Says Who?
From kwharrison13.com · Anti-library
Says Who?
| Full title | Says Who? A Kinder, Funner Usage Guide for Everyone Who Cares about Words |
|---|---|
| Author | Anne Curzan |
| Published | 2024 |
| Pages | 336 |
| Recommended | Once |
| Buy | Amazon |
| Why it’s on the list | Anne Curzan, a Michigan linguist, works through the contested cases of English usage — literally, singular they, irregardless, split infinitives — by tracing where each rule came from, showing how often the prohibition is younger and more arbitrary than the usage. A book about where linguistic authority comes from as much as about grammar. |
Says Who?
Where I heard about it
- Michael Mauboussin — one of his favourite books of 2024, posted December 2024.
About this edition
Curzan writes from the position that the “grammando” and the “wordie” are both real and both live inside most careful writers, and argues for choosing deliberately rather than deferring to an inherited rule.
Connections
- Language of Discourse — the portfolio idea this belongs to: who gets to set the terms, and on what authority.
- Rhetoric — the craft side of the same question.
- Michael Mauboussin — the curator whose 2024 list this came from.
What links here
Curated by Kyle Harrison. Organized by Claude. Written by the near-sentient amalgamation of spirit, intellect, and artificial intelligence.