Garner's Modern American Usage

That gap was filled in 1998, when Bryan A. Garner wrote "A Dictionary of Modern American Usage" (published by the Oxford University Press, which also published Fowler). Finally, someone had written a book that matched Fowler -- not only in its erudition, but also in its accessible style, and even its wry sense of humor. And Garner's book had the advantages of being written both in modern times for a modern audience, and in the United States by an American author about American English. The book is a gem, and as authoritative a reference as you will find in this field in the last several decades (and probably the next several too).

"Garner's Modern American Usage" is this oustanding work's second edition, now retitled after its author in view of the acclaim that the first edition earned. A new edition is appearing after only five years because, as Garner explains, "changing usage isn't really the primary basis for a new edition of a usage guide: it's really a question of having had five more years for research." The payoff shows. And the second edition builds upon the first: the first edition was a dictionary of words in usage, rather than words about usage, and therefore assumed that the reader possessed a certain working knowledge of basic grammatical terms and concepts. For example, the first edition didn't define such basic terms as "sentence," "phrase," "clause," "word," or "part of speech." The second edition appends a glossary that defines many such basic concepts. It also appends, as did the first edition, an 11-page chronology of books about usage, which illustrates both the rich tradition that Garner's work joins, as well as the tremendous resources upon which he drew in producing this magnum opus.


Roll over Fowler; tell Partridge the news...   April 30, 2004
Dennis Littrell (SoCal)
81 out of 88 found this review helpful

This is a brilliant book. It is as erudite and authoritative as a usage book should be, but without offensive cant or needless pedantry. It is scrupulously edited and handsomely presented by the Oxford University Press in their usual exemplary manner. While Bryan A.Garner concentrates on American English usage (that's where the market is) he is no stranger to "BrE" or any other kind of English. Just to give you a hint about what makes the man tick and why he is now considered the preeminent authority on "grammar, usage, and style" (as a blurb on the book's cover--for a change--rightly has it), consider these words from the Preface to the Second Edition:

"People have asked whether enough has really changed in English usage since 1998 to justify a new edition. The answer is that changing usage isn't really the primary basis for a new edition of a usage guide: it's really a question of having had five more years for research."

He isn't kidding. What Garner brings to this usage book that completely dwarfs* all previous efforts is a gargantuan research regimen. This is clear from the thousands of examples of usage presented, both good and bad, from all manner of publications: newspapers, small town and big city; novels, classic and contemporary; magazines and journals, literary and scientific, etc. Garner obviously has a passion for words and seems determined to let no genre or form of reading matter go unread or unscrutinized. I didn't find an example from one of my reviews, but (given the many faux pas that I have, alas, committed in nearly 800 reviews) I fully expect that dubious honor in the third edition!). Yes, Garner is onto the Web and indeed he frequently quotes statistics of use garnered (sorry!) from such sites as NEXIS and WESTLAW allowing him to say, for example, about "analytical" and "analytic" that "the long form is five times as common as the short."

This is an interesting development in usage books. As Garner notes in his introductory essay, "Making Peace in the Language Wars," there are two types of linguists, "prescribers" and "describers," or as it used to be said (more narrowly) there are "prescriptive grammarians" and "descriptive grammarians," and never the twain shall meet. The former in both cases, as Garner has it, "seek to guide" while the latter "seek to discover...how native speakers actually use their language."

Obviously, no one who writes a usage guide can be a strict describer. Indeed throughout the history of usage guidance most of the authors have been primarily prescribers: "this is the way the word should be used"; "this is improper" and even "this is an abomination!" Garner follows the tradition and even goes so far as to label, for example, the employment of "defunk" for "defunct" as a "ghastly blunder."

So he is clearly a prescriber (as he admits). But unlike most of his illustrious predecessors he is a describer as well. He lets us see how the language is actually used and he gracefully bows (on occasion) as much to the preponderance of usage as he does to venerable authority and his own good judgment. Thus we have a usage dictionary for the 21st century, alive, vital and moving carefully with the tide, but not swept away by it.

Needless to say I do have a few disagreements. I will present a couple for sport, fully realizing that he is the authority and I am merely a respectful, sometime critic.

For example, Garner writes a very nice little essay on sexist language entitled "SEXISM." However there is no comparable entry on "racism" or word entries for "African-American," "Afro-American," or "black." I think there should be, as some guidance in word choice here is sometimes sorely needed. I have the feeling that Garner is not so much dodging the subject as he is fully preparing himself for the next edition. There is an entry on "ageism" (so spelled indicates Garner although the similar word "aging" is without the "e"), but no discussion of various usage concerns.

