The triumphant new volume in David Crystal's classic series on the English language combines the first history of English punctuation with a complete guide to how to use it
David Crystal is Honorary Professor of Linguistics at the University of Wales, Bangor. His many books range from clinical linguistics to the liturgy and Shakespeare. He is the author of The Story of English in 100 Words and Spell It Out: The Singular History of English Spelling, both published by Profile. His Stories of English is a Penguin Classic.
Praise for David Crystal:
'Entertaining ... Crystal's many examples show that the development
of English spelling is as random, unsystematic and anomalous as the
British constitution. English spelling is as rich a mixture of
anachronism, privilege and fashion as the House of Lords
*Sunday Times*
A prolific author ... he can write with authority on trends in the
spelling of rhubarb and indeed on the history of the spelling of
any tricky word you care to mention. For him, the patterns are
clear ... highly entertaining
*Observer*
Crystal does an excellent job, not just of tracing the etymology of
a word, but of relating it to social history, painting a picture of
our times through words
*Independent on Sunday*
The big four - comma, semicolon, colon and full stop - were for a
long time, and insanely, regarded as precise measurements of a
pause: a full stop was worth four commas. The book's full of this
sort of curio: interesting on first encounter; illuminating on
investigation ... Here is a learned and subtle book that amuses as
it instructs, and instructs as it amuses. It deserves to sell three
million
*Guardian*
David Crystal's superb new book is packed full of illuminating
examples of the political, social and technological forces that
have driven the evolution of English punctuation. With crisp, tight
prose punctuated with self-conscious precision, Crystal provides
not only a historical guide but an indispensable reference manual
that doesn't so much lay down the law as provide a rational
framework
*South China Morning Post*
David Crystal's engaging history of punctuation... sprint[s] from
eight-century Britain to the modern world in less than 100
pages...Mr Crystal treats his chosen period with enthusiasm and
insight.
*Wall Street Journal*
Crystal (Spell It Out) will delight anyone interested in written
language with this exploration and explication of English's
deceptively complex system of punctuation ... he brings scholarly
acumen and gravity, as well as delight and good humor, to his
subject.
*Publishers Weekly*
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