Customer Reviews

When You Catch an Adjective, Kill It: The Parts of Speech, for Better And/Or Worse

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Among writers of English, there is a strong interest in their own language, and a long tradition of manuals by writers who suggest how to use English without error. Ambrose Bierce wrote such a manual, and writers constantly refer (but not necessarily defer) to Fowler, and many can quote Strunk and White from memory. For some reason, contemporary writers on the subject of English are called "language mavens", and they are of two camps, the prescriptivists who would like to tell you how to say something properly according to the rules, and the descriptivists who document how the language is being (rather than should be) used. As usual, there are extremists at both ends of the spectrum, and it would be wise to stick to the middle. That does not mean staying bland. In _When You Catch an Adjective, Kill It: The Parts of Speech, for Better and/or Worse_ (Basic Books), Ben Yagoda is happy to enjoy creative use of English that breaks rules. We would all be poorer without, for instance, Fats Waller's "One never knows, do one?" But he is also happy to emphasize (and, one assumes since he is an English teacher, enforce) the rules that work to promote clarity and understanding. His book isn't really a rulebook, but a survey in nine chapters of nine parts of speech, each a useful essay on usage.

"Ultimately, the issue of correctness just isn't very interesting," Yagoda writes. What is interesting are "words, phrases, and sentences that transcend their meaning - because they're smart, funny, well-crafted, pungent, unexpected, or sometimes wrong in just the right way." There are lots and lots of examples of such lively, perhaps grammatically questionable, usage in all the chapters here. The title of the book, about killing adjectives, is advice generally attributed to Mark Twain, who knew that using the right noun would preclude unnecessary adjectives. But adverbs get even less respect. Elmore Leonard wrote, "I have a character in one of my books tell how she used to write historical romances 'full of rape and adverbs.'" Stephen King wrote, "I believe the road to hell is paved with adverbs." Yagoda says that two adverbs need special mention, and in so doing, demonstrates the subjective nature of judging usage. He doesn't like "arguably" as in, "He is arguably the best quarterback in the NFL", because it probably doesn't mean that anyone has taken this stance in an argument, but that the writer is withholding an opinion and standing behind a bogus adverb. But it is a surprise that he likes "like", as in "It's a complete obstruction of, like, freedom" because it makes the speaker seem less pompous (to be sure, this was a spoken, not a written example).

Yagoda dishes out such likes and dislikes in every chapter, with some being idiosyncratic and some conventional but for idiosyncratic reasons. For instance, in a section on sentence adverbs (one adverb to modify a whole sentence, as in "Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn"), he says that the most abused and annoying sentence adverb is "actually" which is overused as in "Actually, he's in a meeting", indicating that not only is he in a meeting, but I am actually telling you the truth when he is in a meeting. (It's fun to play the select-the-most-annoying game, and for worst-used adverb, I would have voted for "literally", as in, "She was literally walking on air.") He doesn't like "hopefully" except as meaning "done in a hopeful manner", as in, "He opened the treasure chest hopefully", but thinks it fills a need, as in "The package will arrive tomorrow, hopefully" since "... arrive tomorrow, I hope" sounds Pollyanna-ish. He would not accept, however, such a formation in a written essay. He shows to be foolish one of the prescriptivists' darling rules, that of never ending a sentence in a preposition. The original rule came from Latin usage, not English. While it is true that sentences as a rule should end strongly, forcing a preposition to the interior can weaken it, as in "We are such stuff on which dreams are made", or can render it stupid, as in repairing "I'm turning in," by "Turning in I am," which, Yagoda says, not even Yoda could spout with a straight face. There is plenty of good sense here, and fun in every chapter (yes, in a book about grammar), as well as entertaining sidelights on such things as the origin of the ampersand symbol and the inventor of the @ for e-mail addresses. There is also a lot of good advice quoted from great writers. Yagoda's book won't replace any style manuals, but his tone of tolerance for eccentricity and enthusiasm for colorful usage is welcome, and his own writing is clever and funny.

Just what is it about the adjective that inspires such violent tendencies in otherwise peaceful people?

As Ben Yagoda writes, "They (adjectives) rank right up there with ... the customer-service policies of cable TV companies."

And the reason for this animosity is that adjectives are often used by lazy writers, "who don't stop to think that the concept is already in the noun."

Those of you who love words will appreciate the glossary of unusual adjectives. Words such as lambent, nugatory and piacular definitely deserve to be let out more often!

It's not just adjectives that are examined in entertaining detail - every part of speech is covered. F'r instance how much do you know about definite and indefinite articles?

One of the things I've noticed when I edit work for people whose second language is English is that they have real problems using articles, and now I understand why this is so.

As Ben explains, "... by the age of four, native English speakers know in their bones the difference between 'I drank Coke,' 'I drank the Coke,' and 'I drank a Coke,' and the fact that you take a pass but the easy way out."

Can you imagine trying to learn these differences as an adult? It seems the problem is compounded (or alleviated) depending on the learner's native language. "Romanian, Macedonian, Swedish, and Aztec append the definite article to the back of a noun, and Arabic to the front ... Swahili and Latin rarely use articles of any kind. ... Polish, Russian, and Japanese are article-less as well. Arabic, Welsh, and Esperanto have definite articles but no indefinite articles. In French and German, the definite article is applied to proper nouns and the names of abstractions and classes of things ..."

Aargh!

Which brings us neatly to interjections ...

