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The Oxford Miniguide to English Usage, (1983)
compiled by E. S. C. Weiner
Oxford at The Clarendon Press

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Аннотация

Текст книги воспроизводится по изданию фирмы «Оксфорд Юнивер-сити Пресс» (Великобритания). Справочник позволяет быстро и легко найти ответы на трудные вопросы, касающиеся произношения и правописания, словообразования и словоупотребления, а также функционирования грамматических конструкций в речи. Материал дается в форме практических рекомендаций и содержит большой иллюстративный материал. Справочник снабжен предисловием и комментарием на русском языке.

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PREFACE

THE Oxford Miniguide to English Usage is a completely new work of reference. It is intended for anyone who needs simple and direct guidance about the formation and use of English words — about spelling, pronunciation, meanings, and grammar — and who cannot claim any specialist training in these subjects.

This book is designed to answer the questions about English usage that ordinary people are constantly asking; it covers the known areas of difficulty and controversy, leaving aside the parts of the English language that cause most native speakers no trouble. Typical examples of the subjects covered are: whether to write forego or forgo, Jones' or Joneses', enrolment or enrollment; where to place the stress in words like contribute, controversy, nomenclature, subsidence; the correct use of data, media, and strata; the difference between deprecate and depreciate, imply and infer, militate and mitigate; whether to say different from or different than; and when shall should be used rather than will. Clear and simple recommendations are given, highlighting correct and acceptable standard British English. Only the minimum knowledge of grammatical terminology is assumed (a glossary of all the terms employed is included), and technical symbols are entirely dispensed with.

This book differs from all other small usage guides in using a large number of examples drawn from the works of well-known twentieth-century writers to illustrate good usage. There are three appendices, dealing with punctuation, the perils of modish vocabulary, and some overseas varieties of English. Distinctive features of American English are pointed out wherever possible in the main body of the book. There are two indexes, one covering all the subjects discussed, and the other giving the location of each of the 4,400 words and phrases mentioned in the book.

This work is based largely on the archives, experience, and resources of the Oxford English Dictionary Department of the Oxford University Press, and has the authority of the Oxford family of dictionaries behind its recommendations. I should like to record my gratitude to my colleagues in the Dictionary Department for their help and support. I am grateful in particular to the Chief Editor of the Oxford English Dictionaries, Dr Robert Burchfield, CBE, Miss J. M. Hawkins, and Dr R. E. Allen for their guidance, criticisms, and suggestions; Mr A. J. Augarde, Miss E. M. Knowles, and Mr J. A. Simpson for their numerous contributions; and Mrs P. Lawton and Miss K.C.E. Vines for typing and re-typing sections of the text. Outside the Department I am grateful to Mrs M. Y. Offord for her contributions, to Mrs A. Whear for compiling the Word Index, and to Mr H. E. Boyce for his assistance with proofreading.

E.S.C.W.
December 1982

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CONTENTS

Introduction 11
Grammatical Terms 14
Abbreviations 21

I. WORD FORMATION 22
II. PRONUNCIATION 69
III. VOCABULARY 114
IV. GRAMMAR 165

APPENDICES
I. Principles of Punctuation 223
II. Cliches and Modish and Inflated Diction 228
III. English Overseas 231
IV. Commentary 237
V. Table of Irregular Verbs... 249
Subject Index 253
Word Index 259