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The Elements of Style [pdf]

faculty.washington.edu

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Re: The Elements of Style [pdf]

#11

Post by trumbitta2 »

I got this on Kindle as preparation for starting my first novel.

I found it interesting and informative, even though most of the rules in it I reckon are better followed via acquired intuition (i.e. reading a lot) than studying them.

Re: The Elements of Style [pdf]

#15

Post by stinos »

canjobear wrote: post #3

Nothing but a pile of linguistic ignorance and the authors’ weird peeves. See http://www.lel.ed.ac.uk/~gpullum/LandOfTheFree.pdf

Thanks for this. Even if some don't agree with this, it does in my opinion show that it can be rather silly to treat any style guide as authorative. Especially an old one, in a world where there are considered to be multiple types of English. A bit of a rant maybe, but this stems from having wasted hours on a discussion on whether or not a comma is mandatory after a certain construct, and 'Elements of Style' was being treated as being definitive on the subject (for reasons I still do not understand), even though I presented other guides which would say the opposite or would say that there is no decision.

On that subject: as a non-native speaker I always wondered if there actually is a grammar (not syle) guide which is considered authorative, as there is for other languages?

Re: The Elements of Style [pdf]

#16

Post by mbork_pl »

trumbitta2 wrote: post #11

I got this on Kindle as preparation for starting my first novel. I found it interesting and informative, even though most of the rules in it I reckon are better followed via acquired intuition (i.e. reading a lot) than studying them.

> I found it interesting and informative, even though most of the rules in it I reckon are better followed via acquired intuition (i.e. reading a lot) than studying them.

This. OTOH, reading about them may make you more aware of them when reading, so it might reinforce the learning process.

Re: The Elements of Style [pdf]

#17

Post by msla »

stinos wrote: post #15
canjobear wrote: post #3

Nothing but a pile of linguistic ignorance and the authors’ weird peeves. See http://www.lel.ed.ac.uk/~gpullum/LandOfTheFree.pdf

Thanks for this. Even if some don't agree with this, it does in my opinion show that it can be rather silly to treat any style guide as authorative. Especially an old one, in a world where there are considered to be multiple types of English. A bit of a rant maybe, but this stems from having wasted hours on a discussion on whether or not a comma is mandatory after a certain construct, and 'Elements of Style' was bein…

> On that subject: as a non-native speaker I always wondered if there actually is a grammar (not syle) guide which is considered authorative, as there is for other languages?

No living language has a fully authoritative grammar book, as the grammar of living languages is discovered, not prescribed. That's a part of what linguists do, after all, and they have plenty of debates over precisely how to do it. The overly-simplified grammars taught to language learners as "Correct" are only the tip of a huge, wonderously complex iceberg.

Here's an example of a more academic English grammar:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Cambridge_Grammar_of_the_E...

Note that The Cambridge Grammar of the English Language is almost 2000 pages long.

Re: The Elements of Style [pdf]

#20

Post by Cruncharoo »

stinos wrote: post #15
canjobear wrote: post #3

Nothing but a pile of linguistic ignorance and the authors’ weird peeves. See http://www.lel.ed.ac.uk/~gpullum/LandOfTheFree.pdf

Thanks for this. Even if some don't agree with this, it does in my opinion show that it can be rather silly to treat any style guide as authorative. Especially an old one, in a world where there are considered to be multiple types of English. A bit of a rant maybe, but this stems from having wasted hours on a discussion on whether or not a comma is mandatory after a certain construct, and 'Elements of Style' was bein…

No, English does not have this. We can't agree on anything and we like it that way.
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