H. W. Fowler
From Teflpedia
Henry Watson Fowler (1858–1933) was a lexicographer and grammarian who, together with his brother, F. G. Fowler, compiled major authoritative works on the English language.
He was noted for his typically common-sensical remarks regarding usage of English and liked to have a dig at commonly-held beliefs.
Contents
Classic Fowler... Fowlerian quips & Fowleresque[edit]
- Preposition (at end): "It is a cherished superstition that prepositions must, in spite of the incurable English instinct for putting them late,... be kept true to their name, & placed before the word they govern. 'A sentence ending in a preposition is an elegant sentence' represents a very general belief. The fact is that the remarkable freedom enjoined in English in putting its prepositions late & omitting its relative is an important element in the flexibility of the language....".[1]
- Split infinitive: "The English-speaking world may be divided into (1) those who neither know nor care what a split infinitive is; (2) those who do not know, but care very much; (3) those who know and condemn; (4) those who know and distinguish. Those who neither know nor care are the vast majority, and are happy folk, to be envied."[2]
- Whose: “Let us, in the name of common sense, prohibit the prohibition of whose inanimate; good writing is surely difficult enough without the forbidding of things that have historical grammar, and present intelligibility, and obvious convenience, on their side”. (Modern English Usage (1926)).[3]
Publications[edit]
- The King's English (1906) - H. W. Fowler and F. G. Fowler
- The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Current English (1911) adapted by H. W. Fowler and F. G. Fowler
- A Dictionary of Modern English Usage (1926) aka Modern English Usage
References[edit]
- ↑ Visser, F. Th. An Historical Syntax of the English Language, Volume 1, pág. 403. Brill Archive at Google Books.
- ↑ "Style guide" The Guardian
- ↑ [1] The Chicago Manual of Style. Retrieved 30th September 2012.
External links[edit]
- [2] YouTube video of David Crystal on Fowler's Modern English Usage