Author Archives: Ingrid Tieken

Seeing usage problems around every corner!

Posted on May 20, 2016 by Ingrid Tieken

Here is Bram Steijn‘s second blog post for the MA course Testing Prescriptivism:  I was sitting in the train, checking my Facebook messages, when I stumbled upon the following mistake in someone’s profile text: “living life at full”. The person … Continue reading →

Posted in MA Leiden, usage features | 3 Comments

And the winner is …

Posted on May 19, 2016 by Ingrid Tieken

This morning, I’ve been going through the HUGE database to find out which of the 123 usage problems was treated most by the usage guides (77 in all). Does anyone want to make a guess?    

Posted in usage features, usage guide | Tagged | 2 Comments

We’re/were: huh?

Posted on May 16, 2016 by Ingrid Tieken

Recently, one of my English Facebook friends wrote that she and her family had just survived a very cold May Bank Holiday weekend camping with snow on the hills. “We’re you in a caravan?” one of her friends asked. We’re … Continue reading →

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Pinker’s Sense of Style translated into Dutch

Posted on May 13, 2016 by Ingrid Tieken

Yesterday, I accidentally came across the translation into Dutch of Pinker’s The Sense of Style in a bookshop here in The Hague. Amazing, an English style-cum-usage guide translated into Dutch. A much earlier similar attempt, the translation of Lynne Truss’s Eats Shoots … Continue reading →

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9 December: Save The Date!

Posted on May 11, 2016 by Ingrid Tieken

On 9 December 2016, the Bridging the Unbridgeable project will organise a usage guides symposium at the Leiden University Centre for Linguistics. Speakers will include Rebecca Gowers (author of the revised edition of Plain Words and of the recently published Horrible Words), … Continue reading →

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Attitudes in prescriptivism: a new word for “stickler”?

Posted on May 10, 2016 by Ingrid Tieken

Lonneke van Leest-Kootkar’s first blogpost is about sticklers and the rest of the prescriptive bunch: Sticklers, pedants, pundits and purists: these are only a couple of terms to describe those prescriptivists who have the tendency to get worked up about … Continue reading →

Posted in MA Leiden | Tagged , , , | 7 Comments

Grammar obsessions

Posted on May 9, 2016 by Ingrid Tieken

Here is an excellent linguist’s view (structural ambiguity intended) on the controversial UK SPaG test that Carmen Ebner wrote about on this blog a short while ago. Three days ago, Jane Hodson from the University of Sheffield published an online … Continue reading →

Posted in news, Uncategorized | Tagged | 1 Comment

A problem with soaring acceptance rates

Posted on May 2, 2016 by Ingrid Tieken

Below follows Lingyun Lai’s first blogpost: Since Mittins et al., in their book Attitudes to English usage, reported an overall acceptability of 50 English usage items in 1970, no systematic replication research had been conducted, until, from 2011 onwards, the Bridging … Continue reading →

Posted in MA Leiden, polls and surveys | Tagged | 2 Comments

English Language Day 2016

Posted on April 23, 2016 by Ingrid Tieken

Today is English Language Day, and yesterday we had a wondeful sneak preview of it with Harry Ritchie’s talk Ashamed of your English?, followed by more talk on English prescriptivism during lunch afterwards. Last year’s post to commemorate the day … Continue reading →

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Has grammar become hip?

Posted on April 21, 2016 by Ingrid Tieken

Here is Hielke Vriesendorp’s first blog post: Whilst Google-searching for online usage advice, I expected to find  many different sorts of websites, but I can’t say I expected usage advice on lifestyle blogs, which were otherwise giving advice on relationships, motherhood, … Continue reading →

Posted in MA Leiden, polls and surveys | 4 Comments