Overview

Reaching as high as no.3 on the Washington Post best-seller list, this book pulls hundreds of examples from everyday life to show that sloppy English is not merely the province of teenagers and political leaders, but that we are all guilty parties in its abuse and misuse. On a daily basis we are subjected to a barrage of mindless jargon, euphemisms and weasel words such as impactful and smartise; empty rhetoric such as quality of life and revolutionary in nature; and broad swaths of modern-day grammatical humbug such as Artificial Vocabulary, Parasitic Intensifiers, Useless Cabooses and Hyphen-Monsters. Both concise and comprehensive, this witty diatribe proves that our language has become so pliable that the more we read and hear, the less we actually know.

Full Product Details

9780922233236

Table of Contents

Reviews

Ken Smith's slim volume is a quirky, pleasingly judgmental dictionary of literary crimes. SMITH WILL DELIGHT LANGUAGE PURISTS WITH HIS WIT... - Publishers Weekly Lively, funny and impeccably right-minded... JUNK ENGLISH is terrific. - Jonathan Yardley, Washington Post

""Ken Smith's slim volume is a quirky, pleasingly judgmental dictionary of literary crimes. SMITH WILL DELIGHT LANGUAGE PURISTS WITH HIS WIT..."" - Publishers Weekly ""Lively, funny and impeccably right-minded... JUNK ENGLISH is terrific."" - Jonathan Yardley, Washington Post

'Junk English is the linguistic equivalent of junk food - ingest it long enough and your brain goes soft.' Modern life moves at breakneck speed and what isn't moving or achieving is radically altered or pronounced worthless, dead, fit for firewood. This attitude has leaked into almost every part of our lives, giving rise to a sense of urgency, haste and cost-efficiency which can be encapsulated in one loaded word: convenience. In this important book, Ken Smith puts the current state of the English language under a microscope and looks at how and why the rules of language are being broken, ignored and abused. The high standards once revered have been pulled down to accommodate sloppiness, pretension, vulgarity and ultimately confusion. Smith admits to being judgemental, and this is what makes the book such a refreshing read. Woolly liberalism, he argues, has encouraged the boundaries of language to dissolve, and political correctness has taken a thousand miles where we gave it an inch. Junk English is mainly used and perpetuated by salespeople and anyone who is trying to impress something onto the public, from policy and pitch through to propaganda and product. Abstract nouns paired as adjectives with other abstract nouns such as 'quality alternative', and 'positive impact' can sound impressive but are in fact empty wordiness for the sake of it. Using ten words where a couple will do is another bane: 'is capable of being' can be reduced to 'can be', 'in the event that' really means 'if'. Smith also discusses how this use of language cheapens words that have until now been effective, and how language becomes hyperbole because its normal function has been rendered ineffective through abuse. This book is essential reading for anyone who cares about proper communication - in fact, it should be on the National Curriculum. (Kirkus UK)

Author Information

Ken Smith's previous books include Mental Hygiene: Classroom Films 1945-1970; Raw Deal: Horrible and Ironic stories of Forgotten Americans; Ken's Guide to the Bible; and The New Roadside America (co-authored with Doug Kirby and Mike Wilkins).

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