Describing Prescriptivism

Ingrid Tieken-Boon van Ostade is Chair in English Sociohistorical Linguistics, University of Leiden, The Netherlands, and has published extensively on the latter end of the English standardisation process.

"A welcome volume on an ever-topical matter – how to avoid the censure of self-appointed guardians of style – by a world authority on the subject. This book can be recommended to everyone interested in the background to widespread ideas about correctness in language."Raymond Hickey, University of Duisburg and Essen, Germany"Describing prescriptivism offers a thought-provoking analysis of prescriptivism from a sociolinguistic perspective. Employing a descriptive approach, this book draws upon a wide range of datasets that address the issue of usage guides and usage problems in British and American English from around 1750 to the present day, examining the functions, popularity, and the assumed influence of usage guides on the language."Meishu Wang, School of International Studies, Zhejiang University

• Preface AbbreviationsChapter 1. Introduction Chapter 2. The origin of the usage guide Chapter 3. The usage guide – and the HUGE database Chapter 4. The writers and the publishers Chapter 5. Usage problems: pet linguistic peeves Chapter 6. The language of prescriptivism Chapter 7. Public awareness of prescriptivism Chapter 8. The end of prescriptivism? Appendix 1. Feedback on a blogpost (January 2015)Appendix 2. Usage problems in the HUGE database Appendix 3. Usage guide writers interviewed Appendix 4. Usage guide writers’ credentials Appendix 5. The metalinguistic categories from Sundby et al. (1991) References Index