atw: Re: Harumble for Geoffrey Pullum

Daryl,

Your comment "[Pullum's is] a technical textbook and in no wise a competitor
to EOS" is spot on, but a couple of correspondents to the thread assumed
that it was, and then used the apparently soporific denseness of its prose
as an argument against Pullum's review of EoS. The style of a writer has
nothing to do with the truth or otherwise of what the writer writes. A
critique of the grammar recommendations in EoS was the primary subject
matter of Pullum's review, and the style of Pullum's writing, whether in the
review itself or in some other of his writings, is utterly irrelevant to the
truth or otherwise of his critique. Argumentum ad hominem.

And just to pre-empt a likely retort: an apparently poor writing style
(however defined) should not automatically disqualify someone from writing
about language and writing styles. Do we expect a Professor of Poetry to be
a great poet? Of course not. It's what the Professor knows about poetry that
is important. Likewise, for every thousand teachers of music, there may be,
say, two who are or will be noteworthy composers. But that doesn't mean that
the other 998 are not worth paying attention to in matters musical.

What a pity this thread diverged so quickly from what should have been its
main focus (given that folk like us make our living from language), namely,
the relevance of prescriptive grammars in a period of accelerating
linguistic change.

Cheers
 
Geoffrey Marnell
Principal Consultant
Abelard Consulting Pty Ltd
T: +61 3 9596 3456
F: +61 3 9596 3625
W: www.abelard.com.au

-----Original Message-----
From: austechwriter-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:austechwriter-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Daryl Colquhoun
Sent: Saturday, April 18, 2009 11:58 PM
To: austechwriter list
Subject: atw: Harumble for Geoffrey Pullum

Howard Silcock says
 >Looking through the book A Student's Introduction to English Grammar by 
Pullum and Rodney Huddleston, I find it hard to imagine anyone would even 
think of using it to improve their writing. That would be like trying to 
improve your singing ability by studying a music theory book.



If you want to read something _entertaining_ from Geoffrey Pullum, my 
favourite grammarian*, see his 'The Great Eskimo Vocabulary Hoax and Other 
Irreverent Essays on the Study of Language'. (One of them is called 'Here 
come the linguistic fascists', but despite the promising title, it says 
nothing about so-called split infinitives.)

Or check him out at http://www.abc.net.au/rn/linguafranca/index/. 
Unfortunately the podcasts have gone but you can still read the transcripts.

* because he used to be a rock musician 
(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PvQ6U-M6e8A) but says 
(http://www.abc.net.au/rn/linguafranca/stories/1998/693377.htm) 'I craved 
excitement. So I turned to grammar.'



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