Author Archives: BtU Admin

NOTICES: The page “Related blogs” has been replace by a blogroll in the sidebar. The page “Language Calendar” has been nested under the page “Events”.

Posted on November 9, 2012 by BtU Admin | Leave a comment

Webster’s ain’t

Posted on October 26, 2012 by BtU Admin

Just out, The Story of Ain’t by David Skinner, editor of Humanities magazine, is not about the verb form in the title but about “the controversy over Webster’s Third” when it was published “with much fanfare in 1961″. The book sets out to explain why … Continue reading →

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Prescription and Tradition in Language: call for papers

Posted on August 29, 2012 by BtU Admin

Fourth Conference on Prescriptivism: for the call for papers, click on the link above.

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8th usage poll

Posted on August 24, 2012 by BtU Admin

In case you were worried that we were no longer interested in your views on usage, here, at last, is our 8th usage poll. It includes items 36-40 from the survey by Mittins et al. (1970). As before, we are … Continue reading →

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Cutting w/o pasting

Posted on July 5, 2012 by BtU Admin

Watch this little slideshow. It shows how we prepare the usage guides before we feed them into our scanner. We hope to be able show you a more complete video of how we construct our database later. Since we cannot … Continue reading →

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7th Usage Poll

Posted on May 16, 2012 by BtU Admin

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High time for a new usage poll:  items 31 – 35 from Mittins et al. (1970). Let us have your votes please! And should this poll really get you into the mood for more, there are six more polls to … Continue reading →

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MA course on Prescriptivism at the University of Leiden

Posted on May 4, 2012 by BtU Admin

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Next academic year, second semester, Ingrid Tieken will teach an MA course called “Prescription and Prescriptivism”. More details will be announced on the Leiden University website soon. Course description: Prescription and prescriptivism are perceived, particularly by linguists, as rather negative … Continue reading →

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Language Calendar

Posted on April 26, 2012 by BtU Admin

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As a new feature on the blog, we are compiling a Language Calendar (see the bar under the banner). So far it contains only two dates: 4 March: National Grammar Day in the US 22 April: Modern English Usage Day … Continue reading →

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2nd Bridging the Unbridgeable Lunch Lecture

Posted on April 24, 2012 by BtU Admin

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Social media in teaching and research As a follow-up on the article Twitteren met een Twist in the final issue of Forum (19 April), the Bridging the Unbridgeable project is organising a session on the (potential) benefits social media can … Continue reading →

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Most successful usage guide of all times?

Posted on April 20, 2012 by BtU Admin

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This was the question asked on the page-a-day calendar published by Genootschap Onze Taal for 4 June 2004. The answer is, obviously, not the same for English as it is for Dutch. The most successful Dutch usage manual, Onze Taal … Continue reading →

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