A Dictionary of Modern English Usage: The Classic First Edition (Oxford World’s Classics) by H. W. Fowler (PDF)

Description

What grammarians say should be has perhaps less influence on what shall be than even the more modest of them realize …’No book had more influence on twentieth-century attitudes to the English language in Britain than Henry Fowler’s Dictionary of Modern English Usage. It rapidly became the standard work of reference for the correct use of English in terms of choice of words, grammar, and style. Much loved for his firm opinions, passion, and dry humour, Fowler has stood the test of time and is still considered the best arbiter of good practice.In this new edition of the original Dictionary, David Crystal goes beyond the popular mythology surrounding Fowler’s reputation to retrace his method and arrive at a fresh evaluation of his place in the history of linguistic thought. With a wealth of entertaining examples he looks at Fowler’s stated principles and the tensions between his prescriptive and descriptive temperaments. He shows that the Dictionary does a great more than make normative recommendations and expressprivate opinion. In addition he offers a modern perspective on some 300 entries, in which he shows how English has changed since the 1920s.ABOUT THE SERIES: For over 100 years Oxford World’s Classics has made available the widest range of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford’s commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading authorities, helpful notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more.

User’s Reviews

Reviews from Amazon users which were colected at the time this book was published on the website:

⭐This book is very resourceful for both writers and students or anyone who would like to know more about proper usage of English Language. The paperback edition is published on 2009 by Oxford University Press’s Oxford World Classics Series. The main part of this book is the original edition of A Dictionary of Modern English Usage by Fowlers. I have read from a previous comment stating that the last page of the dictionary is missing, however, when I opened my book delivered to me just now, I found that the last page is completely printed in the book(on page 742).There are just some very tiny printing errors of head letters in the last part of List of Articles and List of Abbreviations, starting from -ved to Wh- and from a.(adjective) to ind.obj.(indirect object), for example, the hyphen – in -ved is missing and a in a.(adjective) is missing, but these tiny missed letters will not affect your usage of the dictionary, because these missing head letters could be very easily guessed and there are just a few of these missing head letters. I have not yet read the whole book, as far as I could see, the rest of the book, except a few missing head letters in front of the main part of the Dictionary, is perfectly printed.If you are curious about English Usage in the contemporary period of Henry Watson Fowler’s and how the English Usage has changed over time, you should buy this book.

⭐An absolutely unreadable kindle edition. Format (spacing between lines, font size, width of column, italics, text appearing as an exponent would (moved halfway up, or sometimes down, the horizontal line), strange characters such as british pound sign, etc.) varies maybe 20 times on a given screen. Also, the word “aetat” appears repeatedly in front of numbers. Here’s Example 1.verb-construe A!N$nene 14 ALBINO tion (at with the gerund not being the-way word is dear for its own even mentioned) after aim. sake, or rather is welcome as giving aine.Sorry, in the Amazon comment box I couldn’t reproduce the two words, at and aim, that are in italics, or the word aine that was half a line under the rest and in smaller font. Also, the $ was a British pound sign but I can’t reproduce that either, so I picked the $ sign. Here’s example 2:The normal use, & sense,.ALMIGHTY 16 ALONEhowever, are same as those of tion. Allude to has the same admit of. limitationsExamples of the legitialmighty.So spelt; see -u>, -L,4.mate use are:–We looked at each all right.The words should always other wondering which of MS he was be written separate ; there are no alluding to ;Sorry, I couldn’t reproduce the italics in 17 of these words or the 12 words in smaller fonts and below the line of the other words. Maybe some italics are good, such as for Allude to and admit of, but there is so much inconsistency you go crazy trying to figure out what is going on. And here’s another example: Jvortin is tvillingNot convinced yet? Then how about another example: procity Bill was passed; but by perfectly & then written them with pressing it through Congress Presithe FORMAL WORD anticipate ; ANA dent Taft antagonized both the StandLOGY has duped them into supposing pattersAgain, I couldn’t replicate the italics and 5 words below the line or 6 words above the line.I double checked my typing. So sorry whoever put Fowler’s into Kindle didn’t check out what they thought they had done.

