Anne Curzan

A Kinder, Funner Usage Guide for Everyone Who Cares about Words

Says Who?

English Grammar Boot Camp

The Secret Life of Words

A kinder, funner usage guide to the ever-changing English language and a useful tool for both the grammar stickler and the more colloquial user of English, from linguist and veteran professor Anne Curzan “I was bowled over, page after page, by the author’s fine ear for our language and her openhearted erudition. I learned a lot, and I couldn’t have enjoyed myself more.”—Benjamin Dreyer, New York Times bestselling author of Dreyer’s English Our use of language naturally evolves and is a living, breathing thing that reflects who we are. Says Who? offers clear, nuanced guidance that goes beyond “right” and “wrong” to empower us to make informed language choices. Never snooty or scoldy (yes, that’s a “real” word!), this book explains where the grammar rules we learned in school actually come from and reveals the forces that drive dictionary editors to label certain words as slang or unacceptable. Linguist and veteran English professor Anne Curzan equips readers with the tools they need to adeptly manage (a split infinitive?! You betcha!) formal and informal writing and speaking. After all, we don’t want to be caught wearing our linguistic pajamas to a job interview any more than we want to show up for a backyard barbecue in a verbal tux, asking, “To whom shall I pass the ketchup?” Curzan helps us use our new knowledge about the developing nature of language and grammar rules to become caretakers of language rather than gatekeepers of it. Applying entertaining examples from literature, newspapers, television, and more, Curzan welcomes usage novices and encourages the language police to lower their pens, showing us how we can care about language precision, clarity, and inclusion all at the same time. With lively humor and humanity, Says Who? is a pragmatic and accessible key that reveals how our choices about language usage can be a powerful force for equity and personal expression. For proud grammar sticklers and self-conscious writers alike, Curzan makes nerding out about language fun.

A Kinder, Funner Usage Guide for Everyone Who Cares About Words

Over the past 300 years, attempts have been made to prescribe how we should and should not use the English language. The efforts have been institutionalized in places such as usage guides, dictionaries, and school curricula. Such authorities have aspired to 'fix' the language, sometimes by keeping English exactly where it is, but also by trying to improve the current state of the language. Anne Curzan demonstrates the important role prescriptivism plays in the history of the English language, as a sociolinguistic factor in language change and as a vital meta-discourse about language. Starting with a pioneering new definition of prescriptivism as a linguistic phenomenon, she highlights the significant role played by Microsoft's grammar checker, debates about 'real words', non-sexist language reform, and efforts to reappropriate stigmatized terms. Essential reading for anyone interested in the regulation of language, the book is a fascinating re-examination of how we tell language history.

Prescriptivism and Language History

Fixing English

Michael Adams

Contours of English assesses the state of English Language Studies, a thriving discipline located primarily in English departments and English curricula, at the beginning of the 21st century. Chapter by chapter, it is a book about aspects of English — aspects that, in their own right, will fascinate readers of various disciplines, not only English and linguistics, but also American culture, history, sociology, education, and information sciences. Section by section and as a whole, the book considers ways in which the study of English language intersects with other concerns of the English curriculum (i.e., teaching and research in Anglophone literature and culture) as well as with the related public discourses and policy interventions. Contours of English and English Language Studies is organized into four parts representing four particularly active and interesting fields central to English Language Studies. The four parts in this book include American Dialects, the History of English, English Lexicography, and English and Education. Each part is structured neither miscellaneously nor as a debate, but rather as an unfolding disciplinary conversation, and includes three chapters by leading scholars in the relevant subfield marked by different perspectives, methods, and material, as well as a response to those chapters by another leading scholar in the field. The responses are significant essays in themselves, not formulaic end-pieces to the sections; they point toward the future of English Language Studies, bearing the chapters in mind.

Contours of English and English Language Studies

Michael P. Adams

This accessible introduction to the structure of English, general theories in linguistics, and important issues in sociolinguistics, is the first text written specifically for English and Education majors. This engaging introductory language/linguistics textbook provides more extensive coverage of issues of particular interest to English majors and future English instructors. It invites all students to connect academic linguistics to the everyday use of the English language around them. The book’s approach taps students’ natural curiosity about the English language. Through exercises and discussion questions about ongoing changes in English, How English Works asks students to become active participants in the construction of linguistic knowledge.

