Bryan Garner

Garner’s Modern American Usage

Black’s Law Dictionary

The Chicago Manual of Style

Sprachgefühl

Idiocracy

Vice

Vice: To start, I’m interested in how English grammar and usage morph over time.

Bryan Garner:

English Grammar

Wow.

I love the thought of earlier generations of Americans arguing points of grammar.

Those are just two of the strange directives that we receive in school that don’t really have a basis in the rules of grammar.

I’d say that the general decline of proper grammar today has to do with the fact that it’s not really put into practical use by as many people as it once was.

How do you see the quality of writing and communication on the internet affecting grammar today?

News aggregators and things like that.

Because of competing media, probably—television, games, film.

And with the internet, I also think of how people express themselves via things like Facebook or Twitter, where there’s a large value based on not only being as brief as possible—which can be a good thing in terms of clear writing—but also a lot of shorthand and use of acronyms. Those things might lead to interesting evolutions in language as time goes on, but in the short term, it’s just a mess.

Do you keep up with the state of grammar as it’s taught in public schools nowadays?

That’s a lot.

And if public schools don’t teach grammar as well as private schools do, it would follow that grammar helps to maintain class differences in culture.

Garner’s Modern American Usage

I have. It’s a sort of book that I really like in that I can pick it up, open it at random, and jump in.

What’s the gist of it?

Right, right.

This I’ve encountered before.

How does this relate to the ongoing battle between descriptivists and prescriptivists?

Who Killed Grammar?

What was the logic behind doing that?

[laughs] Well, as long as the teachers are having fun…

Going back to these points of grammar that you refer to as “superstitions,” such as not ending a sentence with a preposition or not beginning a sentence with and or but… these things were taught as gospel in my high school, and they’re just wrong.

But as you’ve written, you were lucky enough to come from a family that had a long-standing interest in grammar, usage, and linguistics.

So was there a parallel self-education going on for you when you weren’t really getting what you wanted out of your public school education?

laughs

I know. I think that his work was where I first heard of you.

I’ve seen some of that collection online. It looks great. He was kind of alone among his contemporaries in his precise care for grammar and vocabulary, and his willingness to use obscure words and to write these daring, long, complicated sentences.

A lot of people—when they come across somebody who uses abstruse words or a larger than usual vocabulary, or who speaks with noticeably proper grammar—will perceive that person as arrogant or snooty. Do you come across that much?

Just to clarify, “SNOOT” is a term that Wallace coined to describe people who care a great deal more about grammar than most people do.

Or a person who is constantly correcting other people’s speech.

In your work on legal writing, there’s a lot of support for plain and simple—a kind of directness that is lacking in a lot of legalese.

Is looking for examples to use in the next edition of Modern American Usage a daily practice for you?

Garner’s Modern American Usage

Are you able to tell me one or two of the more common mistakes that you find?

Modern American Usage

I guess that the difference between you and a lot of grammarians is that you do something constructive with the things that you find to criticize. You use them as examples.

How about giving us a layman’s definition of descriptivism and prescriptivism?

It’s more like cultural anthropology than grammar.

Will you tell me the names of a couple contemporary fiction writers of whom you’re a fan?

New York Times

You’re not missing much, believe me.

The Collected Works of Joseph Conrad

That is great stuff.

Well, you’re not nine years old.

And when you are reading fiction for pleasure, is it difficult to be so attuned to grammar and usage?

That’s kind of rough.

It’s a shame to miss out on the emotional impact of good fiction.

Charlotte’s Web

A Farewell to Arms

Yeah.

Didn’t E.B. White write Charlotte’s Web?

That’s sort of a funny coincidence—a book that moved you to tears is by somebody who also coauthored The Elements of Style, a classic grammar and usage guide. Do you pay attention to public-speaking trends in terms of the speeches given by politicians and CEOs?

It is indeed.

What are televangelists doing right?

laughs

And sermonizing is certainly one of the oldest traditions of public speaking.

What advice would you give to people who are in their mid-20s and might feel like they’re lacking in proper education regarding these things? Where can one educate oneself regarding grammar?

Economist

New Yorker

Can you explain that a little more?

That’s a good way to look at it. Any more concrete advice?

The Elements of Style

Writing With Style

Conversations on the Art of Writing

You mentioned the New Yorker, and generally I think its grammar and usage are great, but I’m really bothered how, when the same vowel occurs consecutively within a word, they place an umlaut over the second occurrence of the vowel.

New Yorker

New Yorker

laughs

I guess, as a whole, the archaicism at the New Yorker is sort of charming.

archaism

Oh God, of course. Sorry. Between the diaeresis and that, you’re killing me right now.

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