Author Archives: Carmen Ebner

About Carmen Ebner

Carmen Ebner is a sociolinguist. In September 2017, she has obtained her PhD in Linguistics from Leiden University Centre for Linguistics (LUCL) in the Netherlands, where she worked on a project on language attitudes and prescriptivism in British English. Carmen's research interests include all things sociolinguistics. In particular, she is interested in linguistic discrimination, attitude elicitation techniques, language variation and change, and historical sociolinguistics.

Pullum: “Strunk simply doesn’t bother to look”

Posted on June 5, 2017 by Carmen Ebner

For readers of this blog and those who have followed the debate between prescriptivists and descriptivists closely, it’s hardly surprising to hear that Geoffrey Pullum, Professor of General Linguistics at Edinburgh University, is not particularly fond of William Strunk’s The … Continue reading →

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The Comma Queen is back

Posted on April 19, 2016 by Carmen Ebner

Mary Norris, copy-editor and author of the usage guide Between you & me: Confessions of a Comma Queen, shares her knowledge on language use in a series of videos on The New Yorker.   Now in season two, the Comma Queen … Continue reading →

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Introvert pedants?

Posted on March 29, 2016 by Carmen Ebner

Robin Queen and Julie Boland, both from the University of Michigan, recently conducted a study on attitudes towards spelling variation, which has now been picked up by The Guardian. What they call “typos” and “grammos” are errors everyone has come across when using the internet … Continue reading →

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Continuing the usage game

Posted on February 22, 2016 by Carmen Ebner

On our blog, we often report on current developments in the usage debate, bits and pieces of our research findings and also new publications of usage guides. Being a true book addict, I would like to share two of the … Continue reading →

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Blaming the media?

Posted on February 4, 2016 by Carmen Ebner

As part of our interactive feature series in English Today, the latest and ninth article has been published today in which I discuss attitudes towards the role of the media in language variation and change. In my online questionnaire, I asked informants … Continue reading →

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Key player media?

Posted on December 10, 2015 by Carmen Ebner

Since I am particularly interested in the media’s role in the later stages of the standardisation process of English, I would like to invite you to participate in a brief survey which also serves as a starting point for a … Continue reading →

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He said, she said or he admitted, she boasted?

Posted on December 3, 2015 by Carmen Ebner

What is wrong with the word said? Personally, I do have nothing against this very useful verb. But as it turns out, some teachers in the US are actively encouraging their students to not make use of it. Gabriel Roth … Continue reading →

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What’s the fuss about the controversial SPaG test?

Posted on November 5, 2015 by Carmen Ebner

The 2016 version of the Key Stage 2 Spelling, Punctuation and Grammar test, also known as SPaG test, has made the headlines in the UK again. Michael Rosen has often voiced his concerns about the test publically and did so again … Continue reading →

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And then there were 4

Posted on September 18, 2015 by Carmen Ebner

After Grammar Girl’s Top 10 Grammar Myths in 2010 and the Guardian’s 10 grammar rules you can forget three years later, linguist and author Arika Okrent joins the usage problem shortlisting club with her 4 Fake Grammar Rules You Don’t … Continue reading →

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Linguistic Girl Power

Posted on August 11, 2015 by Carmen Ebner

We have dealt with numerous language issues such as the oddly misplaced apostrophe, the dangling participle and the new “like” on our blog, but what interests me in particular are the social factors that may or may not pull the strings behind the scene. … Continue reading →

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