Parts of Speech: Essays on English

Matthews was a Columbia professor who believed language belongs to the people who speak it, not to pedants and grammarians. These essays, written at the turn of the century, mount a spirited defense of English in all its disorderly glory: its messy orthography, its American variations, its capacity to absorb and transform foreign influences. He traces the language from King Alfred's England through the mixing of Teutonic, Celtic, and Norman tongues, arguing that this chaotic inheritance is not weakness but vitality. For Matthews, literature is the crucible in which a language becomes a shared identity, a means by which speakers recognize themselves and their ideals. The essays pulse with a professor's love for his subject, celebrating English's poetic qualities and individualistic spirit while pushing back against those who would standardize it into dullness. A book for anyone who has ever defended a split infinitive.