tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28787909.post5612285946077063458..comments2024-03-28T07:47:45.855+00:00Comments on Separated by a Common Language: The book! The book! lynneguisthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10171345732985610861noreply@blogger.comBlogger131125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28787909.post-12759105387880060482020-05-22T18:44:59.491+01:002020-05-22T18:44:59.491+01:00Thanks so much for pointing that out! :)Thanks so much for pointing that out! :)lynneguisthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10171345732985610861noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28787909.post-5202940160942323092020-05-22T18:33:17.662+01:002020-05-22T18:33:17.662+01:00Lynne, I'm spending lockdown watching random v...Lynne, I'm spending lockdown watching random videos on YouTube, and was watching <a href="https://youtu.be/SqvL3a1Tg7I" rel="nofollow">this one</a> and you will be pleased to learn that at about 3 minutes or so in there is a huge shout-out for your book!Mrs Redboots (Annabel Smyth)https://www.blogger.com/profile/11270027663691257254noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28787909.post-21344258869956111702019-01-03T11:40:36.997+00:002019-01-03T11:40:36.997+00:00Lynne, currently reading the book and am enjoying ...Lynne, currently reading the book and am enjoying it so far. However I have just come across the comments about CAMRA, British ales and so on on pages 123 to 124 in the UK hardback edition. You need to be careful of your sources - having just looked at the Guardian article you quote as your source it doesn't really support your statements. It is also not very well written, confusing micropubs with microbreweries and also craft beers with real ale. It is also based on the opinions of one brewery. In no way did the American microbrewery prompt the reviving of interest in real ale in this country. CAMRA predates the upsurge in US microbreweries by years. What American microbreweries have done is bring diversity to the US market which has prompted the interest over here of "craft" beers. These have been taken up by the hipster (horrible word, but it does serve a purpose) community and therefore given unrepresentative prominence in the press. Most craft beer is not real ale, being pasteurised and artificially carbonated. The main practical thing it has done is introduced new varieties of hops and also encouraged some brewers to use a much higher level of hoppiness to some of their brews. therefore while it has raised the level of interest in beer and changed some practices to claim that US microbreweries revived local brewing traditions in the UK is just plain wrong. Period. Full stop.Jeff Walkerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08866001766825029797noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28787909.post-9014071676564323592018-11-23T16:23:56.665+00:002018-11-23T16:23:56.665+00:00Thank YOU!Thank YOU!lynneguisthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10171345732985610861noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28787909.post-6599844244515807522018-11-23T15:29:28.606+00:002018-11-23T15:29:28.606+00:00I asked my university library to get it, and they ...I asked my university library to get it, and they approved: it is now on the shelves at Aix-Marseille University and on my reading list for Engish Lingusitics in year one - never too soon to lure students into lingusitics, and it helps to have your example. Thank you!<br />Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16511583356087986253noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28787909.post-70239247559556454042018-07-24T09:33:17.348+01:002018-07-24T09:33:17.348+01:0010/10 on both but I'm not British, not America...10/10 on both but I'm not British, not American, not even an English native so it was fun. One thing is for certain (by the way, is it BrE or AmE expression?): I've been reading your blog for some time - it shows or.. it figures? (is there any BrE/Ame difference again?) :D It's all very challenging!Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28787909.post-80022771520406097252018-07-23T18:13:03.565+01:002018-07-23T18:13:03.565+01:00So glad you enjoyed it, Anonymous! :)So glad you enjoyed it, Anonymous! :)lynneguisthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10171345732985610861noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28787909.post-39604679010710694432018-07-22T20:33:04.265+01:002018-07-22T20:33:04.265+01:00Waited for the paperback, Lynne and have finished ...Waited for the paperback, Lynne and have finished it. Absolutely brilliant and I wish I'd had it when I was teaching EFL in the UK and abroad! The 'learning/knowing' grammar thing is interesting to me. I had one year of English grammar at high school and then my German teacher had to teach the class English grammar so that we knew what she was talking about. As a TEFL teacher, I had to learn and understand English grammar - sometimes difficult but always interesting... Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28787909.post-44506267449857176972018-07-19T16:24:07.864+01:002018-07-19T16:24:07.864+01:00So glad you're enjoying it! I'm afraid I w...So glad you're enjoying it! I'm afraid I wouldn't have been able to write it 20 years ago! :)lynneguisthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10171345732985610861noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28787909.post-64758415780468521332018-07-10T08:59:26.797+01:002018-07-10T08:59:26.797+01:00I am LOVING your book!! Oh, if only I'd had th...I am LOVING your book!! Oh, if only I'd had this 20 years ago -- I would've had so many good comebacks for my gotten-hating father-in-law and the wannabe magazine publisher who got huffy when I suggested some articles needed an editor. I was only the art director and besides I was an American so what did I know about proper English. Grrrr... Reading this is dredging up from my memory hole years of remarks I've had to endure by both dear and not-so-dear friends when I used a word or expression they found funny. Thank you!Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28787909.post-61798753282916611622018-06-15T14:51:44.972+01:002018-06-15T14:51:44.972+01:00Just doing the quizzes and got to the one about li...Just doing the quizzes and got to the one about living in rural areas... I once said, as a British person, to another British person "Oh I live out in the sticks" and he looked at me like I was totally insane and replied "What... on the river that delivers people to the Underworld??" Apparently it's not as well known a phrase as I'd thought! <br />(see River Styx if you are not familiar with your Greek Mythology. Heggsnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28787909.post-90033849423310259912018-06-02T20:59:16.482+01:002018-06-02T20:59:16.482+01:00Just read your book in one sitting and thoroughly ...Just read your book in one sitting and thoroughly enjoyed it. As the Welsh wife of a Frenchman whose Frano-Brit son is married to an American I now realise I must sometimes be (unwittingly) the mother-in-law from hell. Who knew « please » is rude for Americans...oh deary, deary me! I shall be passing the book on to my daughter-in-law so that my grandson grows up talking proper!Sarah Jhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15467252602321463469noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28787909.post-50228518398068663262018-05-29T15:21:24.329+01:002018-05-29T15:21:24.329+01:00Whoops!
