Date: 19 August 2018
Location: John and Marion
The Happy Bookers met this month at John and Marion’s to discuss Kory Stamper’s Word by Word. It was a lively discussion. We liked Stamper’s style, her humor. Her description of her job interview, she expressed an enthusiasm and a self-deprecating sense of fun that set the tone for the book.
There was some discussion, positive and negative, about Stamper’s opting for using “they” and “their” following a singular antecedent. That practice brought up the idea that everyone has a favorite solecism that they (there it is—should I say “he or she” or “hesh?) love to hate. Some nominations:
- Period after question mark
- Irregardless
- Confusion of “your” and “you’re”
- “I” in object position (a hyperurbanism), “me” in nominative position (low-brow)
- “This is Dr. X’s office”—it’s not an office, it’s a person
- “Like” as a verb, Facebook style
- “Criteria” used as singular instead of “criterion”
- “Data” with a singular verb—should be plural, e.g., “Data are”
Stamper’s discussion of “bitch” was good but too long (Peggy loved it). The chapter on marriage was the best section of the book. Everybody enjoyed the footnotes.
There was some discussion of texting as possibly leading to deterioration of the language. But we agreed (I think) that in this era with its practices the language is just changing, not deteriorating.
We spent some time on ironic uses of phrases like “Bless her heart.”
Well, it’s no surprise that the Bookers are a literate group full of insights about and pleasure in the English language.
—John