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Garner’s Modern American Usage is one of the bestselling usage manuals on the market and it has just come out in a new, third edition. Picking or recommending a usage manual is a tricky business. Usage goes to the heart of a writer’s personal style and what is a good manual for one writer, publication, or genre, may not be right for another. (The Associated Press Stylebook is a great manual for journalists, not so much for anyone else.) In this case, any recommendation is complicated by the fact that this is a third edition—should those who have and use an earlier edition run out and buy the new one?

Bryan Garner has a long bibliography on English writing and usage, in particular on legal writing. He certainly well deserves to be called an “authority.” He is, however, firmly in the prescriptivist camp and something of a curmudgeon; he has his opinions on what makes good writing and unabashedly presents them as the correct and only way to write well. Although this can be a distinct advantage for those who want a style manual that gives clear and concise directions. And to his credit, Garner is not a knee-jerk prescriptivist. He recognizes that there is such a thing as a language change and does, reluctantly it seems, base his opinions more on standard practice than on his own personal preferences. So his advice is not usually unreasonable.

So, should you buy this book? 

This must be video Friday. Here we have a short clip of Jesse Sheidlower talking about the inclusion of obscene words in dictionaries. There is a single use of fuck, so it may be NSFW depending on your environment.

Hat tip to the OUP Blog.

"You see, Frankie, the more you know about the rules of early Germanic prosody, the more rewarding life can be.”

I never realized there was so much potential for humor in Verner’s Law, but fortunately Ari Hoptman did.

The next two parts after the jump.

7 October:

Mark Liberman over at Language Log has an extensive article on 19th century subject-verb agreement with the subject “the United States.” The issue is more complex than most commentators give it credit for. Liberman also has some insightful comments on the utility and nature of online databases.

Update: 8 October

Liberman adds another post on the topic.

Michael Adams has a superb article on Samuel Johnson’s contributions to lexicography in Humanities.