---
product_id: 121611260
title: "Bad English: A History of Linguistic Aggravation"
brand: "ammon shea"
price: "€ 9.33"
currency: EUR
in_stock: true
reviews_count: 9
url: https://www.desertcart.sk/products/121611260-bad-english-a-history-of-linguistic-aggravation
store_origin: SK
region: Slovakia
---

# Bad English: A History of Linguistic Aggravation

**Brand:** ammon shea
**Price:** € 9.33
**Availability:** ✅ In Stock

## Quick Answers

- **What is this?** Bad English: A History of Linguistic Aggravation by ammon shea
- **How much does it cost?** € 9.33 with free shipping
- **Is it available?** Yes, in stock and ready to ship
- **Where can I buy it?** [www.desertcart.sk](https://www.desertcart.sk/products/121611260-bad-english-a-history-of-linguistic-aggravation)

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## Customer Reviews

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 







  
  
    A fun debunking of "proper" speech
  

*by J***K on Reviewed in the United States on June 28, 2014*

There are two schools of thought among lexicographers and grammarians -- prescriptivists and descriptivists.  The prescriptivists think that their profession includes guidance on speaking and writing "proper" English.  The descriptivists believe that their job is just to describe how English is actually used.  Most lexicographers and grammarians are a little bit of both.  Shea tilts very much toward the descriptivist end of the spectrum -- I can only think of one place where he finds a usage to be improper.  Along the way, he debunks prescriptivist claims about the improper or unhistorical nature of many words and word usages, such as "ain't," "compact," dangling prepositions, split infinitives, inappropriate apostrophes, etc.  His researches into word history are learned and extraordinary, and effectively demolishe claims that certain disfavored usages are new or unattested in good authors.  Furthermore, the book is a fun read.  He uses humor to demonstrate that staid and proper grammarians do not know what they are talking about.  His central thesis seems to be that there is no one such thing as "good English."One could wish for a little more reflection from Shea, however.  Like anything which evolves over time, language changes because more useful locutions drive out older, less useful ones.  How does this happen, and why?  Linguist evolution requires two things -- a certain degree of stability of usage, or people could not understand each other at all, and a certain degree of change, or language could not adapt to new conditions.  It seems to me that Shea underplays the role of the former.  Language serves many functions, but surely the most important of them is intelligibility.  Change words and usage too fast and people cannot understand each other:  indeed, one of the  tactics used by "in groups" is to modify language in ways sufficiently radically that they cannot be understood by the general public.  How much "incorrect" usage -- i.e. linguistic change -- can a language tolerate before it becomes another language?  Why does language change?  Is there an overall pattern to linguistic change, or are its changes purely arbitrary?  Shea touches on such questions, but does so lightly and in passing.  It would be beneficial if he would write another, more philosophical, book that address these deeper questions.  Still, a very good book and an excellent introduction to issues confronting language and its usages.

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐ 







  
  
    Intersting, if not Totally Convincing, Food for Thought for the Grammar Curmudgeon
  

*by B***O on Reviewed in the United States on April 19, 2015*

This is a very well written, interesting collection of commentaries on many current English usages which many of us--we few, we unhappy few, we small band of brothers and sisters-- find offensive, or to be signs of ignorance or simple sloth in our native tongue.  The writer's approach is more or less, "Unless there is some obvious error, new usages are just the changes to our living language.  Changes of nouns into transitive verbs [see, e.g., "incentivize"] are just fine.  What is, is; what will be, will be; don't worry, be happy..." To which this curmudgeon says, "Hrrrumph; balderdash." Many of Mr. Shea's apologia for current misusage are backed up with isolated references to very old (many centuries, in some cases) passages from writers or personages of great or little renown to, in essence, say, "See, old so-and-so wrote the same thing way back-a-then, so it's okay."  But that assumes that old so-and-so was correct way-back-a-then, an assumption which I am not prepared to indulge: the rhetorical device of the appeal ad vericundiam rarely carries the day.  There are proper usages and improper usages, and educated people who encounter those who use the slovenly "new" usages think less of the slovenly, and thus, especially to younger people or new speakers of English looking to advance in a world controlled by the educated, English speakers are done a disservice by being given a bye for poor usage.  All that said, this is very much worth the read, as he does make some interesting points about the morphology of English usage, and it is very true that languages that do not grow and change, die.

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 







  
  
    "Nothing is either good or bad but thinking makes it so
  

*by J***R on Reviewed in the United States on August 23, 2014*

This is a book that should be read by all English teachers and anyone who likes language. The author gives many examples of "bad English" usage that were the whim of one or more language critics that were unaware of the history of the word. Some examples of "bad English" actually predate "good English". Despite the facts, some readers will remain uncomfortable with some usage, but he reminds us that a living language is constantly changing---otherwise we would still be speaking Old English. As Shakespeare wrote, "Nothing is either good or bad but thinking makes it so."

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*Product available on Desertcart Slovakia*
*Store origin: SK*
*Last updated: 2026-02-19*