Stand back for a war of words – and of commas, apostrophes and split infinitives. One of Britain’s leading language experts has attacked Lynne Truss’s bestseller Eats, Shoots and Leaves for its ‘misconceived’ and ‘deeply unnerving’ zero tolerance approach to punctuation.
David Crystal, a former colleague of Truss who once advised her that a book about punctuation would never sell, condemns the author for joining the ranks of ‘linguistic fundamentalists’. He also criticises John Humphrys, the Radio 4 Today presenter, over his book championing the rules of grammar. Truss’s publisher has hit back, however, insisting language rules are vital in situations such as job applications.
4 thoughts on “On Sour Grapes”
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David Crystal can’t be all bad. Let’s give him credit for including a serial comma in his book’s title.
You’re right. I do so appreciate a well-placed serial comma. In fact, I have swooned over such a thing. But we should probably keep that between us!
This is shocking, appalling, and, you know, unnerving.
I knew it. They are coming after “its”.