Pre-Owned Founding Grammars: How Early America's War Over Words Shaped Today's Language (Hardcover) 1250046122 9781250046123

9781250046123. Pre-Owned: Good condition. Hard cover. Language: English. Pages: 320. Sewn binding. Cloth over boards. With dust jacket. 320 p. "Standard grammar and accurate spelling are widely considered hallmarks of a good education, but their exact definitions are much more contentious -- capable of inciting a full-blown grammar war at the splice of a comma, battles readily visible in the media and online in the comments of blogs and chat rooms. With an accessible and enthusiastic journalistic approach, Ostler considers these grammatical shibboleths, tracing current debates back to America's earliest days, an era when most families owned only two books -- the Bible and a grammar primer. Along the way, she investigates colorful historical characters on both sides of the grammar debate in her efforts to unmask the origins of contemporary speech." --