Garner's Modern English Usage
ISBN 9780197599020 | | |
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Garner's Modern English Usage (GMEU), written by
In a study that compared Garner's usage guide to Henry W. Fowler's, Robin Straaijer said that the two have many similarities. He pointed out that Garner (who had expressed his admiration for Fowler's work) had organized his book in a similar format and agreed with Fowler on many usage debates.[3]
Editions
The first edition was published in 1998 as A Dictionary of Modern American Usage, and released in an abridged, paperback edition in 2000 as The Oxford Dictionary of American Usage and Style.
In 2003, the second full edition was published under the title Garner's Modern American Usage, with one-third more content than the original edition.[4] A third edition was published under that title in August 2009.
An updated edition covering British and other World Englishes was released in April 2016 under the title Garner's Modern English Usage. It was notable for using the Google Ngram Viewer to compare some 2,300 ratios of standard versus variant forms of usages, e.g., "Current ratio (harked back vs. harped back): 170:1" (Garner 2016, p. 452).
This was followed by something of a companion volume, The Chicago Guide to Grammar, Usage, and Punctuation (University of Chicago Press, May 2016), Garner's major expansion of his chapter on the topic in the last several editions of The Chicago Manual of Style.
The fifth edition was published in 2022.[5]
Reception
Novelist
Garrison Keillor has called Garner's Modern American Usage one of the five most influential books in his library. Other critics, including John Simon, William Safire, Bill Walsh, and Barbara Wallraff, have praised the book's clear, simple, and nuanced guidance.
Michael Quinion of WorldWideWords.org said in his review[4] that usage guides "row a course against the current of modern lexicography and linguistics", which are descriptive fields that often fail to "meet the day-to-day needs of those users of English who want to speak and write in a way that is acceptable to educated opinion." Quinion opined that Garner lays down rules without falling victim to "worn-out shibboleths or language superstitions".
References
- ISBN 978-0190491482.
- ^ "The Chicago Manual of Style". www-chicagomanualofstyle-org.byu.idm.oclc.org. Retrieved 2023-11-01.
- S2CID 150332935.
- ^ a b "World Wide Words: Garner's Modern American Usage". Archived from the original on 2008-02-22. Retrieved 2008-02-18.
- ISBN 978-0197599020.
- ^ Wallace, David Foster (April 2001). "Tense Present: Democracy, English, and the Wars over Usage". Harper's Magazine. Harper's Magazine Foundation. Archived from the original on 18 March 2013. Retrieved 29 March 2013.
Similar works
- Modern American Usage by Wilson Follett
- Henry W. Fowler
- The Elements of Style by Strunk and White
- The Chicago Manual of Style, by the University of Chicago Press
- The Complete Plain Words by Sir Ernest Gowers
- The Cambridge Guide to English Usage by Pam Peters
- The Most Common Errors in English Usage and How to Avoid Them by Elaine Bender.
- When Bad Grammar Happens to Good People: How to Avoid Common Errors in English by Ann Batko
- Plain Style by Christopher Lasch
- Merriam-Webster's Dictionary of English Usage by Merriam-Webster
- Usage and Abusage by Eric Partridge
- The New Fowler's Modern English Usage by R. W. Burchfield
- The King's English by H. W. Fowler and F. G. Fowler
- The Standard of Usage in English by Thomas R. Lounsbury
- Writer's Guide and Index to English by Porter G. Perrin
- Dos, Don'ts & Maybes of English Usage by Theodore M. Bernstein
- On Writing Well by William Zinsser
- How to Be Brief: An Index to Simple Writing by Rudolf Flesch.