Rutherford, W: Whys & Therefores A Rational Look at the English Language

Whys and Therefores is a lively and adventurous book, a delight to read! It’s hard to put down, and will capture the imaginations of even those readers who don’t start out recognizing that they love languages.'
Professor Margaret Thomas, Program in Linguistics, Slavic & Eastern Languages & Literatures, Boston College
'Through the form of Socratic dialogues in both print and sound, Rutherford’s Whys & Therefores takes readers and listeners on a unique intellectual tour of the fascinating world of the English language. This book is for anyone in the era of EAGLF (English as a global lingua franca) with the need and desire to enjoyably build conscious knowledge of the language.'
Professor Fusa Katada, Center for English Language Education in Science and Engineering, Waseda University, Tokyo
'With wit and humor, Rutherford presents fruits of modern linguistics--amazing principles at work in English that most native speakers are unaware of--whether they are about pronunciation, vocabulary, grammar, or even spelling conventions. I recommend the book to anyone interested in linguistics but put off by formalism and technicality found in other introductory books. This book makes an introduction to the discipline a smooth, happy and extremely intriguing one. I am thinking of using it as a second textbook for a generative linguistics course that I teach to future language teachers.'
Hiroyuki Oshita, Associate Professor of Japanese and Linguistics, Ohio University
'Having had the privilege of seeing this book in its gestational stages, I know its goals and have seen how Dr. Rutherford's linguistic insight and sensitivity to newcomers combine to make this a fine first encounter. By itself for fun, or complementing a text in a classroom, Whys and Therefores successfully combines rational inquiry and humor--no mean feat. I look forward to using the text with my own students.'
Sharon M. Klein, Professor of Linguistics, California State University, Northridge
'Whys & Therefores is a bold work hoping to combine and balance pedagogy, linguistic discovery and explanation, and entertainment.'
LiguistList 23.1882, April 2012