Category Archives: news

Three more project publications!

Posted on April 20, 2018 by Ingrid Tieken

Just out: Standardising English: Norms and Margins in the History of the English Language, ed. by Linda Pillière, Wilfred Andrieu, Valérie Kerfelec and Diana Lewis (2018), Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Carmen Ebner, Concepts of correctness and acceptability in British English: … Continue reading →

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A centenary: The Elements of Style

Posted on April 12, 2018 by Ingrid Tieken

Putting the final touches (I hope!) to my book on usage guides and usage problems, I suddenly realised that William Strunk‘s famous Elements of Style is a hundred years old this year. Will anyone, publisher or critic or otherwise, pay attention to … Continue reading →

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Great to have a copy!

Posted on April 6, 2018 by Ingrid Tieken

The HUGE database contains only a selection of usage guides. On the one hand, because there are so many of them, but on the other because it wasn’t always possible to lay our hands on a copy that could be … Continue reading →

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There/their/they’re confusion: something of all times

Posted on March 28, 2018 by Ingrid Tieken

In discussing new usage problems discussed on the internet, Hielke Vriesendorp recently noted that there/their/they’re spellings were among the five most commented upon features listed in a Facebook group survey he carried out. Reading an early 17th-century text for the … Continue reading →

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Singular they and women

Posted on March 26, 2018 by Ingrid Tieken

Back and forth to Berlin last week, for the Wild Publics conference organised by Theresa Heyd and Britta Schneider. There were two papers on prescriptivism, my own (Codification – prescription – prescriptivism: The authority of the lay-person) and one by … Continue reading →

Posted in news, usage features | Tagged singular they | 1 Comment

Live and Learn – our very own copy

Posted on March 6, 2018 by Ingrid Tieken

Truly delightful to see that someone responded to my call in December last year to donate any spare usage guides to our project: many thanks indeed, Paul Nance for this wonderful gift, a copy of Live and Learn (anon., 35th … Continue reading →

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On the late Harry Blamires …

Posted on January 12, 2018 by Ingrid Tieken

How sad to come across his obituary in Church Times: Harry Blamires (1916-2017), who we once referred to on this blog as our oldest living usage guide writer, died on 21 November last year. The obituary lists his many achievements, … Continue reading →

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Season’s’ greetings and some Christmas reading

Posted on December 19, 2017 by Ingrid Tieken

The most frequent hit on our blog at this time of the year is to Carmen Ebner’s post on the question of where to place the apostrophe (if at all) in “Season’s greeetings”. Well, here is something different for all … Continue reading →

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We proudly announce …

Posted on November 17, 2017 by Ingrid Tieken

… the publication of the second major collection of papers from the Bridging the Unbridgeable project, which appeared yesterday! Thanks to all authors for their wonderful contributions: copies are on their way and should reach you soon. We also … Continue reading →

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