Author Archives: Ingrid Tieken

A very unlikely British phrase

Posted on December 29, 2021 by Ingrid Tieken

Watching the final episode of the BBC mini-series A Very British Scandal last night I was struck by the Duke of Argyll saying “This battle between you and I …”. It would have been highly unlikely for a man of … Continue reading →

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Is there a German complaint tradition?

Posted on December 14, 2021 by Ingrid Tieken

Milroy and Milroy, in Authority in Language (first published in 1985, but with a fourth edition in 2012), argue that English has a complaint tradition, with people writing Letters to the Editor about linguistic problems they encounter and usage guides … Continue reading →

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The work of copy-editors

Posted on December 10, 2021 by Ingrid Tieken

Today, 10 December 2021, Morana Lukač and Adrian Stenton, both of them working within the context of the (former) Bridging the Unbridgeable project, will be giving the final talk this calendar year of the LUCL Sociolinguistics Series, from 4 pm … Continue reading →

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Geoffrey Nunberg, Robert Lowth and punctuation theory

Posted on November 1, 2021 by Ingrid Tieken

Working on the punctuation practice of 18th-century letter writers, I was intrigued by the title of Geoffrey Nunberg‘s book, The Linguistics of Punctuation (1990). The book didn’t have what I was looking for, was in fact more about developing a … Continue reading →

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Language columns in major newspapers

Posted on October 27, 2021 by Ingrid Tieken

It’s great to come across language columns in newspapers like The Economist and, more recently, the New York Times. It is even greater if they deal with aspects of prescriptivism, and linguists’ as well as the general public’s reactions to … Continue reading →

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Roadkill’s scriptwriters

Posted on October 22, 2021 by Ingrid Tieken

For a paper I’m writing on the use of who/whom I’m trying to get in touch with the scriptwriters of Roadkill, a British political thriller series that was broadcast in the UK and the US towards the end of 2020 … Continue reading →

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Le Carré’s main character spinning in his grave

Posted on October 17, 2021 by Ingrid Tieken

Reading another spy novel by John Le Carré, this time Absolute Friends (2003), I didn’t expect to come across any metalinguistic comments relating to prescriptivism since most of the novel is situated in Germany. But I did find this absolute … Continue reading →

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Pronouncing prescient properly

Posted on September 22, 2021 by Ingrid Tieken

Watching the new Netflix series The Chair, I was struck by two metalinguistic comments, both made by the main character Professor Ji-Yoon Kim, chair of the English department, who consequently comes across as being a bit of a pedant. The … Continue reading →

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The pedant in him …

Posted on September 15, 2021 by Ingrid Tieken

… is sparked off by spotting an exclamation mark where a question would normally be expected. Or actually, by the vacuousness of the contents of the welcoming message found when booking into his hotel room. All this is part of … Continue reading →

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The project continues …

Posted on September 1, 2021 by Ingrid Tieken

The Bridging the Unbridgeable project officially ended nearly five years ago, but almost all of us are presenting a paper at the next Prescriptivism Conference, held online (no fee!) at the University of Vigo from 23 – 25 September 2021. … Continue reading →

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