Are you annoyed by grammar purists?
Do prescriptive pedants pester you with trivial issues of usage?
What you need is some ammunition for fighting back. And it’s here, in the new book Bad English: A History of Linguistic Aggravation.
Linguist Daniel Midgley talks with author Ammon Shea on this episode of Talk the Talk.
Listen to this episode
You can listen to all the episodes of Talk the Talk by pasting this URL into your podlistener.
http://danielmidgley.com/talkthetalk/talk_classic.xmlPromo
Show notes
Linguists decry accent contest
http://www.post-gazette.com/local/region/2014/10/04/Linguists-decry-accent-contest-n-at/stories/201410030201
What’s Wrong With “America’s Ugliest Accent”
http://www.slate.com/blogs/lexicon_valley/2014/10/02/america_s_ugliest_accent_what_s_wrong_with_gawker_s_tournament.html
Bad English: A History of Linguistic Aggravation by Ammon Shea
http://www.penguin.com.au/contributors/6040/ammon-shea
Ammon’s article in The Week
http://theweek.com/article/index/263113/a-brief-history-of-linguistic-aggravation
Ammon Shea’s website
http://www.ammon-shea.com/
What is the ‘shirtfront’ Tony Abbott wants to give to Vladimir Putin?
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-10-14/shirtfront-tony-abbott-vladimir-putin-g20/5811502
Russian official mocks Tony Abbott after threat to ‘shirt-front’ Vladimir Putin
http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/russian-official-mocks-tony-abbott-after-threat-to-shirtfront-vladimir-putin-20141014-115pp0.html
buttonhole
http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/buttonhole
Buttonhole was originally buttonhold.
http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?search=Buttonhole
“When fashion decreed that upper buttons be eliminated, button-holders didn’t suddenly reform. Instead they began grabbing people by the buttonholes (that) designers, for no good reason, left on the lapels and the phrase became to buttonhole.”
http://www.phrases.org.uk/bulletin_board/6/messages/68.html
The French have the same expression: Serrer le bouton de quelqu’un.
http://www.bartleby.com/81/2731.html
