May I Quote You on That?: A Guide to Grammar and Usage

417 Pages·2015·1.82 MB·English

by  Stephen Spector

May I Quote You on That?

‘
May I Quote You on That?
A Guide to Grammar and Usage
STEPHEN SPECTOR
’
1
1
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
is available
ISBN 978-0-19-021528-6
1 3 5 7 9 8 6 4 2
Printed in the United States of America
on acid-free paper
For Mary, who makes everything possible
and everything better

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Contents
Acknowledgments ix
Introduction xi
About the Companion Website xix
1. What Is Standard English, and Who Gets to
Decide What’s Proper English Today? 1
2. Some Really Basic Grammar Terms 5
3. Tricky Words, Usage, and Grammar 18
4. Tricky Words of the Twentieth Century and Today 177
5. Look-Alikes 211
6. Plurals 350
Notes 369
Select Bibliography 387
Index 389

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Acknowledgments
I want to thank first of all the great scholars who taught me the history
of the English language. My deep gratitude and warm appreciation go to
Marie Borroff. I found her course on the history of the language to be
inspirational, I’ve valued her mentorship, and I’ve treasured her friend-
ship. I’m profoundly indebted to Talbot Donaldson. His brilliance and
humor in reading Chaucer made Middle English a delight. I’m very
grateful to John Pope, Traugott Lawler, and Dorothee Metlitzki for
sharing their immense knowledge of Old and Middle English and for
modeling personal kindness and generosity. I deeply appreciate Norman
Davis’s patience and good humor in advising me when I was just out of
graduate school, in the hope that I wouldn’t embarrass the Early English
Text Society too badly. Some of them are gone now, but what I learned
from all of them enlivens this little book.
Through the entire process of writing this book, my wife, Mary, has
been a wise and loving support and comfort, as she always is. My son,
Dave, and my daughter-in-law, Şebnem, gave me great advice from first
to last, drawing on their experience in English language instruction and
their excellent judgment and cleverness. I’m very grateful to Leigh Ann
Hirschman and Betsy Amster for helping me find the right voice for the
book. It turned out to be my own voice, the one in which I actually
speak to my students. After I’d written the manuscript, I couldn’t have
asked for more talented, learned, and helpful friends than the ones who
kindly read it and suggested changes: Henry Abelove, Paul Dolan,