A Civil Tongue

by Edwin Newman

Book Overview

When Edwin Newman was but a lad, bright, cheery, and unbearable, he was told to keep a civil tongue in his head, i.e., shut up. He did, but since then he has expanded his understanding of what a civil... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0672522675
• ISBN13: 9780672522673
• Release Date: January 1976
• Publisher: Bobbs-Merrill
• Length: 207 Pages
• Weight: 1.08 lbs.

Customer Reviews

A CIVIL TONGUE by Edwin Newman

A Civil Tongue is an amusing book on language by former NBC News correspondent Edwin Newman, the sequel to his Strictly Speaking. Here, Newman deals with the ridiculous and irresponsible use of English. Newman is not against the evolution of English, nor is he a proponent of Standard English for its own sake. Rather, his gripe is with those who know better and still use it incorrectly. Those who use unnecessarily big words to either hide the meaning of what they're saying (politicians) or to make themselves sound important (educators) are some of Newman's targets. He also goes after sportscasters, advertisers, and most anyone else speaking or writing with any kind of double-speak, redundancy, obfuscation, misuse of words, or fabrication of words. He makes some predictions about where English will go, and some of these have come to pass. Newman is happy to acknowledge his own language mistakes, including the ones he made in Strictly Speaking. On the whole, Newman's tone is good-natured rather than patronizing. This is clearly a subject that he cares about, but it is, to some degree, all in good fun. Strictly Speaking is a humorous book. Newman makes puns and jokes about many of the anecdotes he tells. This is quite often amusing, but can become tiresome. Because of this and the structure of the book (almost 300 pages of anecdotes arranged thematically with little real continuity), it is best consumed in strong doses. Those who love English and the self-appointed grammar police will enjoy it.

For finickly language- lovers

A commendable love of the English language and its proper use is the motivating force driving Edwin Newman to be picky- picky- picky. He gives endless examples of absurd and pretentious, ignorant and foolish usage of the language. He corrects, and chides and often does this in a wonderfully humorous way. He even is aware of his own misusages and happily publicizes letters criticizing mistakes he may have made in writing or broadcasts of his own. This is a work for finicky language - lovers with a lot of patience.