{"id":4725,"date":"2013-11-13T07:43:36","date_gmt":"2013-11-13T12:43:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.theleemsmachine.com\/bean\/?p=4725"},"modified":"2013-11-14T10:18:20","modified_gmt":"2013-11-14T15:18:20","slug":"john-mcwhorter-and-the-grumpy-grammarian","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theleemsmachine.com\/bean\/blog\/2013\/11\/13\/john-mcwhorter-and-the-grumpy-grammarian\/","title":{"rendered":"John McWhorter and the Grumpy Grammarian"},"content":{"rendered":"

I feel free.\u00a0 John McWhorter has just released my mind from an ingrained belief that I couldn’t end a sentence with a preposition in his essay: Grumpy Grammarian: The Dangling Preposition Myth | New Republic<\/a>..\u00a0 You who were schooled around the time I was, when cursive was still graded for its style and clarity, will understand.\u00a0 Certain rules of grammar were pounded into me.<\/p>\n

Later, during my studies of great literature, I was able to let go of some elements of proper grammar for the purpose of conveying feeling and character.\u00a0 If I don’t need it when I am speaking with others in life then neither do the folks I write about.\u00a0 I break tons of rules while writing fiction, but when writing professional articles and organizational reports, that last edit for acceptable language always leaves me with dangling prepositions to clean up.\u00a0 Now, I will try not to worry so much about them.<\/p>\n

Oh, and John McWhorter is a fabulous master of language who talks about the idiosyncrasies and ridiculousness of language and people’s reaction to it.\u00a0 If you love to read like masters dissect their art as much as I do, and you have not heard of him, go go and read.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I feel free.\u00a0 John McWhorter has just released my mind from an ingrained belief that I couldn’t end a sentence with a preposition in his essay: Grumpy Grammarian: The Dangling Preposition Myth | New Republic..\u00a0 You who were schooled around the time I was, when cursive was still graded for its style and clarity, will… Continue reading John McWhorter and the Grumpy Grammarian<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[177,160],"class_list":["post-4725","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog","tag-cool-people","tag-language"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":4727,"url":"https:\/\/theleemsmachine.com\/bean\/blog\/2013\/11\/18\/kill-the-apostrophe\/","url_meta":{"origin":4725,"position":0},"title":"Kill The Apostrophe","author":"leems","date":"November 18, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"When I talked about my enjoyment reading a master of language talk about language, I was not actually ascribing to the strange and overly picky arguments that erupt when someone publishes a grammatical error on the web.\u00a0 I kind of ignore all those because they seem pompous even if there\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Blog"","block_context":{"text":"Blog","link":"https:\/\/theleemsmachine.com\/bean\/blog\/category\/blog\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":8094,"url":"https:\/\/theleemsmachine.com\/bean\/blog\/2018\/10\/25\/meta-idiots-guide-to-meta\/","url_meta":{"origin":4725,"position":1},"title":"Meta-idiot’s guide to meta","author":"leems","date":"October 25, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"In some of our earliest schooling we learn about metaphors.\u00a0 Perhaps we even read Kafka's Metamorphosis (wikipedia).\u00a0 By college, we look into metaphysics, or know enough about it that we do not want to know more.\u00a0 Meta, a Greek preposition, is used in several English words to indicate a concept\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Blog"","block_context":{"text":"Blog","link":"https:\/\/theleemsmachine.com\/bean\/blog\/category\/blog\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":7949,"url":"https:\/\/theleemsmachine.com\/bean\/blog\/2018\/05\/15\/amazing-writing-systems\/","url_meta":{"origin":4725,"position":2},"title":"Amazing writing systems","author":"leems","date":"May 15, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"I am currently studying how intellectual property laws can be used to protect Traditional Knowledge - because of course I am - but there was something amazing in my lesson the other day:\u00a0 Quipus or talking knots.\u00a0 Quipus were recording devices made of thread or string and knotted to portray\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Blog"","block_context":{"text":"Blog","link":"https:\/\/theleemsmachine.com\/bean\/blog\/category\/blog\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.theleemsmachine.com\/bean\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/300px-Inca_Quipu.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":8868,"url":"https:\/\/theleemsmachine.com\/bean\/blog\/2025\/04\/15\/john-myers-myers\/","url_meta":{"origin":4725,"position":3},"title":"John Myers Myers","author":"leems","date":"April 15, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"By chance I ran across John Myers Myers' Doc Holliday (1955) when I was knocking about some used bookstore with my Dad, or perhaps in one of those fabulous pokey places in Florida tourist traps. It was engaging and turned my passing curiosity about Doc Holliday into a full blown\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Blog"","block_context":{"text":"Blog","link":"https:\/\/theleemsmachine.com\/bean\/blog\/category\/blog\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/theleemsmachine.com\/bean\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/doc-holliday.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":7703,"url":"https:\/\/theleemsmachine.com\/bean\/blog\/2017\/08\/02\/john-philip-sousa-and-the-fifth-string\/","url_meta":{"origin":4725,"position":4},"title":"John Philip Sousa and the Fifth String","author":"leems","date":"August 2, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"In my quest for author voices I found that John Philip Sousa, great conductor and composer, had also penned an impassioned and oddly prophetic argument about phonograph music as a copyright infringement and a harbinger of the death of amateur music. Looking further, hoping to find more comments on copyright,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Blog"","block_context":{"text":"Blog","link":"https:\/\/theleemsmachine.com\/bean\/blog\/category\/blog\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.theleemsmachine.com\/bean\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/JohnPhilipSousa-Chickering.LOC_-416x600.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":10258,"url":"https:\/\/theleemsmachine.com\/bean\/blog\/2022\/08\/31\/slang-at-the-internet-archive\/","url_meta":{"origin":4725,"position":5},"title":"Slang at the Internet Archive","author":"leems","date":"August 31, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"It has been a little while since Clement Skitt showed up on the bean, but you may have gleaned from Clement Skitt's word of the day that I have a bit of an affinity for vintage slang. 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