And so the book is filled with such interesting details about language that you'll find yourself carrying it from room to room as you go about your chores, loath to put it down ... Or is that only me?

The author takes readers on an informative and often entertaining walk through Fowler and Follett territory, contemporary usage. Neither a strict prescriptivist nor a lax descriptivist, Yagoda has good things to say about some much maligned current uses of "like," and some delightfully nasty ones about such a locution as "Mom." What distinguishes his presentation, and is evident throughout, is his middle-of-the-road sweet reasonableness. If his book has a limitation, though, I'd say it's the problem of his reiterating the obvious. That adverbs and adjectives can rob verbs of power or tumble into redundancy, that overuse of prepositions or triple and quadruple noun compounds will make prose bureaucratic and opaque, that verbs are the most important words in a language or a good prose style - none of these principles is exactly a revelation at this late date. Nevertheless, if it's true that people more often than not need to be reminded of essentials, Yagoda's book will serve a useful as well as entertaining purpose.

When You Catch an Adjective, Kill It entertains. Ben Yagoda, the author, writes well. (Referring to him as "Ben Yagoda, the author," is a bit of a joke -- that phrasing sometimes means something special, as the book will tell you.) And Yagoda lays out the principles behind the parts of speech with a witty style that goes deep enough, but not too deep. Never a pedant, he still teaches.

But his style was a bit much for me. He reminds me of a friend who makes a joke out of almost everything. He's fun to be around for a while. But stay too long in his presence, and the urge to tell him to shut up becomes almost unbearable. Same with Yagoda for me.

One example Yagoda used -- as a preface to the section on prepositions -- shows why. E.B. White, co-author of the The Elements of Style and author of Charlotte's Web, once wrote in a letter: "The next grammar book I bring out I want to tell how to end a sentence with five prepositions. A father of a little boy goes upstairs after supper to read to his son, but he brings the wrong book. The boy says, 'What did you bring the book that I don't want to be read to out of up for?'" (Regrettably, White died before he wrote the book.)

But when Yagoda uses the example, suddenly it is "What did you bring that book about Down Under that I didn't want to be read to out of up for? -- Boy's question to his father, who's just climbed the stairs and walked into the boy's bedroom carrying a boring book about Australia." (I suspect that the version Yagoda intended was this one -- "What did you bring the book that I did not want to be read to about Down Under out of up for?" His version makes little sense -- why add the "about Down Under" in the middle of the sentence?)

If you like Yagoda's version better, you'll like Yagoda's book a lot. If you like White's version better, you won't.

And no one did a careful copy edit of the book. Lots of typos. Sometimes the wrong word was used. Pretty careless for a book like this to have errors like that. What's an English professor doing missing them? His students can have a field day finding them.

So let me recommend this. If you like to read a lot, pick this book up. Few books cover this subject matter. Those that do are pretty dry, something that cannot be said about Yagoda's writing.

But if you like to be more selective, take a pass on When You Catch an Adjective, Kill It. Save your time and your book budget for something better. There are enough books that are.

I bought this book because I am ninety years old and had never been taught the parts of speech--and obviously did not have much time left if I were to learn them! This is far better written and presented than anything I have looked at before. I not only finished it it will stay with my dicionary at my side. Bill Weifenbach

There's no English part of speech that doesn't have its detractors. Mark Twain hated adjectives, Stephen King hates adverb, Gertrude Stein thought nouns were pointless. (Nouns? Really?) Yagoda teaches college English and has worked as a copyeditor (as have I), and he's come down, more or less, on the side of descriptiveness in language -- though there are various increasingly common constructions that make him wince. Again, I agree on both points. I have no use for prescriptive authoritarians like Edwin Newman who actually think it's possible to freeze the language, and I'll split infinitive without hesitation, but "more unique" still makes me grind my teeth. And I loathe "and/or." Moreover, Yagoda likes to go to Google to provide usage statistics. He devotes a chapter to each speech-part (though grammarians apparently don't call them that anymore) but most of the space is taken up with anecdotes (insiders always refer to "CIA," never to "the CIA") and contextual quotations from unusual authors and speakers. Still, there are some eyebrow-raisers. He defends comparative uniqueness by quoting Grahame's Toad of Toad Hall in saying a house is "very unique" -- with no apparent notion that the author was making fun of his character. And his list of adjectives which are "uncommon" (and are therefore to be avoided, so as not to sound pompous or fancy) includes baleful, supercilious, capacious, bumptious, and a number of others I would have expected to find in the second-level vocabulary of anyone with a proper education. So while there's lots of neat stuff in this not-long book, it's not as "authoritative" as the flap copy wants you to believe.

This is a wonderful book for writers and readers alike. By turns edifying and hilarious, it's filled with all kinds of useful and quirky information. Who thought a book about the parts of speech would be so hard to put down? Edifying, engaging, and just plain fun to read.

I enjoyed reading Mr. Yagodo's viewpoint on the English language. He provides not only insight but humor along with it for anyone wanting a better understanding of how to use the parts of speech. This book doesn't only tell you why some words are r necessary or not, but does so with wit. My own writing improved because of this book and I recommend it for anyone wanting a better understanding of grammar, especially adjectives.

Probably a book that only an English teacher could love, but I do! I think it's very funny, while at the same time showing the hows and whys of parts of speech. I haven't actually used the book for anything other than a good read.

Anyone who likes words will enjoy this fun-to-read book about parts of speech and more. There are interesting stories and histories as well as thoughtful explanations. This would be a great gift for any word lover on your gift list.