Throughout the course, the question of the validity of prescriptivism versus descriptivism has constantly come into question. Prescriptivism characterizes a specific pattern of linguistic habits within a language as “proper” or “correct”. From those habits, linguistics, professors, and usually the ruling class dictate rules surrounding the structure and usages of those habits. On the other hand, Descriptivism dictates language should be studied, approached, and taught as it is truly used. That includes the entirety of a language’s slang, unconcise ramblings, and fragmented, choppy subordinate clauses. The discord between the two theories of grammar have incited a serious of “do’s” and “don’ts” within the English language, such as using active …show more content…
“But”, from the perspective of some English-speakers, cannot be a conjunction and transitional phrase, but a reason why is often not presented. Descriptively both sentences convey the same meaning, however, Prescriptively “but” as been designated as a coordinating conjunction, which purpose’s is simply to bridge two sentences. When the conjunction fails to bridge, such as when it is used as a transition, it fails within the sentence. However, it doesn’t change the meaning of the sentence or how it is received. So, within the context and purpose of language, it is still correct. Lindblom and Dunn suggest “Standard English does not really make any more sense than nonstandardized dialects of English—in some cases, Standard English is simply a set of sanctioned language idiosyncrasies” (2006). In the article, “Shifting Perspectives about Grammar: Changing What and How We Teach” by Dean, the reader is presented with additional examples of stylistic rules versus actual rules based in grammar.
We talked about sentences, not just for their rightness or wrongness, but for what effect they had. For example, we might have had the following three sentences suggested from a combining practice. My questions to students would be these: How do these sentences differ? When might we choose one over another?
• The dog, driven crazy by thirst, jumped over the cliff into the river
1 Wilson Follett, in the article “On Usage, Purism, Pedantry” from Modern American Usage, promotes how two parties view the rights and wrongs concerning the usage of language.
In “Defending Against the Indefensible” by Neil Postman, he proposes a different way of viewing the English language. He says that our civilization is being manipulated by the ambiguity in English, and students are most easily affected by the school environment. Thus, he proposes seven key ideas that students should remember in order to avoid the dangers and loopholes that twist the original meaning of statements.
Williams claims that errors of grammar and usage are the most complex topics, which have been easily misunderstood by many people in our world today. Whether the grammar has to do specifically with literature or not, it has always obtained errors. William notably supports his claim by giving specific examples of professionals who have stated grammatical errors according to what they think is “right.” William also provided some personal experience and textual evidence to express credibility and accuracy of his argument. William’s argument is effective because the main points he focused on with evidence were powerful and stood out to the audience. The real life examples that William demonstrated to the audience gave a strong base to his argument because he showed how grammar errors actually exist in our society. He made it evident that the audience had their eyes opened to topic that had been ignored in the past. William achieved his argument by providing real life situations and by looking at various researches that analyzed the existence of errors in grammar. However, the ways that William could have made his argument more effective is by not having comments that seemed too self- indulgencing. Also he could have taken out evidence like the graphs that didn’t make
Birk and Birk explore the many processes that automatically and often unintentionally, take place during the gathering of knowledge and expression through words. In their book Birk and Birk break the usage of words into sections: Selection, Slanting by the use of emphasis, slanting by selection of facts, and slanting by the use of charged words. When words are used this way they reveal naturally occurring bias of the writer. Upon reviewing the selection from Birk and Birk’s book Understanding and Using Language it is clear that the essay written by Jake Jameson has examples of every principal Birk and Birk discuss. The Birk and Birk selection provides us with a set of tools that enable us to detect bias in the many forms that it takes. These tools reveal what Jamieson favors and make plain the bias present in his essay The English-Only movement: Can America Proscribe Language With a Clean Conscience?
1. In his chapter “On the Need of Some Grammar” found in Modern American Usage, Wilson Follett argues that we need grammar to govern our language.
Some teachers, when it comes to a child’s writing, do not want to make a child feel like what they wrote is wrong. Goldstein points out that teens today struggle more on college essays and in college because they are not taught correct grammar. Kathleen Sokolowski said that she went to Catholic school and grammar was a major element in her studies. I went to Catholic school as well and it was the same way. I knew others that were in public schools that did not learn grammar like I
Fromkin, Victoria, Robert Rodman, and Nina Hyams. An Introduction to Language. 8th ed. Boston: Thomson, 2007.
Amy Tan’s piece ‘Mother Tongue’ highlights the divide in society between ‘Englishes’, specifically formal, academic English and everyday usage. Her piece also comments on the way the internet holds a place amongst these so-called ‘Englishes’ as her words are presented through the medium of a blog and emphasises that all forms of English are useful. While some situations have ingrained standards that demand a certain style of communication, other forms like spoken English or the internet that are traditionally downplayed in their importance are still useful in understanding our society. Styles of language found in academic works are considered to be more important than other styles, but this is a hegemonic and elitist view which should be ended.
The English language has evolved remarkably. The Great Vowel Shift between 1400 and 1700 shows a great discontinuity in pronunciation alone. Different attitudes towards language reached a height during the 17th and 18th Centuries with Prescriptivists such as Defoe, Swift and Louth. Prescriptivists believe that there is an approach which sets out rules for what is regarded as correct in language. Some prescriptivist rules for English include not splitting infinitives, resulting in sentences such as 'to go boldly where no man has gone before', rather than 'to boldly go'.
Lynne Flowerdew (2009) “Applying corpus linguistics to pedagogy” International Journal of Corpus Linguistics 14:3, 393–417
Sinclair, J. 1991 Corpus, Concordance, Collocation, London: Oxford University Press. Vesser, F.Th. 1973. An Historical Study of the English Language, Leide: E. J. Brill.
When grammar is put to use in a society, people will often have different beliefs at what is the "right" or "proper" usage. This had led to the formation of two widely accepted forms of grammar, Prescriptivism and Descriptivism. These forms will often separate those who believe their form of grammar is the only correct way from those who use many forms they find to be acceptable. Descriptive grammar is formed by analyzing how speakers use a language, and deducing the rules they follow. Linguists create descriptive grammars in order to understand language more deeply. They understand that a single language can have multiple dialects, and that each dialect will have its own grammatical rules--internally
Cohesion refers to the relations of meaning within a text and determines it as a text or not. Moreover, cohesion is divided into grammatical and lexical cohesion. Firstly, the grammatical cohesion refers to the role played by grammar in linking sentences and clauses together. Grammatical cohesion is classified into reference, substitution, ellipsis and conjunctions. Furthermore, reference is when certain items have the property of reference refer to something or someone for their interpretation. (salkie, 2001, p.64). Moreover, reference is classified into exophoric and endophoric. In addition, endophoric is subdivided into anaphoric and cataphoric. There are three types of reference: personal, demonstrative and comparative. Substitution is when one item is replaced by another in the text. It is divided into three types: nominal, verbal and clausal. (Brown and Yule, 1989, p.201). Moreover, Ellipsis is the omission of parts of the structure which are replaced by nothing. It has three types: nominal, verbal and clausal. (McCarthy, 1991, p.46). Conjunction signals the way the writer wants the reader
North, S. (2012), 'English a Linguistic Toolkit' (U214, Worlds of English), Milton Keynes, The Open University.
An important linguistic change was also in syntax. Syntax governs the structure of a sentence, as well as the structure of verbs. Auxiliary verbs came into use, for example the use of do and have which extended the capability of expression for verbs. The subtle differences between I walk, I do walk, and I am walking are not available in many other languages. This improvement assisted English in differentiating itself from other languages.