Unlocking the English language

by Robert W. Burchfield

Book by Burchfield, R.W.

Genres: Language

Hardcover

First published January 1, 1989

Reviews

[Tiger Webb · Rating 5 out of 5]

Contrary to expectations set by the title, Unlocking the English Language is hardly an introductory work. Unlike other popular language monographs — some written, in fairness, by Burchfield — the English language will feel no less enchained after reading this than it did prior. Though to extend the metaphor perhaps a bit too far, you might end up with a newfound appreciation for the lock.

Burchfield was one of the 20th century’s most respected lexicographers. After three decades as an editor at the Oxford English Dictionary, he decided to spend retirement the way we all might: re-examining, in his words, the grammar of English.

What follows in this book (a collection of four lectures and eight mildly related essays) can best be described as a wondrous curio. In meticulously attributed and workmanlike prose, Burchfield offers his thoughts on the cutthroat business of dictionaries, the origins of American English, the work of T S Eliot, and more.

In a refreshing change from many lexicographer-cum-memoirists, Burchfield is opinionated — stroppy, even. Synchronic approaches to linguistics (conversational analysis, systemic functional grammars) get a lashing, with the author bemoaning the “zoom lens and electron microscope” approach to analysing the langue. A biographical sketch of the Fowlers, too, is notable for its rearguard defence of the celebrated (later condemned) usage manual authors.

There’s a fair amount of assumed knowledge here, but Burchfield is great company — if you can keep up.

[Constantine]

Hardback