Category Archives: news

Dahlesque got in, so how about Fowleresque?

Posted on September 29, 2016 by Ingrid Tieken

Two weeks ago, NRC-Handelsblad published an article on the memorable fact that among their new entries, the Oxford English Dictionary adopted words made up by Roald Dahl (1916-1990). The OED as a news item in a Dutch quality newspaper! The occasion appears … Continue reading →

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500 Mistakes of Daily Occurrence online

Posted on September 14, 2016 by Ingrid Tieken

Yesterday, completely by chance, I came across a digitised version of the anonymous usage guide (also included in the HUGE database) called 500 Mistakes of Daily Occrrence (1856). The site operates wonderfully, and the document is fully searchable (but still attributed … Continue reading →

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The next Prescriptivism conference: 21-23 June 2017

Posted on July 28, 2016 by Ingrid Tieken

Following the fourth conference on prescriptivism, which was held here at Leiden and co-organised by the Bridging the Unbridgeable project, the next one will be held at Park City, Utah, organised by Don Chapman from Brigham Young University. The theme for the … Continue reading →

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Strunk & White in our very own NRC-Handelsblad!

Posted on July 20, 2016 by Ingrid Tieken

I don’t always read the Dutch writer Pia de Jong’s weekly column from the US in our paper, but last night, turning over the NRC, my eye was immediately drawn to the words Elements of Style: Strunk and White in NRC-Handelsblad, … Continue reading →

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Fingers crossed, please!

Posted on July 19, 2016 by Ingrid Tieken

A few weeks ago, I submitted our HUGE database as a candidate for the Nederlandse Dataprijs. By mid-September, the jury will nominate three potential winners, and we hope to be among them. What is more, we would really like to be … Continue reading →

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9 December – Life after HUGE? Registration now closed

Posted on June 16, 2016 by Ingrid Tieken

Registration for the symposium is now closed. Should you wish to attend the symposium after all, please leave a comment, and we will see what we can do. Below, you will find the preliminary programme for the symposium Life after HUGE? … Continue reading →

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Your Top 5 of grammatical errors in English?

Posted on June 1, 2016 by Ingrid Tieken

Hielke Vriesendorp is a research master student of Linguistics at Leiden, who is trying to collect data for his paper for Ingrid Tieken’s MA course Testing Prescriptivism. To this end, he compiled a brief survey asking about people’s Top 5s of most … Continue reading →

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Can your local accent hold you back?

Posted on May 17, 2016 by Morana Lukač

Do people need to change their local accents to get on in life? The answer is “yes” according to those advocating a prescriptivist approach to language use who often emphasize that in professional settings and in job interviews local accents … 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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