Category Archives: usage features

More fun less taxis

Posted on July 29, 2012 by Ingrid Tieken

is an example of a slogan made up by protesters during the Tea Party movement last year. The slogans show great spelling and grammar creativity, as you will see when you watch Teabonics the Movie, which was sent to me … Continue reading →

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Attitudes survey: we need you!

Posted on July 26, 2012 by Ingrid Tieken

So far, 589 people have filled in my Attitudes Survey, which is fantastic: thank you all! But I would like to have more responses, not because I’m greedy, but to make for greater representativeness of what people – not only … Continue reading →

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Resisting -ize

Posted on July 24, 2012 by Ingrid Tieken

Christian Kay, in an article called “Issues for historical and regional corpora: first catch your word”, refers to “the resistance of British English writiers to using ‘-ize’ forms in words like ‘realise’” (in Archer, 2009:71). If you are a British … Continue reading →

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And nor – and neither?

Posted on July 23, 2012 by Ingrid Tieken

He told me things you wouldn’t be able to get out of him in a million years, and nor would these priests, confession or no confession (P.D. James, Death in Holy Orders, 2001, Penguin [2002], 472) The use of and … Continue reading →

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I was he

Posted on July 19, 2012 by Ingrid Tieken

Your mother only had sex with one man in the whole of her life. I was he. I acknowledged my responsibility in a letter to your mother … (p. 443) These sentences are from the Inspector Dalgliesh novel Death in Holy … Continue reading →

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Even I

Posted on July 5, 2012 by Ingrid Tieken

My husband just started reading Joseph Conrad’s Under Western Eyes (1911), and stumbled over the following sentence in the introduction to the 1985 Penguin edition: ‘There is the MS complete but uncorrected,’ Jessie wrote; ‘and his fierce refusal to let even I … Continue reading →

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Grammatical reinterpretation

Posted on July 4, 2012 by Ingrid Tieken

Coming back from our summer holidays, I’m steadily working my way through the backlog of newspapers (primarily NRC Handelsblad). One of the things that stuck was something I read in a column by language historian and journalist Ewoud Sanders, from 25 June. … Continue reading →

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Grammar Rock

Posted on June 5, 2012 by Cynthia Lange

In a single day of reading, copying, pasting, and generally mulling over usage guide entries, grammar songs – such as Conjunction Junction and that one about pronouns – occur to me more often than I care to admit. Although these … Continue reading →

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Attitudes Survey: response so far

Posted on May 31, 2012 by Ingrid Tieken

Many forms are being returned for my attitudes survey, so thanks to everyone filling them in, and helping with my research. Particularly the members of the University of the Third Age in the UK, who have been responding in great … Continue reading →

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Better questions, better surveys…

Posted on May 29, 2012 by Robin Straaijer

In our usage polls we use the same criteria of acceptability as those of the survey from which they are taken, Mittins et al.’s Attitudes to English Usage. We ask you to rate usage items according to whether they are … Continue reading →

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