⭐This review is for the Kindle version of the book. This is a classic text and, while I prefer Garner’s Modern American Usage, it is still a book that I enjoy reading.Fowler’s was from the “prescriptive” school of linguistics, telling us what is and what is not acceptable. Even if your preference is for a “descriptive” approach, you may still enjoy someone who, with wit and erudition, proclaims a “one right way” of approaching something (although, to be fair, Fowler ripped into many of the so-called rules such as never splitting an infinitive or ending a sentence with a preposition, thus giving writers more than one way to write).The Kindle version has a hyperlinked Table of Contents, but it is harder to find something than in the printed version which is much easier to flip through. You can search for a word, but the search results give you every occurrence of that word in the book; not terribly useful.At any rate, I like having a copy that is portable. If Garner’s Modern American Usage had a hyperlinked index, I would own a Kindle version of it as well. Alas, it does not.

⭐Here’s the deal with Fowler’s.1926: First irascible version of Fowler’s “Dictionary of Modern English Usage” published. Owing to the author’s idiosyncrasies and clear-headed prescriptions, it earns a place on every writer’s shelf.1965: An new edition comes out, edited by Sir Ernest Gowers. Most people believe Gowers only brought the language up-to-date where absolutely necessary, keeping the spirit of the original intact. In other words, this revision was hailed as welcome and necessary.1996: Massive overhaul of the text published, edited by the famous Robert W. Burchfield. Burchfield thoroughly changes the language and even the spirit of Fowler’s original, resulting in a book that is much more observational than prescriptional. Much of what made the original beloved was excised.2009: David Crystal digs up the 1926 edition, reprints it, and writes a big honkin’ essay at the end, (almost needlessly) justifying the resuscitation of the original.Thus what we have is generally thought to be superior to the 1996 edition, but I think most writers and editors would have been happy to do without Crystal’s contributions and simply had Oxford University Press flood the world with a bunch of reprints of the 1965 edition, which, since that’s the one everybody seems to want, is becoming danged hard to find.

⭐The Kindle edition is clearly produced by scanning the print edition and using OCR software to convert to electronic format. Unfortunately, it’s been very sloppily done, with apparently no proofreading. That would be bad enough for the main body of the book, but in the new material written by David Crystal, which is presumably already available to the publishers electronically, it’s unacceptable and seriously detracts from the book.

⭐This is a very poorly produced book. I bought it as a reference book but in its kindle form, it’s virtually unusable. If you’re looking for a reference book on the usage of English don’t bother buying the ebook, get a hard cover or paperback.

⭐This product is appalling, in my view. It contains pages directly from the book, together with pages that has been reset. Also, the two types of pages do not follow on from each other, as far as I can see. Avoid.

⭐Do not buy this on Kindle. This is an excellent book, but the kindle port is abysmal. There has been no effort to convert this to ebook format. Page numbers appear halfway through sentences, font size is erratic and nonsensical, paragraph breaks seem totally random. Very poor product, I am extremely disappointed.

⭐You can’t do ‘it’ without this book. If you want to know anything there is to know about the English language, and how it evolvedinto the language it is today, this book is a MUST!

Keywords

Free Download A Dictionary of Modern English Usage: The Classic First Edition (Oxford World’s Classics) in PDF format
A Dictionary of Modern English Usage: The Classic First Edition (Oxford World’s Classics) PDF Free Download
Download A Dictionary of Modern English Usage: The Classic First Edition (Oxford World’s Classics) 2010 PDF Free
A Dictionary of Modern English Usage: The Classic First Edition (Oxford World’s Classics) 2010 PDF Free Download
Download A Dictionary of Modern English Usage: The Classic First Edition (Oxford World’s Classics) PDF
Free Download Ebook A Dictionary of Modern English Usage: The Classic First Edition (Oxford World’s Classics)