Pearson New International Edition

How English Works: A Linguistic Introduction

A major introductory language/linguistics textbook written specifically for English and Education majors, "How English Works" is an engaging introduction to the structure of English, general theories in linguistics, and important issues in sociolinguistics. This accessible text provides more extensive coverage of issues of particular interest to English and Education majors. Tapping into our natural curiosity about language, it invites all students to connect academic linguistics to everyday use of the English language and to become active participants in the construction of linguistic knowledge. The second edition provides updated examples of current language change, including new slang, as well as new research findings on American dialects, language acquisition, language evolution, eggcorns, English and the Internet, and much more. FEATURESo Focuses on issues especially important to English and Education majors, such as American dialects, descriptive and prescriptive approaches to English grammar, the social and political issues surrounding the English language, English spelling, stylistics, language attitudes, and language education. o Provides current examples that tie the linguistic material to students' everyday experiences with the English language. Each chapter opens with a scenario that highlights key issues covered in the chapter. o Includes engaging exercises that allow students to be active investigators of the English language, connect linguistic study to literary examples, and ask students to apply material to teaching situations. o Features a building block approach, beginning with an introduction to the foundations of systematic language study and the relationship of language and authority and then progressing up through the levels of language structure, from phonology through syntax and semantics to discourse and sociolinguistics. In the second edition, each chapter even more clearly shows how these levels are interrelated. o Provides a history of English throughout the text, which culminates in two final chapters focused on the past and future of English. o Includes a wealth of useful pedagogical material, clarifying or detailing text topics and prompting student participation: Questions to Discuss, Scholar Profile, and Language Change and Language Variation at Work boxes; end-of-chapter exercises; suggested readings; and a glossary of linguistic terminology. Visit us at www.pearsonhighered.com

A Linguistic Introduction

How English Works

How and why did grammatical gender, found in Old English and in other Germanic languages, gradually disappear from English and get replaced by a system where the gender of nouns and the use of personal pronouns depend on the natural gender of the referent? How is this shift related to 'irregular agreement' (such as she for ships) and 'sexist' language use (such as generic he) in Modern English, and how is the language continuing to evolve in these respects? Anne Curzan's accessibly written and carefully researched study is based on extensive corpus data, and will make a major contribution by providing a historical perspective on these often controversial questions. It will be of interest to researchers and students in history of English, historical linguistics, corpus linguistics, language and gender, and medieval studies.

Gender Shifts in the History of English

Kimberly Emmons

Studies in the History of the English Language II: Unfolding Conversations contains selected papers from the SHEL-2 conference held at the University of Washington in Spring 2002. In the volume, scholars from North America and Europe address a broad spectrum of research topics in historical English linguistics, including new theories/methods such as Optimality Theory and corpus linguistics, and traditional fields such as phonology and syntax. In each of the four sections - Philology and linguistics; Corpus- and text-based studies; Constraint-based studies; Dialectology - a key article provides the focal point for a discussion between leading scholars, who respond directly to each other's arguments within the volume. In Section 1, Donka Minkova and Lesley Milroy explore the possibilities of historical sociolinguistics as part of a discussion of the distinction between philology and linguistics. In Section 2, Susan M. Fitzmaurice and Erik Smitterberg provide new research findings on the history and usage of progressive constructions. In Section 3, Geoffrey Russom and Robert D. Fulk reanalyze the development of Middle English alliterative meter. In Section 4, Michael Montgomery, Connie Eble, and Guy Bailey interpret new historical evidence of the pen/pin merger in Southern American English. The remaining articles address equally salient problems and possibilities within the field of historical English linguistics. The volume spans topics and time periods from Proto-Germanic sound change to twenty-first century dialect variation, and methodologies from painstaking philological work with written texts to high-speed data gathering in computerized corpora. As a whole, the volume captures an ongoing conversation at the heart of historical English linguistics: the question of evidence and historical reconstruction.

Unfolding Conversations

Studies in the History of the English Language II

Lisa Damour

Lisa D'Amour

Discusses the challenges of teaching undergraduates and covers such subjects as leading discussions, creating lesson plans, and grading.

A Graduate Student's Guide to Teaching

First Day to Final Grade

The third edition of First Day to Final Grade: A Graduate Student’s Guide to Teaching is designed to help new graduate student teaching assistants navigate the challenges of teaching undergraduates. Both a quick reference tool and a fluid read, the book focuses on the “how tos” of teaching, such as setting up a lesson plan, running a discussion, and grading, as well as issues specific to the teaching assistant’s unique role as both student and teacher. This new edition incorporates newer teaching and learning pedagogy. The book has been updated to reflect the role of technology both inside and outside the classroom. In addition, a new chapter has been added that discusses successfully transitioning from being a teaching assistant to being hired as a full-time instructor.

Michael Patrick Adams

A major introductory language/linguistics textbook written specifically for English and Education majors, this book is an engaging introduction to the structure of English, general theories in linguistics, and important issues in sociolinguistics.¿ ¿ This accessible text provides more extensive coverage of issues of particular interest to English and Education majors.¿ Tapping into our natural curiosity about language, it invites all students to connect academic linguistics to everyday use of the English language and to become active participants in the construction of linguistic knowledge. ¿ The second edition provides updated examples of language change—including new slang and other word coinages, grammatical developments, and sound changes—as well as new research findings on American dialects, language acquisition, language evolution, eggcorns, English and the Internet, and much more.

Anne Curzan

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