sometimes
English goes places we don’t like and thrives there in spite of all our
worrying. We can tell it to clean itself up and act more like Latin; we can
throw tantrums and start learning French instead. But we will never really be
the boss of it. And that’s why it flourishes.” p. 51
For more information:
Kory’s blog.
A bookreview by Megan Garber in The
Atlantic.
Purchase onAmazon or Barnes& Noble.
I wish my English teachers read this before they graded my papers years ago! Such a delightful read, Green Pen! :)
ReplyDeleteOh no! Say it isn' so! While I could grudgingly accept the split infinitive, and often find myself at a loss to find a graceful way to end a sentence without using a preposition, I will NEVER accept that it's ok to delete apostrophes. What is this world ocming to??
ReplyDeleteTypos, hopefully, are forgiven: "coming"
ReplyDelete