Category Archives: Uncategorized

A bibliography of prescriptivism

Posted on October 11, 2011 by BtU Admin

We are currently compiling a bibliography of prescriptivism. There are of course various publications we know about, such as the following: Bennett, Karen (2009) ‘English academic style manuals: a survey’, Journal of English for Academic Purposes, 8: 43-54. Bex, Tony … Continue reading →

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Prescriptivism in different linguistic fields

Posted on October 4, 2011 by BtU Admin

Lynne Truss’s Eats Shoots and Leaves (2003) deals with punctuation, while Fowler’s Modern English Usage (1926 and later editions) deals with grammar and lexis. Do we find usage guides in fairly equal numbers for all linguistic fields, spelling, punctuation, grammar, … Continue reading →

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Prescriptivism and sociolinguistics

Posted on October 4, 2011 by BtU Admin

One of the few introductions to sociolinguistics that includes a discussion on prescriptivism is Mesthrie et al.’s Introducing Sociolinguistics (2nd ed. 2009, Edinburgh University Press). On p. 110, the book defines prescriptivism as “the dominant ideology in language education [which] … Continue reading →

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More linguistic interest in prescriptivism?

Posted on October 3, 2011 by Ingrid Tieken

Whether more linguists are getting interested in prescriptivism is hard to say as I have no baseline data so to speak. But during the Helsinki Corpus Festival the term prescriptivism occurred quite a number of times. To begin with, there … Continue reading →

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Prescriptivism in other languages?

Posted on September 27, 2011 by BtU Admin

Fowler is a virtual icon of British prescriptivism. But what about other languages? Do other languages – French, Dutch, Russian, Chinese … – have similar traditions of prescriptive writing on language for a general public?

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Genre prescriptivism

Posted on September 26, 2011 by Robin Straaijer

I was just thinking how different levels of prescriptiveness, different models of correctness are implemented on different genres or text types. Why for instance is the clipped language of newspaper headlines not considered ‘wrong’ while such usage would be criticised … Continue reading →

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Was Lowth a purist?

Posted on September 25, 2011 by Ingrid Tieken

When I gave a presentation on my recently published book The Bishop’s Grammar (OUP, 2011) in Cambridge earlier this year, a member of the audience asked if Lowth was ever described as a purist. The only reference I could think of was … Continue reading →

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Usage Guide Drive

Posted on September 20, 2011 by Robin Straaijer

Help us bridge the unbridgeable! For the project Bridging the Unbridgeable we are compiling a database of English usage guides and this is why we’re inviting you to contribute. Not nearly as many usage guides are available in electronic form … Continue reading →

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Prescriptivism in pragmatics?

Posted on September 20, 2011 by Robin Straaijer

Prescriptive rules tend to focus on syntactic constructions or on pronunciation, but what about some of the more pragmatic aspects of language? What kind of prescriptions primarily concern themselves with the pragmatics of an utterance, with its extralinguistic or situational context? Should … Continue reading →

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“Guardians of the language”

Posted on September 18, 2011 by Ingrid Tieken

Who are the guardians of the English language, and why do they have so much authority? Why are their books so popular, and what are they expecting to gain by it all? These are some of the questions that Flor … Continue reading →

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