But to study English literature is to open yourself to the literature of other nations, because English authors were never reading only English. You cannot have Chaucer without the three great Florentines: Dante, Petrarch, and, especially, Boccaccio. You cannot have the English . . . Continue reading →
Grammar and Writing
Grammar Guerrilla: “Prayers For” Vs “Prayers To”
The economy is hard for everyone right now. Even prepositions have fallen on hard times. In popular media, in news media, and particularly in social media, one regularly sees the expression, “prayers to so and so.” This usage reveals two errors, one . . . Continue reading →
The Belief Continuum
Often, we employ a single word for many uses; even for similar uses. We employ belief (and its cognate verb) to mean at least four things, each of which can also be usefully distinguished from the others, on a continuum: prejudice, opinion, . . . Continue reading →
The Grammar Guerrilla Returns: Dismantling The Wall Of Creeping Illiteracy
I realized recently that I have been neglecting my responsibility to save English grammar in America. My sincerest apologies, but the Grammar Guerrilla is back to observe and complain about the expression “too good of.” We hear it most often on sports-talk . . . Continue reading →
Grammar Guerrilla: Grammar Is For Everyone
I submit that given a library of about 300 well chosen books, a chalkboard/dry erase board, a supply of paper, pencils, and pens, a cadre of dedicated, well educated teachers, who had authority to discipline students, produce outstanding high school graduates who, upon examination, could gain entrance into any university in the West. A substantial percentage of what, after Dewey is reckoned education is, in fact, a waste of time and energy. Continue reading →
Grammar Guerilla: Wake, Woke, Woken And Transitive And Intransitive Verbs
The widespread use of woke, the past tense of wake, as an adjective is ungrammatical but there are other issues with the use of forms of wake. The conjugation of wake is: wake (present): It is time to wake up and smell . . . Continue reading →
Grammar Guerilla: It Is “He And I” Not “Me And Him”
I have been warning students for some years about the impending collapse of Western civilization. It used to be a joke. Now, the warnings are rueful. Another evidence that the end is closer than it might seem is the apparent loss of . . . Continue reading →
A Phrase To Be Retired: Best Practice
Every human endeavor has its own vocabulary. Auto mechanics shorthand expressions and jargon—though beware if he or she tells you that you need a new Johnson Rod as you will pay good money for no part and no service—like every other endeavor under the sun. Continue reading
Grammar Guerrilla: “Speak Into” And “Love On”
The American Evangelical Abuse Of Prepositions Continues
Two popular expressions entered the American colloquial lexicon about a decade ago. I first heard them both used by an evangelical from the American South. He wanted to “speak into” an issue and “love on” some people. It seems as if the . . . Continue reading →
On The Etymological Fallacy, Semantics, And Defining Reformed
I have been thinking a bit about the etymological fallacy, which seeks to define words and other things by their origin.
Grammar Guerrilla: Regardless v. Irregardless
Americans love to add intensifiers to words. They do it to add force to existing words. Irregardless, an adjective and an adverb, is a good example of this tendency. The earliest citation in the Oxford English Dictionary is from 1912, but it occurs in . . . Continue reading →
Updated Resource Page: Grammar Guerrilla
I was surprised to learn that of the more than 6,000 Heidelblog posts, two of the most popular have been Grammar Guerrilla posts: Grammar Guerrilla: Comfort v Comfortability and Grammar Guerrilla: Agreement v Agreeance. Continue reading →
Grammar Guerilla: Imply And Infer
Imply and infer are closely related in meaning but they are distinct in their subjects and yet people regularly confuse them. In general, the speaker or writer implies and the reader or hearer infers. An implication is a suggestion of something without . . . Continue reading →
Grammar Guerilla: Quasi As Distinct From Pseudo (And Why Latin Helps)
Just before I entered public school in 1966 the geniuses who were running the education establishment had already begun to give up on education in favor of using schools as laboratories of social change, personal development, and family therapy. In their defense, . . . Continue reading →
Grammar Guerrilla: Lose The “Of”
“He is as good of a running back as you will see in the SEC.” One hears and sees the expression, “as good of” almost constantly now and it as defective as it is unnecessary. The first part of the problem is . . . Continue reading →
Grammar Guerrilla: Punctuation Is Not Mean Spirited. Full Stop.
According to a number of media stories (the original story appeared in the UK Telegraph) Generation Z, those born 1995–2015, find certain punctuation marks threatening. The argument is that the use of the period (“full stop” in the UK) in text messages (and . . . Continue reading →
Grammar Guerrilla: Pronoun Primer
In yet another indicator that the West is collapsing, Webster’s Dictionary has apparently named they, used to designate a particular, non-gendered person, the word of 2019. This seems to call for a quick refresher on basic grammar: There are two kinds of . . . Continue reading →
Orwell On The Value Of Good Writing
Now, it is clear that the decline of a language must ultimately have political and economic causes: it is not due simply to the bad influence of this or that individual writer. But an effect can become a cause, reinforcing the original . . . Continue reading →
Grammar Guerilla: Cases Still Matter in English
Not very long ago, as recently as the 1950s and 60s, the most remote public school student in America learned a little Latin. By remote I mean, e.g., rural villages in Nebraska. By the 1970s, however, Latin went the way of phonics . . . Continue reading →
Grammar Guerilla: Versus v. Verse
Words are frequently learned aurally. After all, children learn their native language aurally until they learn to read. Even after we learn to read, however, we continue to collect new words through hearing them. I suspect that fact may account for the . . . Continue reading →