About a year ago Geoffrey Pullum, one of the authors and
editors of the Cambridge Grammar of the English Language, published a trenchant
critique of Strunk and White’s Elements of Style. I believe there was
brief discussion of the critique at the time, and the topic continues to come
up on Language Log and other linguistic blog sites. Pullum’s critique is
available at http://chronicle.com/article/50-Years-of-Stupid-Grammar-/25497/
and is worth a read—or a reread—as a critique of popular knowledge
of grammar and even of grammatical knowledge among those of us apparently
specialized in the area. I’d be interested in what ATEG readers think of
what Pullum has to say.
Herb
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