My Grammar and I (or should that be 'me'?) - Taggart & Wines

This is advertised as the "Eats shoots and leaves..." of Grammar.  Well it isn't as funny.  However, it is eminently readable and enjoyable.

I had heard that is was wrong to split an infinitive - but I didn't really know what that meant.  Apparently the verb after the word 'to' cannot be split.  Star Trek is the most famous error in this regard.  "To boldly go where no man has gone before."  This should be "To go boldly..."  You can't split the infinitive.

I must admit that it was grand to be able to put names to the turns of phrase that have irritated me.  I particularly loath modern sports parlance; but have not understood exactly why it is erroneous.  When sports players refer to themselves with the pronoun 'myself' when it should be 'me' or 'I'.  For example, '... the boys and myself' or '... they are to report to myself.'  This is the misuse of the reflexive pronoun.  It should be 'I' if you are a part of the subject or 'me' if you are the object.  The reflexive pronouns should only be used when the subject and the object of the verb are the same person.  'I speak for myself."

I really enjoyed the section on tense and moods.  Ever since I first came across Anslem's ontological argument, I have been fascinated by modal logic.  So, the subjunctive mood was a particularly interesting section.  However, you have to go step by step.

1)  We all know what a verb is but do we know what auxiliary verbs are? Well, auxiliary verbs are used to indicate the tense, voice and mood of another verb where this is not indicated by inflection.(pg.75)  Bet you didn't know that there are only twenty-three of them in the English language.  We can memorise auxiliary verbs by singing them to jingle bells:

There you go - the twenty-three auxiliary verbs.

2)  Conditional clauses in the subjunctive mood are statements of the possible or counterfactual.  For example, 'If I were rich, I would be happier than I am now'.  This is a conditional statement in the subjunctive mood - a counterfactual statement of the possible.  Now the auxiliary verbs 'was' and 'were' are crucial in these sentences.  The verb 'was' denotes a fact; 'were' is used for counterfactuals.  Dr who illustrates:

Rattigan (Child genius):  'If only that was possible'.   

Dr Who:  'If only that were possible.  Conditional clause.'   

Dr Who: The Sontarian Stratagem 

 This is a great book - full of interesting examples, funny anecdotes and lots of Grammar.  Enjoy.
5 stars