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Garner's Modern American Usage
 
 

Garner's Modern American Usage [Hardcover]

Bryan A. Garner
5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
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From Booklist

Garner's Modern American Usage is the latest by the author and editor of several legal dictionaries (including Black's Law Dictionary), among other works on language and style. The second edition maintains the same basic format as the first (called Dictionary of Modern American Usage), published in 1998: each entry discusses the usage of the word, provides quotations for illustration, and gives citations. There are two types of entries. Word entries, which are generally short, discuss individual words or groups of words. Essay entries discuss topics related to usage and style, including contractions, danglers, punctuation, and subject-verb agreement, among others. Compared to the first edition's entry for complexioned; complected, the second edition makes only minor editorial changes; the real difference is the easier-to-read spacing in the updated volume. The second edition shows more substantive changes in the essay entry for Passive voice without changing the basic meaning or adding unnecessarily to the length of the essay. New entries include DVD, Internet, World Wide Web, and, as Garner insists, webpage.

The Columbia Guide to Standard American English (Columbia Univ., 1993) takes a more prescriptive tone than Garner's and maintains more succinct entries on usage topics (comparing entries on passive voice, for instance). The New Fowler's Modern English Usage (3d ed., Oxford, 2000) is more descriptive, on the other hand, and includes examples from published fiction, where most of Garner's quotations come from newspapers and journals. Because of its somewhat conversational style and extensive essays on usage topics like sexism, Garner's might be best used, as the author suggests, for "browsing a little at a time or for serious reading" and later consultation. Appended material includes a glossary, "A Timeline of Books on Usage," and a selected bibliography. Recommended for public and academic libraries, especially if the institution does not own the first edition. RBB
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Review

"My recommendation? Buy this book. Put it in a convenient place for reference, browsing, and serious reading. Consult it as queries arise about particular expressions. Better yet, browse it--see how the usage tips converge and diverge, skipping around the book, reading the essays."--Technical Communication

"Garner's Modern American Usage by Bryan A. Garner should have a place on every writer's reference shelf. Combining meticulous research, clear explanations and a subtle sense of fun, this masterwork is the new authority to which we all should submit."--Writer's Digest "Garner is a smart centrist, willing to concede the inevitable (we need the indeterminate they: "Did someone leave their books in the office?") while still believing there's an audience that cares about imply vs. infer."--Boston Globe

"The delicious tradition of Fowler's classic Modern English Usage continues, as Garner, in this latest update, combines solid erudition, lucid explanations and sharp, crisp, witty prose. It's a can't-do-without reference book, but you can just pick it up, open to any page and start reading for guiltless pleasure."--San Diego Union Tribune

"Who, you may ask, is Bryan Garner? At 44, he is the wunderkind of American dictionary-making, the author and sole proprietor of Garner's Modern American Usage, just published in ts second edition by Oxford University Press. At $39.95, it's a bargain....There is a huge volume of helpful material here."--James Kilpatrick

"Garners Modern American Usage is the latest by the author and editor of several legal dictionaries (including Blacks Law Dictionary), among other works on language and style. The second edition maintains the same basic format as the first (called Dictionary of Modern American Usage), published in 1998....Based on its somewhat conversational style and extensive essays on usage topics like sexism, Garners might be best used, as the author suggests, for browsing a little at a time or for serious reading and later consultation....Recommended"--Booklist

"I would recommend it to everyone, in any country, who is interested in improving the quality of their English."--WorldWideWords.org

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5.0 out of 5 stars Roll over Fowler; tell Partridge the news..., April 30 2004
By 
Dennis Littrell (SoCal) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   
This review is from: Garner's Modern American Usage (Hardcover)
This is a brilliant book. It is as erudite and authoritative as a usage book should be, but without offensive cant or needless pedantry. It is scrupulously edited and handsomely presented by the Oxford University Press in their usual exemplary manner. While Bryan A.Garner concentrates on American English usage (that's where the market is) he is no stranger to "BrE" or any other kind of English. Just to give you a hint about what makes the man tick and why he is now considered the preeminent authority on "grammar, usage, and style" (as a blurb on the book's cover--for a change--rightly has it), consider these words from the Preface to the Second Edition:

"People have asked whether enough has really changed in English usage since 1998 to justify a new edition. The answer is that changing usage isn't really the primary basis for a new edition of a usage guide: it's really a question of having had five more years for research."

He isn't kidding. What Garner brings to this usage book that completely dwarfs* all previous efforts is a gargantuan research regimen. This is clear from the thousands of examples of usage presented, both good and bad, from all manner of publications: newspapers, small town and big city; novels, classic and contemporary; magazines and journals, literary and scientific, etc. Garner obviously has a passion for words and seems determined to let no genre or form of reading matter go unread or unscrutinized. I didn't find an example from one of my reviews, but (given the many faux pas that I have, alas, committed in nearly 800 reviews) I fully expect that dubious honor in the third edition!). Yes, Garner is onto the Web and indeed he frequently quotes statistics of use garnered (sorry!) from such sites as NEXIS and WESTLAW allowing him to say, for example, about "analytical" and "analytic" that "the long form is five times as common as the short."

This is an interesting development in usage books. As Garner notes in his introductory essay, "Making Peace in the Language Wars," there are two types of linguists, "prescribers" and "describers," or as it used to be said (more narrowly) there are "prescriptive grammarians" and "descriptive grammarians," and never the twain shall meet. The former in both cases, as Garner has it, "seek to guide" while the latter "seek to discover...how native speakers actually use their language."

