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Author Archives: Robin Straaijer
Can you correct someone without being a language bully?
Over the past two weeks, the linguistic blogosphere has exploded over ‘Weird Al’ Yankovic’s latest musical parody Word Crimes. Linguists, editors and others were blogging at break-neck speed to discuss the judgements expressed in the song. On this blog, Viktorija … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged correcting, errors, Grammar Monkeys, grammar nazis, identity, language bullies, politeness, Word Crimes
9 Comments
What makes a usage guide? (part 2)
A little over a month ago, I posted a survey on this blog, asking you which genres you think usage guides are most closely related to: dictionaries, spelling/punctuation guides, descriptive grammars, popular writing on language, handbooks on writing or style guides. It appears … Continue reading
New English Today, new Feature!
Another chance to get involved in our project! The latest issue of English Today is out now and it contains another feature article from this project. In this feature I ask the following questions about how linguists should engage with the … Continue reading
Posted in announcement
Tagged critical language awareness, feature article, linguists, public discourse
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Pedants and Perpetrators: or, language, power and the dangers of simplificitation
Yesterday, the website of The Guardian posted an article on the members of the Idler Academy’s Bad Grammar Awards‘ shortlist. The bad grammar perpetrated by those on the shortlist contained a number of the ‘old chestnuts’ such as the use of … Continue reading
Posted in news
Tagged Bad Grammar Awards, Deborah Tannen, Jeremy Paxman, pedantry, power, The Guardian, The Idler
1 Comment
What makes a usage guide?
During the construction of the HUGE database, I have been thinking about the genre of usage guides a lot for the simple, practical purpose of determining which titles would be put in the database, and which would not. Edmund Weiner asked … Continue reading
Posted in polls and surveys, usage guide
Tagged dictionaries, Edmund Weiner, genre, Style Guides
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The page for the English Usage (Guides) Symposium at the University of Cambridge (see the above menu bar) provides the programme, abstracts and information on how to register. Registration can also be done here. The fee for the Symposium is £30 only: don’t wait too long before … Continue reading
These are literally my favourite expressions
I think we all have our opinions about the use of the word literally as an intensifier in expressions where it doesn’t literally mean literally. Personally, it doesn’t usually bother me, so for me there is hardly an ‘incorrect’ use … Continue reading
update About page
It was long overdue, but we’ve updated the About page. It now also features our new project assistent Inge Otto, whose post you will have already seen come by if you regularly visit this site. Inge joined the project in September … Continue reading
Attitudes to usage: a thought experiment
Imagine you’re sitting at a big table as part of a large group of people. It could be a cafe, it could be a restaurant, it could be a meeting at work. Some of the people at the table are … Continue reading
Art
I decided that the project Bridging the Unbridgeable needed some art to use on publicised materials, so I came up with the following image, using a Bananagrams game and my coffee table top for a background.My English-language Scrabble set led … Continue reading
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