I see you have already noted the rise/rais...Whoops!<br />I see you have already noted the rise/raise thing here:<br />https://theprodigaltongue.com/the-index/Grhmnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28787909.post-18239596437434993832018-05-29T15:06:04.083+01:002018-05-29T15:06:04.083+01:00Hi, Lynne.
I thoroughly enjoyed the book, and you&...Hi, Lynne.<br />I thoroughly enjoyed the book, and you'll be pleased to hear that I've bought a copy as a birthay present for a friend.<br />You asked somewhere if anyone had spotted any inadvertent American English in the British edition.<br />I set off reading it determined to look out for such things, but I was soon swept up by your entertaining writing style and forgot all about it.<br />I did notice two very minor things, though:<br />(1) Towards the bottom of page 240 you use the expression 'pay raises' when the more common term in Britain is 'pay rises'.<br />(2) I was momentarily confused by the last sentence of note 30 on page 314, because your penultimate use of the word 'vice' is ambiguous to British readers.<br />But that was it!<br />Thank you for keeping me entertained on a quiet bank holiday!Grhmnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28787909.post-41971646193420541522018-05-16T08:20:52.781+01:002018-05-16T08:20:52.781+01:00Many thanks, Robert. So glad you enjoyed the book....Many thanks, Robert. So glad you enjoyed the book. lynneguisthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10171345732985610861noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28787909.post-91269802280254068382018-05-16T08:12:57.673+01:002018-05-16T08:12:57.673+01:00Loved the book. I was fascinated to learn the ori...Loved the book. I was fascinated to learn the origin of the view that a double negative makes a positive, which you describe as being mathematical (Ch 6). True, but more specifically it's multiplicative. A negative times a negative gives a positive. However, living in Venezuela for a year I realized that, unlike multiplicative English, Spanish must be additive. Multiple negatives seemed to be just fine (at least spoken). Adding more negatives made the statement more strongly negative. My invented example: El no da nada a nadie, nunca. Translated literally: He doesn't give nothing to nobody, never. That is, he's a real miser. Robert Edwardsnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28787909.post-86053641228024191132018-05-14T14:03:49.049+01:002018-05-14T14:03:49.049+01:00Yes, but because of the day job, they will be a lo...Yes, but because of the day job, they will be a long time coming. lynneguisthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10171345732985610861noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28787909.post-72733547363769995612018-05-14T13:51:47.900+01:002018-05-14T13:51:47.900+01:00I read the whole thing in a week or so – in no way...I read the whole thing in a week or so – in no way was it a trudge! It helped that I had a long transatlantic flight to get stuck into the start of it. Any plans for more books?Ian Mac Eochagáinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08807587737403861042noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28787909.post-8568017855196268462018-05-13T21:40:06.704+01:002018-05-13T21:40:06.704+01:00So glad to hear it, Ian. And especially nice to he...So glad to hear it, Ian. And especially nice to hear about it when people liked later chapters...nice to know you made it that far through! :)lynneguisthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10171345732985610861noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28787909.post-73491314962810383982018-05-13T21:16:15.179+01:002018-05-13T21:16:15.179+01:00I read the book a couple of weeks ago while on hol...I read the book a couple of weeks ago while on holiday in Canada, which was a strangely appropriate place to do so. I loved it. What particularly stuck in my mind was the part about the teaching of writing in the US. I also thought the first chapter on the British malaise of spotting Americanisms, often phantom ones, hit the nail on the head.Ian Mac Eochagáinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08807587737403861042noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28787909.post-15064990673860929972018-05-13T10:28:04.018+01:002018-05-13T10:28:04.018+01:00So glad you enjoyed it. Thanks for saying so.So glad you enjoyed it. Thanks for saying so.lynneguisthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10171345732985610861noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28787909.post-7295932649827401882018-05-12T23:03:43.063+01:002018-05-12T23:03:43.063+01:00Loved the book. It was scholarly but accessible, a...Loved the book. It was scholarly but accessible, and I loved the way you covered the history of America in relation to that of Britain to show why some words are revivals or relics even when we see them as 'new'. I definitely felt the sweep of the 20th-century and the new dawn in the 21st.<br />I was a bit surprised that P G Wodehouse was not mentioned, when he lived and wrote on both sides of the Atlantic, producing both Bertie Wooster and his English chums, and musicals and screenplays in America.<br />I think your British copy editor missed one AmE usage - 'a trouser', where in BrE we refer to 'a pair of trousers'. I was galloping through the book and didn't note down the page number. I will look forward to reading it all again.biochemisthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02583985909434048932noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28787909.post-34648033806419407392018-05-09T14:28:27.429+01:002018-05-09T14:28:27.429+01:00Thank you so much!Thank you so much!lynneguisthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10171345732985610861noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28787909.post-59374384565699561882018-05-09T14:22:40.970+01:002018-05-09T14:22:40.970+01:00Read it. Enjoyed it. Learned quite a bit. Gave it ...Read it. Enjoyed it. Learned quite a bit. Gave it 5 stars on Goodreads.<br /><br />For what its worth.<br />enitharmonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17829757748223670291noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28787909.post-2618503431375072732018-05-04T12:17:18.023+01:002018-05-04T12:17:18.023+01:00Thank you for your kind words! I hope you (and you...Thank you for your kind words! I hope you (and your students) enjoy the rest of it!lynneguisthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10171345732985610861noreply@blogger.com