The Land of the Free and “The Elements of Style” (2010) [pdf](lel.ed.ac.uk)
lel.ed.ac.uk
The Land of the Free and “The Elements of Style” (2010) [pdf]
http://www.lel.ed.ac.uk/~gpullum/LandOfTheFree.pdf
4 comments
the second link is the bestester of the too.
Looks like a bunch of good points held together by diatribe. S&W is a good book. The list of errata would be more helpful without the ranting.
Example: Prescriptive grammar didn't rely so much on evidence. That's a truism that (a) doesn't tell us much about E.B. White's personal character flaws ("arrogance"), and (b) leaves us awfully starry-eyed and idealistic about the downsides of descriptive grammar. Who knows what they'll say about us in fifty years?
Example: Prescriptive grammar didn't rely so much on evidence. That's a truism that (a) doesn't tell us much about E.B. White's personal character flaws ("arrogance"), and (b) leaves us awfully starry-eyed and idealistic about the downsides of descriptive grammar. Who knows what they'll say about us in fifty years?
Pullum, the author, is a regular contributor to Language Log, which is highly recommended.
http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/
http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/
Finally, it is fixed https://hg.python.org/peps/rev/b93d501ba313
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=557618
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=566335