Today is publication day for Writing With Style, out in North America from Economist Books/Pegasus and the UK and EU from Economist Books/Profile. Get your copy wherever good books are sold, and if you do get any use or enjoyment from it, please also consider giving it a review wherever you got it, telling your friends, and buying a shipping container’s worth to hand out to passers-by.
New book: Writing With Style
Happy to say that I have just finished Writing With Style, a new guide style guide for The Economist. If you like my column, have enjoyed my other books or just care about grammar, usage and writing well, please spread the word. On sale in spring 2023 from Profile Books.
Audible sample of Talk on the Wild Side
A half-hour taster of Talk on the Wild Side, read by yours truly.
Economist films: Lies
When people say something that isn’t true, that isn’t always the same as a lie. I defended a somewhat unpopular taxonomy of falsehoods in my latest new Economist film: is Trump really a liar, or serially deluded? What about other presidents? Check it out.
On Economist Radio
Economist Radio has a great new daily podcast, called The Intelligence. I made my first appearance today, with a mini-”profile” of me kicking off the main segment, on metaphors. It begins at about 17:00 here. Language commentaries will be an occasionally recurring feature in that third-and-final slot, but there’s so much other good stuff you really should just subscribe.
The Times Literary Supplement on Talk on the Wild Side
Carol Fisher Saller: “Short, lively and thoroughly researched…It’s a valuable history and vivisection of what ought to be linguistic dead horses – one that promotes a tolerant and humane view of language that will unite, not divide.”
Words of 2018
The words of 2018 were not particularly enlightening or enjoyable, but talking with Anton LaGuardia (deputy foreign editor at The Economist) and Lynne Murphy (author of the excellent The Prodigal Tongue) certainly was. Our conversation appears thanks to Economist Radio.
On (or is that "in") Lexicon Valley
It was both a privilege and a great time to join my friend John McWhorter on his outstanding podcast, Slate’s Lexicon Valley, to talk about my book. John helped get me into this field with his own great books, and I owe him all kinds of debts. But more than anything, I just love talking to him, and I expect that that comes through here. Check it out.
Essay in Aeon
I summarize one of the core arguments of Talk on the Wild Side in Aeon magazine: that language is extraordinarily self-regulating. At every level—sounds, words, grammar—huge changes happen. But they never lead to chaos. How that can be? Read all about it, from the massive change in English grammar over the last thousand years to the strange history of the word “buxom”.
Excerpt: Talk on the Wild Side in Politico
“Since Orwell, it has become a common complaint among pundits and commentators that overblown or confusing language stacks the deck against ordinary citizens who just want to know what their government is up to. His notion that plain language will make awful politics unbearable is simple and appealing — and largely wrong. Remember that for people to recognize a falsehood, they need to know the truth. Orwell assumes that once deception is stripped away, the truth will be plain. But populism, or at least the brand of populism represented by Trump and Brexit, proves that Orwell was wrong.” (Read the rest.)
The Spectator review of Talk on the Wild Side
“Pedants and grouches and sticklers and ‘authoritarian scolds’ don’t come out of this book too well. That’s not to say that Greene takes an anything-goes, ultra-descriptivist attitude (i.e. people can do whatever they want, and we merely observe what they do rather than dictate it). On the contrary, he knows what he likes. It’s just that what he likes is not people like N.M. Gwynne, who combine fervent prescriptivism with what Greene calls ‘an unerring instinct for getting it wrong’.
Greene’s book takes in the inevitable failure of quixotic — if sometimes admirable — artificial languages, and the rapid improvement in automated translation (this section is particularly good). With well chosen examples, he demonstrates languages’ resilience and variety (his subject is mostly English but he ventures abroad for a spell, too). He takes Orwell to task over his naivety about the uncomplicated benefits of uncomplicated language. Even Donald Trump and Nigel Farage make an appearance (when don’t they?). He is open-minded and discerning (if you need a basic rule: look at what good writers do, and do that), but he’s no zealot and no snob.” (Read the rest.)
Johnson column: Why Arabic punches below its weight
“Arabic is the fifth-most-spoken language in the world, with more than 313m speakers. It is an official language in 25 countries—more than any other except English and French—and one of six official languages at the United Nations. As the vehicle of one of the great faiths, Islam, it is widely studied for religious reasons. So why does it seem to punch below its weight in the secular world?” (Read the whole thing.)
Booklist review of Talk on the Wild Side
“The language columnist at The Economist, Greene (You Are What You Speak, 2011) has a lot of metaphors for the nonconformity and wildness of language. It’s a wolf, not a show dog. It’s a recipe, not computer code. It’s jazz, not classical music…This slim and accessible treatise is rich with keen insights about the politics, pleasures, and possibilities of language. Recommended for linguaphiles and anyone looking for rhetorical ammunition against the grammar snobs in their life.”
Vocal fry
My latest column is on “uptalk” an vocal fry, and the generally unmeetable standards women’s voices are held to. While I admire the efforts of feminists like Lake Bell to tackle the problem at a short-term and practical level—telling women to deepen and in some ways masculinize their speech—the fact remains that women have to walk a tightrope when taking such advice: be authoritative but not mannish, firm but not angry, and so on.
ABC radio interview
I had a great and wide-ranging conversation with Phillip Adams of Australia’s ABC radio on Talk on the Wild Side. Not all interviewers read your book, and who can blame them? Running a daily radio show is hard. But Phillip either did in detail, or is a masterful skimmer, as he really drew me out on, and challenged, some points in detail. Check it out.
Recent radio
I had a great conversation with Michael Rosen and Laura Wright on BBC Radio 4’s “Word of Mouth” (a great show you should add to your podcast subscription right this second, if you enjoy language). The topic was editing: what an editor’s there for, what a good one does (and doesn’t do), and so on. You can listen to it here.
And for German-speakers, I had another fun one with Bayrischer Rundfunk, talking about the book and the history of language complaints. It’s a 4,000-year-old habit to think the kids don’t care about language anymore…
Simon Horobin's review of "Talk on the Wild Side"
“What unites Mr Greene's roles as language pundit and editor is a passion for language in all its variety and complexity, making for a lively and fascinating read.” (Read the whole thing.)
UK/EU publication day for Talk on the Wild Side
Today’s the big day: I’m thrilled that Profile has published Talk on the Wild Side in Britain and Europe, and you can now get it from your finest shops and e-tailers. Profile has done a great job with the cover and the editing, and now everyone’s hard work has finally resulted in a book you can buy—and hopefully even enjoy.
Videos!
My latest collaboration with Economist Films, “Why do languages die?”, is over on the brand-new video page. Check it out, alongside previous ones on American and British English, sexism in language and where cuss-words come from.
Kirkus review: "Erudite and ebullient"
"Economist language columnist Greene (You Are What You Speak: Grammar Grouches, Language Laws, and the Politics of Identity, 2011) sees language as 'ambiguous, changing, incomplete, redundant and illogical' as well as 'robust, organic, and evolving.' Language, he writes admiringly, 'is a wild animal like a wolf, well adapted for its conditions and its needs.' Erudite and ebullient, he disparages prescriptive pundits and purists who bemoan the decline of correct word choice and resist change. Spoken language is continually in flux, and even written English, while abiding by grammatical conventions, 'is a mixed language that provides a reader not with a rigid logical code, but a menu of options for getting ideas effectively into the reader’s mind.'