A guide to precise phrases, grammar, and pronunciation can be key; it can even be admired. But beloved? Yet from its first appearance in 1926, Fowler's was just that. Henry Watson Fowler initially aimed his Dictionary of Modern English Usage, as he wrote to his publishers in 1911, at "the half-educated Englishman of literary proclivities who wants to know Can I say so-&-so?" He was of course obsessed with, in Swift's phrase, "proper words in their proper places." But having been a schoolmaster, Fowler knew that liberal doses of style, wit, and caprice would keep his manual off the shelf and in writers' hands. He also felt that description must accompany prescription, and that advocating pedantic "superstitions" and "fetishes" would be to no one's advantage. Adepts will have their favorite inconsequential entries--from burgle to brood, truffle to turgid. Would that we could quote them all, but we can't resist a couple. Here Fowler lays into dedicated: He is that rara avis a dedicated boxer. The sporting correspondent who wrote this evidently does not see why the literary critics should have a monopoly of this favourite word of theirs, though he does not seem to think that it will be greatly needed in his branch of the business. Needless to say, later on rara avis is also smacked upside the head! And practically fares no better: "It is unfortunate that practically should have escaped from its true meaning into something like its opposite," Fowler begins. But our linguistic hero also knew full well when to put a crimp on comedy. Some phrases and proper uses, it's clear, would always be worth fighting for, and the guide thus ranges from brief definitions to involved articles. Archaisms, for instance, he considered safe only in the hands of the experienced, and meaningless words, especially those used by the young, "are perhaps more suitable for the psychologist than for the philologist." Well, youth might respond, "Whatever!"--though only after examining the keen differences between that phrase and what ever. (One can only imagine what Fowler would have made of our late-20th-century abuses of like.) This is where Robert Burchfield's 1996 third edition comes in. Yes, Fowler lost the fight for one r in guerrilla and didn't fare too well when it came to quashing such vogue words as smear and seminal. But he knew--and makes us ever aware--that language is a living, breathing (and occasionally suffocating) thing, and we hope that he would have welcomed any and all revisions. Fowlerphiles will want to keep their first (if they're very lucky) or second editions at hand, but should look to Burchfield for new entries on such phrases as gay, iron curtain, and inchoate--not to mention girl. --Kerry Fried
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这本书的重量和内容深度,让它成为了我书架上不可或缺的“镇架之宝”。我通常不会一次性读完,而是将其作为一本随时可以翻阅的参考典籍。每当遇到写作瓶颈或者对某个表达方式产生疑问时,随手一翻,总能找到令人豁然开朗的解答。它不像那些网络资源那样信息零散、真假难辨,而是提供了一个经过深思熟虑、结构严谨的知识体系。对于任何一个严肃对待英文表达的人来说,这本书提供的不仅仅是规则,更是一种对语言的尊重和理解的深度,这种积累起来的知识沉淀是任何快速搜索都无法替代的。
评分坦白说,我不是一个对语言细节有强迫症的人,但自从翻开这本书后,我开始注意到自己写作和表达中那些过去忽略的小瑕疵。这本书的篇幅很可观,但我没有感到任何拖沓,每个部分都有其存在的价值。特别是关于风格和修辞那一章,它引导我去思考如何让文字更有力量、更有感染力,而不仅仅是语法正确。它教会了我如何根据不同的听众和场合调整我的“语言装备”,这种从“术”到“道”的升华,使得这本书的价值远远超越了一本简单的语法手册,更像是一本关于有效沟通的艺术指南。我发现自己开始有意识地去构建更复杂的句式,去选择更精准的动词,这种潜移默化的影响是巨大的。
评分这本书的检索系统是我近年来使用工具书中感受最好的之一。索引部分做得极其详尽,几乎涵盖了所有可能被搜索的关键词和短语搭配。我尤其欣赏它在处理“灰色地带”用法时的态度——不搞“一刀切”,而是清晰地列出不同语境下的适用性和接受度,并配有实际的例句佐证。比如,在处理一些新出现的俚语或特定行业术语的规范性时,作者没有采取回避的态度,而是审慎地评估了它们在主流语境中“站稳脚跟”的可能性,这种与时俱进又不失严谨性的做法,让这本书即保持了工具书的权威性,又不至于显得僵化过时。
评分这本书的装帧设计实在是太棒了,拿到手里就能感受到那种沉甸甸的质感,封面选择了哑光处理,触感非常舒适,即便是经常翻阅也不会轻易留下指纹。字体排版也处理得极为精妙,行距和字间距都拿捏得恰到好处,即便是长时间阅读也不会感到眼睛疲劳。尤其要称赞的是其内部的插图和图表设计,虽然这是一本注重文字的工具书,但那些辅助理解的图示却简洁明了,用色克制却有效地点明了核心概念,这体现了编辑团队对细节的极致追求。相比于市面上那些花哨堆砌的封面设计,这本书显然更注重内在的阅读体验和长久的收藏价值,从打开书本的那一刻起,你就能体会到它所散发出的那种经典而永恒的魅力,让人忍不住想要细细品味每一个章节。
评分我购买这本书主要是基于对其作者在语言学界声望的信赖,但阅读过程中的体验却远超预期。它并非那种高高在上、充满晦涩术语的学术专著,相反,作者的叙事方式非常平易近人,仿佛一位经验丰富、学识渊博的导师在耳边娓娓道来。书中对那些模棱两可的用法进行了深入的剖析,不仅仅是告诉我们“应该怎么做”,更重要的是解释了“为什么这样是最佳选择”,这种溯源式的讲解方式极大地满足了我对语言背后逻辑的好奇心。我发现,许多我过去凭直觉判断的语法点,在这本书中找到了坚实的理论支撑,这对于提升我日常写作的准确性和自信心起到了立竿见影的作用。
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