Obviously, no one who writes a usage guide can be a strict describer. Indeed throughout the history of usage guidance most of the authors have been primarily prescribers: "this is the way the word should be used"; "this is improper" and even "this is an abomination!" Garner follows the tradition and even goes so far as to label, for example, the employment of "defunk" for "defunct" as a "ghastly blunder."

So he is clearly a prescriber (as he admits). But unlike most of his illustrious predecessors he is a describer as well. He lets us see how the language is actually used and he gracefully bows (on occasion) as much to the preponderance of usage as he does to venerable authority and his own good judgment. Thus we have a usage dictionary for the 21st century, alive, vital and moving carefully with the tide, but not swept away by it.

Needless to say I do have a few disagreements. I will present a couple for sport, fully realizing that he is the authority and I am merely a respectful, sometime critic.

For example, Garner writes a very nice little essay on sexist language entitled "SEXISM." However there is no comparable entry on "racism" or word entries for "African-American," "Afro-American," or "black." I think there should be, as some guidance in word choice here is sometimes sorely needed. I have the feeling that Garner is not so much dodging the subject as he is fully preparing himself for the next edition. There is an entry on "ageism" (so spelled indicates Garner although the similar word "aging" is without the "e"), but no discussion of various usage concerns.

Also, he writes (on page 418 in the essay entry "HYPERCORRECTION" under item "J."): "When a naturalized...foreignism appears, the surrounding words--with a few exceptions...--should be English. Thus, one refers to <finding the mot juste> not <finding le mot juste> (a common error among the would-be literati)." However, I would say that using the French "le" as part of the phrase is a useful emphasis, much as one, when speaking, might emphasize the word "the" by pronouncing it with a long "e."

These and perhaps other picayunes aside, let me say unequivically that this book is a treasure trove of knowledge about our language second to none that I have ever read and a singular please to read and peruse.

I should also mention the three splendid appendices: A 13-page "Select Glossary" on words about words ("gerund," "homograph," etc.); a very interesting "Lifeline of Books on Usage" beginning in 1762; and a "Select Bibliography" of dictionaries, usage books, grammars, and books on style.

*This use of "dwarf" as a transitive verb is not given in Garner's book, although there is an entry on the noun form. I checked Webster's Second International and my spelling (not the ugly "dwarves") agrees with theirs.

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5.0 out of 5 stars Mindful of tradition, clarity, and beauty of English, Mar 4 2004
By 
Craig Matteson (Saline, MI) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   
This review is from: Garner's Modern American Usage (Hardcover)
I have to admit that whenever I hear the phrase "Modern Usage" I pause and proceed with concern explecting some new assault on tradition, clarity, and beauty. However, this is a very sound and worthy book. It is intelligent in its choice of what it covers. Bryan Garner doesn't wander off into esoteric weeds or theoretical debates. Instead, he picks 700 or so practical topics and offers clear explanations and examples that help the reader understand not only what is proper usage but also why it is proper usage.

Some have pointed to the first two editions of Fowler, and they are apt comparisons. I do have a copy of the most recent Fowler done by Burchfield. Some dislike that edition. I find it useful with caveats, however, I like this book much more. And I use it more, which is the real test isn't it.

I think this is a superb book for students and for anyone who cares about what they write. I am glad it is on my home office shelf and you also put one in easy reach.

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5.0 out of 5 stars A worthy heir to Fowler, Dec 16 2003
By 
Brian Melendez (Minneapolis, MN United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
This review is from: Garner's Modern American Usage (Hardcover)
For three generations, a single book dominated the market as the authoritative reference in matters of grammar, style, and usage in the English language: "A Dictionary of Modern English Usage" by H.W. Fowler, first published in 1926, ably revised by Sir Ernest Gowers in 1965, and now in its third edition (published 1996). But by the century's last quarter, the modern English language -- particularly its American dialect -- had begun outgrowing Fowler, and several newer guides began competing with it. The third (1996) edition of Fowler was a disappointment, and left the field without a clear leading authority.

That gap was filled in 1998, when Bryan A. Garner wrote "A Dictionary of Modern American Usage" (published by the Oxford University Press, which also published Fowler). Finally, someone had written a book that matched Fowler -- not only in its erudition, but also in its accessible style, and even its wry sense of humor. And Garner's book had the advantages of being written both in modern times for a modern audience, and in the United States by an American author about American English. The book is a gem, and as authoritative a reference as you will find in this field in the last several decades (and probably the next several too).

"Garner's Modern American Usage" is this oustanding work's second edition, now retitled after its author in view of the acclaim that the first edition earned. A new edition is appearing after only five years because, as Garner explains, "changing usage isn't really the primary basis for a new edition of a usage guide: it's really a question of having had five more years for research." The payoff shows. And the second edition builds upon the first: the first edition was a dictionary of words in usage, rather than words about usage, and therefore assumed that the reader possessed a certain working knowledge of basic grammatical terms and concepts. For example, the first edition didn't define such basic terms as "sentence," "phrase," "clause," "word," or "part of speech." The second edition appends a glossary that defines many such basic concepts. It also appends, as did the first edition, an 11-page chronology of books about usage, which illustrates both the rich tradition that Garner's work joins, as well as the tremendous resources upon which he drew in producing this magnum opus.

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