![]() ![]() He rises in defense of the much-abused adverb, his chief argument being that it is indispensable. I look forward to his books devoted to punctuation, margins and fonts. 15-16) On related issues such as where to use commas when listing a series of adjectives, he also offers practical suggestions. Yagoda takes his title from Mark Twain, who had once advised a young writer to kill off the adjectives, adding, “No, I don’t mean utterly, but most of them – then the rest will be valuable.” (pp. It is nonetheless a worthy companion to that volume. Writing in a relaxed, winning, sometimes even rather breezy style, Yagoda is not overly concerned with arguing any particular brief rather he is content with presenting his collection of aperçus and wise observations, with some of his most memorable examples taken from “Seinfeld.” The absence of an index or bibliography confirms the impression that this book is less serious in tone than his previous effort, The Sound on the Page. After all, other languages classify things differently, and “any parts-of-speech scheme leaves gaping holes.” All the same, he confesses a certain fondness for this approach, no matter how inadequate it may seem to experts, self-appointed and otherwise. John Stuart Mill once bravely claimed that adjectives, nouns and verbs represent “fundamental categories of human thought.” It takes Ben Yagoda very little time to conclude that this fails to withstand serious scrutiny. ![]() The Parts of Speech, for Better and/or Worse. ![]() Ben Yagoda: When You Catch an Adjective, Kill It. ![]()
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