If the English language is a glorious garden, filled with exotic hybrids and the continuing tradition of heritage specimens, then it is no surprise that we will also find some weeds. Linguistic weeds may have pronunciations we don´t want or constructions that are out of place. We may be trying to hold on to words and usage we should perhaps have said farewell to. But as all gardeners know, what one gardener calls a ´weed´, another may call a ´flower´. The same goes for words and their usage in English - sometimes we just haven´t realized their virtues. Kate Burridge follows the international success of her book Blooming English with another entertaining excursion into the ever-changing nature of our complex and captivating language. • A book for all lovers of the English language • Focuses on ´bad´ words, pronunciation and grammar in English and explains how these usages developed and how they became ´unacceptable´ • Easy and enjoyable to read; genuinely accessible to the non-linguist
