Author traces constantly changing English language

THE LEXICOGRAPHER'S DILEMMA: The Evolution of "Proper" English, From Shakespeare to "South Park." By Jack Lynch. Walker and Co. 336 pages. $26.

It is a given for all linguists to agree that languages will evolve. With equal certainty, some will see this as progress while others will see only decay.

For those faced with the daunting task of cataloging the English language into a dictionary, a greater problem than the sheer scope of the task is whether or not to create an authoritative reference to define "proper" usage or to simply list those words and their definitions as are used by the preponderance of English users.

Such is "the lexicographer's dilemma." Shall one prescribe or describe the use of words? This is not a dissertation on why a preposition is a bad word to end a sentence with. Rather, Jack Lynch celebrates the flexibility, beauty and joy of the English language.

Lynch, a professor of English at Rutgers University, has studied Samuel Johnson and Elizabethan England for more than a decade. For many years, the intellectual and literary center (as well as the royal center) of the English-speaking world was London. The instructional books on grammar and writing were written as guidance for those in the middle classes who needed access to that level of society.

"If you want to live like they do, speak like they do," went the maxim.

As a result, many of those 18th-century grammarians succeeded in institutionalizing many of the early mores of English writing and speech. It is interesting to discover how the practicalities of typesetting have influenced our language. Johann Gutenberg and his immediate successors lived on the continent of Europe. As such, the characters they cast in lead reflected their alphabets. When printing moved to the British Isles, the available type didn't adequately reflect the phonetics of the spoken English. Some of the compromises used then survive today, and English is a notoriously difficult language in which to become an expert speller.

Lynch weaves the familiar with the obscure, to the delight of the reader. He is not lost in Elizabethan England. As the subtitle implies, he is also very current, aware that rapidly changing technologies and globalization will increase the pace of evolution of language.

The last two sentences in the book complete the story: "Using language should be an opportunity for inventiveness, even playfulness. It's the only way to retain our sanity as we grapple with this big, messy, arbitrary, illogical, inconsistent, often infuriating, but always fascinating language of ours."