Category: Prescriptivism
2010-02-11
"I bet them have never heard of grammar"
On the popular Dutch television and newsshow De wereld draait door of February 9th, 2010, a lively and rather telling discussion took place between professor of Linguistics Helen de Hoop and Ronald Plasterk, the minister of Education who took part in the discussion in his function as ...
2009-12-09
Permalink 09:56:31, by Ingrid Tieken - Boon Van Ostade 
, 751 words 
Categories: Uncategorized, Prescriptivism
Fowler into OED
Link: http://www.oed.com
In September this year, a facsimile reprint was published by Oxford University Press, as part of their World Classics Series, of the first edition of Fowler's Modern English Usage (1926). The edition includes an introduction from David Crystal, in which he assesses Fowler's status ...2009-03-30
Permalink 15:10:09, by Ingrid Tieken - Boon Van Ostade , 97 words
Categories: Grammars, Prescriptivism
Righter or more right?
On 15 March 1755, Lowth wrote to his wife asking if she "should think it righter to stay at home" with their little boy. The form righter would be entirely in agreement with his own rule in the grammar (1762) (also found in other grammars of the period) that monosyllabic adjectives should occur in the comparative form with -er. Yet Quirk et al. (1985:461-3) specifically note that "the exceptions real, right, and wrong require comparison with periphrasis", so it should be more right in other words. Why should this be the case? And since when has right been an exception?
2008-05-27
Who was the most prescriptive 18th-century grammar?
Usually, Lowth is given the credit for this. But he wasn't, not by a long shot. Any idea whose grammar has the largest number of proscriptive comments?
2008-03-27
How English as we know it is disappearing ... to be replaced by 'Panglish'
I have just stumbled across an interesting article, which is followed by even more interesting comments by readers! Shall we accept that language is changing or demand an academy?
Have a look at http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/technology/technology.html?in_page_id=1965&in_article_id=546469
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