Making Sense

David Crystal has written dozens of books about the English language (there are a couple already on my shelves) but I wasn't aware of this smart little series in matching covers. The orange Making Sense deals with grammar; Making a Point (red) is about punctuation; Spell It Out (teal) -- you can guess that one; Sounds Appealing (blue) is about pronunciation; and there is also The Story of English in 100 Words (green) which I've already read without realising it was part of a series.

I was sceptical about the implied promise of the subtitle (The Glamorous Story of English Grammar) to make grammar interesting, and he did mostly succeed. He cleverly starts each explanatory section with the example of his little daughter learning how to speak -- first in single words, then stringing two words together, then more -- and unconsciously picking up principles of grammar along the way. He points out that so many of the 'rules' of grammar traditionally taught were misapplied to English from languages like Latin and Greek, and paid little attention to the way English was actually spoken. Crystal strikes a nice balance by conceding that language is an ever-evolving, living system, and at the same time gently demonstrating that some rules are necessary for clarity of meaning.

I'm fighting a continual battle in my house with my younger daughter, who is definitely from the 'language is always evolving' school, while I'm often fuming in futile pedantry because some radio announcer has said 'less' instead of 'fewer,' or 'different to' instead of 'different from' (I do have to admit defeat on that one, the horse has well and truly bolted there). David Crystal has persuaded me that I should loosen up a little, but I reserve the right to fume -- I'll just have to fume silently!