Says Who?

Starred review from January 22, 2024
In this spirited treatise, Curzan (Fixing English), an English professor at the University of Michigan, argues that readers should embrace the flexibility of language. “Debates about language are almost always about more than language,” she writes, reflecting on how power and authority affect what’s considered proper usage. Curzan explains that standardized English isn’t inherently more correct than other forms (hisself, she explains, actually follows the grammatical pattern established by myself, yourself, and herself more closely than himself does), it’s just the iteration chosen by “speakers with social, political, and economic power” to be the one against which others are judged. Readers should accept the evolving meaning of such contested phrases as “more unique,” Curzan contends, positing that though the phrase dilutes the literal definition of unique, such shifts in meaning are common and unavoidable (the definition of decimate was initially “kill one in every ten”). Instead of striving to evaluate whether usage is “correct,” Curzan encourages considering whether a “word is working effectively in context.” For instance, she suggests that as literally becomes increasingly understood to also mean figuratively, readers should be careful to “avoid unnecessary ambiguity” in formal writing while recognizing that its conversational use as an intensifier usually does little to impede understanding. Chock-full of fascinating trivia and persuasively argued, this will give grammar sticklers pause. Agent: Gail Ross, Ross Yoon Agency.