Also, he writes (on page 418 in the essay entry "HYPERCORRECTION" under item "J."): "When a naturalized...foreignism appears, the surrounding words--with a few exceptions...--should be English. Thus, one refers to not (a common error among the would-be literati)." However, I would say that using the French "le" as part of the phrase is a useful emphasis, much as one, when speaking, might emphasize the word "the" by pronouncing it with a long "e."

These and perhaps other picayunes aside, let me say unequivocally that this book is a treasure trove of knowledge about our language second to none that I have ever read and a singular pleasure to read and peruse.

I should also mention the three splendid appendices: A 13-page "Select Glossary" on words about words ("gerund," "homograph," etc.); a very interesting "Lifeline of Books on Usage" beginning in 1762; and a "Select Bibliography" of dictionaries, usage books, grammars, and books on style.

*This use of "dwarf" as a transitive verb is not given in Garner's book, although there is an entry on the noun form. I checked Webster's Second International and my spelling (not the ugly "dwarves") agrees with theirs.


Third Edition Approaches Perfection   August 23, 2009
Edwin F. Stevens (West Grove, PA)
27 out of 30 found this review helpful

I am now a three-edition aficionado of Bryan A. Garner's Modern American Usage (MAU).

I purchased the first edition at the South Tower of the World
Trade Center in 1998.

Then, under more sober circumstances, I purchased the second edition in 2003.

Finally, last week, I became the happy owner of the new Modern American
Usage, Third Edition (MAU 3, for short).

The pleasures from MAU 3 are substantial, with only a few minor
reservations.

First, the major pleasures:

* As with the first two editions, almost every page of MAU 3 brings me
a new wealth of useful reminders and eye-opening information. For
example, readers cannot imagine how pleased I was to learn in MAU 3 about
"Contronyms" (e.g., the two opposed meanings of "scan"), which must
take their place alongside my discovery of "Mondegreens" in MAU 2. One
of my favorite mondegreens, encountered firsthand, is "I led the
pigeons to the flag," an odd mishearing of "I pledge allegiance to the
flag." (I politely told the young "pigeons" reciter about his error,
but he said he liked his version better than the traditional one. It is
certainly funnier.)

* By making MAU 3 taller and wider in format than MAUs 1 and 2, the author
has been able to retain the previous prefaces and essay ("Making Peace
in the Language Wars") while adding a new preface and an essay (funkily
titled "The Ongoing Struggles of Garlic-Hangers," inspired for once by
the otherwise annoying linguist John McWhorter). More important, this
expansive format has allowed Mr. Garner to pack addditional nuggets of
information into his reference book, especially the section called
"Glossary of Grammatical, Rhetorical, and Other Language-Related
Terms." This section, in slightly smaller type, is a miracle of
informative compression, whether focusing on the "schwa" or the "ergative
verb" or "auxesis" or "multiple sentence forms" or "polysyndeton" or almost
anything else. It is a treasure trove of the mainstream and the
esoteric.

* The innovative, five-stage Language-Change Index in MAU 3, far from
being a gimmick, gives readers a true sense of where certain
controversial usages rank along a continuum. With this ranking, readers
gain a perspective on verbal change, from the highly rejectable status
at Stage 1 (e.g., the double negative "unrelentlessly") to the grudging
acceptance at Stage 5 (e.g., "finalize," a jargonic favorite of former
President Eisenhower). Among other things, this Index at Stage 5 is
Mr. Garner's stouthearted attempt to end dead-horse beating. (By the way, his
"Key to the Language-Change Index" is certain to induce the smiles and
laughs of approval in other readers that it did for me. Who says a
language authority's continuum has to be dull?)

* The engaging new essay in MAU 3, "The Ongoing Struggles of
Garlic-Hangers," recognizes that defeatist teachers and hypocritical
linguists are dragging English usage faster than ever into confusion
and decay. No wonder the conciliatory tone that suffused Mr. Garner's essay in
MAU 2, "Making Peace in the Language Wars," has disappeared. After all,
only one descriptive linguist (Peter Tiersma) "conditionally" accepted
the author's strategy for a truce. So Mr. Garner obviously decided a more
confrontational approach was necesssary. Much to his credit, though,
his essay still maintains a characteristic clarity and civility. Above
all, he doesn't flinch from taking on and politely vanquishing linguist John
McWhorter, the quintessential representative of the anything-goes
crowd. Mr. Garner's new aggressive attitude feels right, yet I still worry.
For, at the end of the essay, even as he says he is not "melancholy"
over this declining state of affairs, he seems more embattled than he was in 2003.

