On Language

by William Safire

William Safire's column is the lead article of the NEW YORK TIMES MAGAZINE, and by now it has become a fixed point of the Sunday landscape, the first thing one looks at upon daring the day to stay rational. If the TIMES can be said to reach the nation, Safire occupies the Sunday morning chair of the Committee on the American language.The rest of the committee consists of hundreds of vigilant letter-writers who heap Safire's desk with amplifications, appreciations, and what he calls "shame-on-you's." In his column, Safire often groups examples of usage and misusages to illustrate a theme. Here in the book, the entries are arranged in alphabetical order, and with the addition of these letters from the readers, the declarations of the column are enlarged into a stated meeting of the Language Committee.John CiardiSaturday Review

Genres: Nonfiction, Language, Writing, Linguistics, Reference, Essays

Hardcover

First published January 1, 1980

About the author

William Lewis Safire was an American author, columnist, journalist and presidential speechwriter.

He was perhaps best known as a long-time syndicated political columnist for the New York Times and a regular contributor to "On Language" in the New York Times Magazine, a column on popular etymology, new or unusual usages, and other language-related topics.

Reviews

[Carla Remy]

I couldn't read this because a) it was so yellow-paged and gross and b) it's hardly a book made for reading straight though, just excerpts of his column. Interesting, though, what I did read: the state of our english language's evolution in 1980. But does it really matter whether we say "it is clear" or "clearly," and isn't it pretty pointless of me to find this interesting? And shouldn't I stop buying nasty old disintegrating books at the Goodwill then giving them back?

[Brendan · Rating 3 out of 5]

I bought this at a "Friends of the Library" book sale while on vacation. It was a nice way to "extend" my vacation once I came home, since I think of that location while I'm reading it. Not that the book has anything at all to do with that location, it's just linked in my own head.

So the book itself, severed from the association with my vacation, is okay. (Damning with faint praise, I know.) I really enjoyed it for about the first 1/3, was amused by the second 1/3, and felt like I was slogging through and just waiting for it to end by the last 1/3. The book is a collection of the "On Language" columns written by Safire for the NY Times Sunday Magazine from approximately 1977-1980. (I'm pretty sure that there are later books that collect later columns.) It's engaging to read the thoughts of another person who cares about English grammar and usage as much as I do, but it is oddly frustrating to read his opinions when I disagree with them. (Example: This book came out in the '80s. But he would have written that it came out in the 80's. He's dead, so I win.)

My real problem, and why this book does not rate higher, is that the book is arranged alphabetically by topic. The columns themselves refer back to previous topics, but those previous topics may not yet have been reached by a linear reader. This makes the book seem to be in almost random order. The material would have been better served by leaving it in chronological order and letting the reader use the index to find specific topics as needed.

I was also unhappy with the inclusion of all (most of?) the mistakes Safire left in his columns. I understand giving us a "warts and all" picture of the work, but somehow I would have preferred having a more polished product in book form. The mistakes are (usually?) pointed out in letters or excerpts from fans and co-workers, with corrections. I like that he gives credit in this manner to those who took the time to make the corrections, but it still leaves me with the feeling that there was very little effort involved in making this book.

[J.D. Steens · Rating 1 out of 5]

Two-thirds the way through, I gave up. The book is into minutia and too much so for my preferences. Safire chews the cud a lot and he is boringly cute. I wonder why he didn’t follow more of his advice to others - cut out the chafe, don’t clutter, get to the point.

The letters in response to Safire’s columns - were sometimes interesting, but mostly not. Pretty much over-the-top stuff - from one erudite to another. Yes, erudite used as a noun and not an adjective. Horrors. Safire has a hard time with such “misuses” including the use of quotes like this, which indicates something is amiss. There’s a strong sense that he is pretty much a stuck-in-time fellow. He has many pet peeves. I can’t imagine having a conversation with him.

The title of the book, “On Language,” reveals a modicum of ethnocentrism since he’s not really talking about language per se, but the English language, and narcissism since he’s talking about his own standards for correctness (white, coastal?), which come off as more than somewhat nitpicky with a bit of an attitude so that his English is standard and all else is dialect. Of course this bumps into the prescriptivist and descriptivist debate. Prescriptivism makes sense when there’s some sort of a national language board that has recognized authority over correct usage. Otherwise, as in the USA, it’s people like Safire who claim the mantle. I wonder how much of this reflects a certain amount of cultural tribalism, which is to say, comfort at the personal level where different ways of expressing oneself, however sloppy or imprecise or non-standard, are so glaringly wrong to what we are used to that it comes at us much like the sound of fingernails moving across a blackboard. Is it that, or maybe it’s about “proper” usage that signifies one’s standing relative to others. Rather than focusing on understanding and respect, we put down people for not being quite up to snuff, but our reaction then says more about ourselves than others.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentis...

[Matt Buongiovanni · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is a collection of essays written by William Safire on, well, the English language. I don’t have much to say beyond the fact that it’s a very enjoyable read if you’re the sort of person who shares Safire’s obsessiveness over the minutia of grammar and usage. Safire has a decent sense of humor, and the book features a number of letters from readers of his column, who often take him to task for his errors, and are just as funny as he is. This will be a less essential addition to my bookshelf than my copy of Garner’s Modern English Usage, but I’m sure that it will be just as fun to return to over the years.

[Donna Davis · Rating 4 out of 5]

"One nation, and a vegetable?" "Through the night with the light from a bulb?" I never knew that a commie like me could find a conservative pundit so charming...yet, there it is.

[Dorothy Clark · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is full of fascinating trivia for word lovers; others need not bother. It is dated. In his commencement address delivered at Syracuse University in 1978, Safire suggests that we "never forget you own the telephone, the telephone does not own you." He was talking about land-lines. The entry on "in-line/on-line" obviously predated the Internet. One man who made a comment hadn't heard of an eight track, "which keeps a tape playing forever." I tried to give away an eight track player in the mid-nineties and found no takers, not even Goodwill. It went to the landfill.

[Kiran Mascarenhas · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed Safire's columns on Mondegreens and Spoonerisms - lanugage play is such fun. But I don't subscribe to his conservatism. Lanugage evolves and changes. I prefer the approach of the Language Nerds on Instagram.

[Benjamin Elliott · Rating 1 out of 5]

I had picked it up for free, but after reading the first 10 columns or so I decided that it wasn't worth the time it would take to wade through it. It seems to try to be threading the needle between explaining common usage and holding up a standard to feel proud (snobbish) about, but it doesn't always hit the mark, and the included responses from readers were mostly attrocious. Additionally, the fact that it dates from the Reagan era means most of the "current-usage" or slang topics have all faded away.

[John Jr. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Clarity and precision aren't the only things that matter, but they do matter, especially in journalism: that's essentially the position from which Safire wrote these columns, and it's a position I share, so this book is a friend of mine.

[Rae · Rating 3 out of 5]

A collection of Safire's newspaper columns in which he discusses the proper use of language. Fun to just browse through.

[Stacy]

I registered a book at BookCrossing.com!
http://www.BookCrossing.com/journal/2540209

[Severine Wolfe · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is my second copy of this book. I'd lost my copy I'd first gotten in 1981 in a move. You cannot write without some of the insights in this book. It is the style book in my opinion.

[Jimbo · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you love words, this is a fantastic collection....Pick a page, any page....