Category Archives: MA Leiden

No complaint tradition in The Netherlands? (ctd.)

Posted on March 6, 2018 by Ingrid Tieken

I’m teaching another MA course on prescriptivism this semester, this time with the general research question as to how much of what is in the English usage guides reflects non-standard language use. All students in the course are once again … Continue reading →

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How do sticklers react to linguistic findings?

Posted on June 14, 2016 by Ingrid Tieken

Here is Lingyun Lai’s second blogpost: Sometimes, grammar handbooks and usage guides address similar usage issues, but their conclusions are not always the same. Nowadays, quite a few grammar references are based on corpus linguistics, and many such descriptive findings disaffirm … Continue reading →

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Forever dangling? The unstoppable dangling participle under scrutiny

Posted on June 13, 2016 by Ingrid Tieken

Here is Ina Huttenga’s second blog post: The dangling participle is a pervasive structure in the English language. These “misrelated” modifiers have been used throughout English language history, but they seem to have become problems only recently, in the 20th … Continue reading →

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Write it Right: A very pedantic usage guide

Posted on June 10, 2016 by Ingrid Tieken

Here is Madeleine Ibes’s second blog post: Ambrose Bierce (1842-1914) was an American short story author, journalist and satirist who authored books like The Devil’s Dictionary (1906/1909), which contained definitions like this one for grammar: “A system of pitfalls thoughtfully prepared for … Continue reading →

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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 →

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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 →

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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

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 →

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Commonest. Common or not?

Posted on April 14, 2016 by Ingrid Tieken

And here is Madeleine Ibes’s first blog post: Whilst doing my weekly reading for the course Testing Prescriptivism, I stumbled across a term I had never heard before. The book I was reading was a study done by Mittins et al., … Continue reading →

Posted in MA Leiden, usage features | Tagged | 3 Comments

Si volet usus

Posted on April 6, 2016 by Ingrid Tieken

Here is Sara Sánchez-Molina Santos’s first blogpost: Grammatical rules change si volet usus (“if it be the will of custom”, according to Horace, in his Ars Poetica, c.  19 BC). This is what the Spanish Royal Academy says in the prologue to their … Continue reading →

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