Points of view

Points of View begins with two original and entertaining reflections, the first entitled "The Fowler Brothers and the Tradition of Usage Handbooks," the second "An Outline of Euphemisms in English." The selection of shorter pieces which follows--drawn from Burchfield's popular Sunday Times of London column, "Words and Meanings"--concerns the English language as it is used throughout the world. These cover a wide variety of topics, ranging from the language of newspaper recruitment advertising and Valentine's Day messages to the modern use (and misuse) of apostrophes and hyphens. The book concludes with a series of engaging thoughts on individual words--often the most simple--about which there is continuing debate in modern English.