Monthly Archives: October 2012

Annoying Anglocreep

Posted on October 11, 2012 by Ingrid Tieken

So the irritation is mutual! We’ve reported several times on Americanisms in British English in this blog, but if you want to read on the increase of British expressions in American English (toff, cheers, brilliant, loo), take a look at … Continue reading →

Posted in news | Tagged , | 1 Comment

Partridge being polite?

Posted on October 11, 2012 by Ingrid Tieken

In the dedication to the buyer of the first edition of his Concise Usage & Abusage which I reported on the other day, Partridge complements Conrad van Hoewijk on his command of English: this Dutchman really doesn’t need to buy a usage guide, is what the … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Dialects and prescriptivism

Posted on October 10, 2012 by Carmen Ebner

If you have ever visited Scotland, you are probably well acquainted with Scottish dialects or at least with what you have been able to decode from the torrents of words you are encountered with. Even though I am not an … Continue reading →

Posted in usage features | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

4th Bridging the Unbridgeable Lunch Lecture

Posted on October 9, 2012 by Ingrid Tieken

Our fourth lunch lecture will take place on 29 October 2012, from 12 to 1 pm, in van Wijkplaats 4, room 004.  This time, the lunch lecture will take the shape of a small mini-symposium, with two papers on usage … Continue reading →

Posted in news | Tagged | Leave a comment

A Partridge first edition

Posted on October 7, 2012 by Ingrid Tieken

It sometimes pays off to visit second-hand bookshops in search of usage guides: yesterday, I found a first edition of The Concise Usage & Abusage by Eric Partridge. A signed copy as well! The book was published in 1954, there is a … Continue reading →

Posted in news, usage guide | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Another prescriptivist joke

Posted on October 6, 2012 by Ingrid Tieken

For a paper I’m giving at the LUCL Colloquium on 2 November, I started to analyse the response I got to the Attitudes Survey I have been carrying out since early May this year. The response, btw, has been truly … Continue reading →

Posted in usage features | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Creativity and/or Prescriptivism

Posted on October 5, 2012 by Viktorija Kostadinova

In a cult sketch on language, Stephen Fry compares the inexhaustible creative potential of language to that of music. The structure of language comprises a limited set of parts, just as a piano keyboard has a limited set of keys. … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , | 2 Comments

Check your grammar checker

Posted on October 3, 2012 by Robin Straaijer

During her plenary lecture at the 17th International Conference on English Historical Linguistics in Zürich, Anne Curzan reminded us of the enormous influence of the grammar checker in Microsoft Word. My first thought at hearing the checker mentioned is that it … Continue reading →

Posted in technology | Tagged , , , , | 4 Comments

That was literally awesome

Posted on October 2, 2012 by Carmen Ebner

All things come to an end. No matter how hard we try, but ultimately we cannot prevent them from disappearing or not fitting our needs anymore. Take, for example, shoes. As a kid I had awesome shoes with blinking lights … Continue reading →

Posted in usage features | Tagged , | 3 Comments