A Rant or A Rave? (Lost for Words - John Humphrys)

Member Name: zoe_page_1

Product:	Lost for Words - John Humphrys
Date:	03/08/09 (92 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: An easy - to - read, interesting book on language

Disadvantages: Some material highly similar to other books

Ranting is a popular thing these days. On television, in newspapers...even in the Speaker's Corner section of this site, people like to stand up in front of others and moan about something or other that is rubbing them up the wrong way. Some of these are interesting and some funny but a lot of the times they are just irritating. So, when I get my hands on a book that all but has the word rant in the subtitle, I'm never entirely sure which way it's going to go.

John Humphrys is a name I know best with a "Beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beeeeeeep" prefix having been brought up on Radio 4's Today programme. The dust jacket of the book also tells me he presents/ed Mastermind on BBC 2. So a Beeb man all round then. That should tell you something from the start - not for nothing is a certain style of our language called BBC English.

'Lost for Words' is, to quote the subtitle, about 'The Mangling and Manipulating of the English Language'. Eh, Grandpa, things ain't like they used to be in the good old days, are they? Segmented by theme, the book looks at many topics including the (bad) influence of the Americans, why politicians could do with some refresher courses on grammar and vocabulary, the world that is tabloid 'language', why the Daily Mail should never, ever be your paper of choice and how the language of government policies deliberately makes comprehension a task achievable by only the best of the best.

Though the book is not one which was originally a newspaper column or similar, it does have that sort of feel to it in a way. The chapters may be few in number, but they are subdivided into so many parts that the actual self-contained sections are numerous. This makes it easy to pick up and put down as the trains of thought fade out and then restart page after page. I've been reading this book for a couple of months now which is not usual for me, but my reading time is currently limited, and the layout of the book does not make me feel compelled to keep going at any point - I know I'll be able to pick up easily just where I left off a couple of days later.

The book does a lot of finger pointing and a lot of laughing, but though it's not a laughing with book per se, it doesn't laugh at the readers, just the worrying figures in the public eye who cannot string a sentence together for love nor money. It's a funny book because of this, and also because of the examples of language, from interesting to horrific, that he scatters throughout. I spent 4 years at university looking for amusing anecdotes to scatter through my linguistics exam papers in an effort to make the examiners smile, but this book has many more beyond the routinely cited ones you may be familiar with.

So is the book nothing but a personal rant about the state of English today? I don't feel that it is. There is nothing in the book that I disagree with, and at times I think he was actually quite diplomatic and nice - I know I could have been a lot less polite. The style is a chatty one which endeavours to get the reader on side - a 'ooh, it is dreadful, isn't it?' kind of approach. I read a review of this book that said it was overly basic and simplistically written. This is answered, in my mind, when you read what Humphrys has to say, and how he says it. Indeed, the main point of the book comes not from the content but from the way it's written - language should be clear and accessible to all. Why use 20 words when half a dozen will do? Why use long, Latinate words just to show you have them in your idiolect when a shorter, more common one can deliver exactly the same meaning? Why be pedantic about language when rules, though usually a good idea, sometimes just need to be broken - infinitives split, sentences concluded with prepositions - you get the idea. Compared to other books on the subject, I found this one of the better of a good bunch. It's like Bryson's Mother Tongue only more focussed, or like the same author's Made In America but a hundred times more readable and much more relevant. Indispensable for linguistics scholars looking for a relaxing read, and undeniably useful for anyone else with a vague interest in reading, writing or speaking English.




The 2005 edition paperback is available on Amazon from 1p used.

ISBN: 0340836598 or click on the link above

Summary: Linguistics for linguists and non-linguists alike