Re: Which edition of "Fowler's Modern English Usage" is proper for ESL learners now?
- From: Lars Eighner <usenet@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Mon, 22 Sep 2008 22:22:19 +0000 (UTC)
In our last episode, <6jqekuF4idpmU1@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, the lovely and
talented Athel Cornish-Bowden broadcast on alt.usage.english:
I wouldn't recommend The King's English to someone learning English as
a foreign language,
I am a native speaker of an English of a kind, and although I believe I can
follow Fowler's arguments on shall and will (in TKE) and do not doubt their
value to me in understanding some texts, I do not believe anyone not native
to the dialect could ever learn to speak according to Fowler's rules by
Fowler. I can barely recall the drowning mnemonic* when I am writing, but
now I know it is inadequate.
as it goes into a tremendous amount of detail about
the sort of things Don mentioned. Nonetheless, as it is not an
encyclopaedic book it can spread itself out on a few topics the authors
thought important without needing to try to cover every topic. For
someone who already knows about English usage the more than 30 (!)
pages on relative pronouns are interesting to read, and not just of
historical interest.
* I will drown, no one shall save me. (suicide's statement)
I shall drown, no one will save me. (dispairing cry for help)
--
Lars Eighner <http://larseighner.com/> usenet@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
If I had to live my life again, I'd make the same mistakes, only sooner.
--Tallulah Bankhead
.
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