The Lexicographer's Dilemma: The Evolution of 'Proper' English from Shakespeare to South Park

About this book

In its long history the English language has had many lawmakers-those who have tried to regulate or otherwise organize the way we speak. The Lexicographers Dilemma poses a pair of questions-what does proper English mean and who gets to say whats right? Our ideas of correct or proper English have a history and todays debates over the state of the language-whether about Ebonics in schools the unique use of language in a South Park episode or split infinitives in the Times-make sense only in historical context. As historian Jack Lynch has discovered every rule has a human history and the characters who populate his narrative are as interesting for their obsessions as for their erudition. Charting the evolution of English with wit and intelligence he provides a rich historical perspective that makes us appreciate a new the hard-won standards we now enjoy.