More than ever, we must remember, as Wilson Follett's Modern American Usage urges us,
"to maintain the continuity of speech that makes the thought of our
ancestors easily understood, to conquer Babel every day against the
illiterate and the heedless, and to resist the pernicious and lulling
dogma that in language -- contrary to what obtains in all other human
affairs -- whatever is is right and doing nothing is for the best."

In short, Mr. Garner's fine book is more than a usage guide, it is the standard
bearer of a knightly quest. I guess that might make me one of his
Sancho Panzas.

That's what he gets for carrying on the Fowler, Bernstein, and Follett
tradition.

Now for the minor reservations:

* Let's begin with MAU 3's dust cover. There on the left flap, in the
first paragraph, the second sentence begins, "Brimming with brief,
erudite, and even witty entries on troublesome words and phases ...." I
saw the "phases" for "phrases," and my heart fell. Because I know MAU 3
itself is fastidiously edited and proofread, but first-time browsers
would not. Again one finds that a book shouldn't be judged by its dust
cover. Also, remembering Mr. Garner's excellent entry on Sesquipedality, I
question whether the use of "corpora" (see left flap, third paragraph,
line 10) is a bit highfalutin for the fairly simple-and-direct book
description.

* Moving inside MAU 3, I find that the author carefully and correctly gives the
figurative meaning of "delineate" as "to represent in words; to
describe." Then he faults those who wrongly believe that "delineate" also
means "differentiate," placing such a misuse at Stage 1 on his
Language Change Index and consigning it for the time being to
rejection and outer darkness. So far, I agree. But later, in his
estimable entry on Standard English, he writes "the delineation between
Standard English and dialect has to do with grammar, vocabulary,
spelling, and punctuation ...." By using "delineation between" instead
of "differentiation between," Mr. Garner has fallen into a dreaded slipshod
extension and entered Stage 1's Rejection Land.

* Disappointment also reigned when I noticed, in MAU 3, there are not many
illustrative quotations dated after 2003 (the year MAU 2 was
published). To me, MAU 3 was an ideal opportunity to present a
substantial number of new, post-2003 quotes to complement or replace
earlier ones.

* In Mr. Garner's Timeline of Books on Usage, I was surprised to see that Mark
Halpern's Language and Human Nature, though quoted in the MAU 3 essay, "The
Ongoing Struggles of Garlic-Hangers," was not entered in the Timeline
under 2009, the year given for its publication. I assume that
threatening deadlines resulted in that omission. I would also like to
suggest for inclusion Jenny McMorris's biography of Henry Watson
Fowler, The Warden of English, published by Oxford University Press in
2001. It's the only full-length biography on Fowler that I know of (not
"of which I know"). Among other delightful little details in this book,
one reads that "The Times, heading its obituary [of Fowler] 'A
Lexicographical Genius,' declared that Henry 'had a crispness, a
facility, and unexpectedness which have not been equalled.' "

* And, from my "Not Really Garner's Fault Department," I present one last
cavil: the taller and wider MAU 3 does not fit into my (formerly)
handy-dandy, zippered, green book carrier.

Modern American Usage, in its third edition, is now approaching perfection. And though it may never get there, authorial attention to such trifling reservations as mine may help move its fourth edition a bit closer. After all, a noble and daring quest such as Mr. Garner's -- to promote ideal clarity, elegance, and effectiveness in communication -- deserves to reach this loftiest of goals.


Terrific   March 8, 2006
Jeffrey A. Sherman (Broomfield, CO USA)
14 out of 14 found this review helpful

For years I have relied upon and loved Fowler's Modern English Usage. I think Garner is a terrific successor to Fowler. He expands upon what Fowler offers and puts more of an American spin on his entries. I particularly like his expanded entries on pronounciation, phrasal adjectives, and hypercorrection. I think this volume is very useful for those who taking writing seriously.


New edition of Garner's Modern American Usage due out in 2008   March 1, 2006
William E. Molner (Lansing, MI United States)
17 out of 18 found this review helpful

I agree with all the reviewers that Garner's Modern American Usage is one of the best (if not THE best) books on Usage. I recently attended Brian Garner's writing seminar (also excellent!) and he told me that he will have a new edition of this book in 2008. I'm thinking of waiting until then to purchase it.