The Age of Prescriptivism

1. The Age of Prescriptivism The Effects of Prescriptivism in Language History 21−22 January 2016 Ingrid Tieken-Boon van Ostade Leiden University Centre for Linguistics

2. Learning English in the 1960s • English as a Foreign Language (EFL) • Standard English taught in schools • A fixed grammar − rules to learn • Strong verbs • Periphrastic do • Pronominal system • Shall/will • ...

3. 18th-century English • Variable spelling, grammar • Most so in private documents • Where do the rules come from? • Who formulated them? • How do they relate to usage? • At the time − today • Native speakers’ awareness of rules? • How influential are they?

4. Myths about prescriptivism “inherited the eighteenth-century doctrine of correctness”

5. Standardisation process • The Milroy model (1985): • Selection • Acceptance • Diffusion • Maintenance • Elaboration of function • Codification • Prescription

6. The Age of Prescriptivism? • Commonly assumed: the 18th century • But: the Age of Codification • Codifiers: Lowth, Priestley, Murray • Prescription: Lowth a precursor • Critical footnotes • Based on Monthly and CriticalReviews • Baker’s Reflections on the English Language (1770): first usage guide

7. No English Academy • Codification “from below” • Dictionaries • Grammars • Role of the publishers: Robert Dodsley • Prescription “from below” • Private interest: usage guides • A market for usage advice • → publishers’ interest

8. A publishing industry Tieken-Boon van Ostade (in progress)

9. Usage guide writers • Usually: amateurs, not linguists • Invited by publishers • “This book was the idea of Nigel Wilcockson, my publisher at Random House”: Simon Heffer, Strictly English (2010) • Patricia O’Conner (1996), Bernard Lamb (2010) • Kingsley Amis, The King’s English (†1996) • A publisher’s project • A journalist, editor, scientist, novelist

10. HUGE database • Online database of usage guides and usage problems − Robin Straaijer • Freely available: http://huge.ullet.net/ • Bridging the Unbridgeable blog • Manual, sample questions, FAQ • 77 selected usage guides 1770−2010 • British and American publications • 123 usage problems: mostly grammar • Every usage problem its own story

11. Attitudes survey (2012) • I could of gone to that party • Response: • Some of my students also say, and write, “I have went.”) (62-year-old American female English professor) • I hear people say have went, not have gone (64-year-old American female teacher) • Where I live, people will say, “I could have went to that party.” (55-year-old American female teacher) • I would probably be more likely to say, “I could have went to the party...” (27-year-old American female teacher)

12. Have went • Difference in meaning: • I envision myself continuing the sentence with a reasoning of why I didn’t go to the party. For example, “I could have went to the party, but I had another commitment.” The sentence is unacceptable, because I think it should read “have went” instead of “of gone”. When something is gone, I think of it as empty. I wouldn’t say, “I gone to the store”. I would say, “I went to the store”. Went implies going to a certain place. • An American usage problem • Subtle distinction in non-standard usage

13. Irregular verbs (case study) • A closed class → a limited set • Where to find the complete list? • Ritchie (2013), English for the Natives • Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English (1978) • The lists are not identical • Variation allowed • e.g. British/American (Longman)

14. How many are there? • No reply to the blog post • Ritchie: 244; Longman: 253 (excl. modals) • Usage guides (HUGE): 265 • Altogether: 328 unique verbs • 63 verbs not treated in HUGE • 61 under simple verbs (partake, relay) • 2 not treated at all: bless, shrive • → no usage problems • 201 simple verbs (earn, shave, wreak)

15. Treatment in usage guides • Not treated at all: 10/77 in HUGE • Some provide lists • e.g. Vulgarities1826, Live&Learn1856, Swan1980, Carter&Skates1988 • Others: brief sections on irregular verbs • e.g. Fogarty2008, Heffer2010 • Others: individual entries only/also • Betake, forecast, hamstring • cf. -ic/ical, flat adverb: swelling contents

16. Treatment (2) • Swan’s list: 39 simple verbs • Differences between Br/Am English • “If you have difficulty with irregular verbs, it might be a good idea to learn these ones by heart.” • Doesn’t mention hanged/hung • Taggart2010 • “People used to be hanged; pictures and meat are hung.”

17. Treatment (3) • Most frequently treated verbs: • Blog question: be, dive or sneak, lie/lay • lie/lay (61), hang (32), beat, dive, prove (18), light, go, sneak (14), drink (13) • No consensus on what to include • Competition of weak verbs? • Vulgarities1826 − 102 verbs (98 firsts) • beated, bited, catched, casted, comed, cutted, eated, readed, sended ...

18. Unique verbs • Live&Learn1856? − 61 • abide, arise, gild, gird, mistake ... • Cf. Garner1988 − 4 • climb, drown (drownded), gnaw, skid • Peters2004 − 1: wed • Drownded in COCA: 17 instances • All FIC or spoken usage (NB categorisation!) • In COHA: peaks in 1880, 1920 • Why did Garner include it?

19. Treatment (4) − catched • Vulgarities1926, Live&Learn1936, Hall1917, Ebbitt&Ebbitt1939 • No longer a usage problem today? • 5 in BNC (CONV), 6 in COCA (5 FIC) • 107 in COHA

20. Treatment (5) – casted • Vulgarities1826, Fowler1926, Ebbitt&Ebbitt1939, Vallins1951, De Vries1991, Garner1998 • A usage problem today • 1 in BNC (well crafted and well casted) • 4 in COHA: 1930, 1960, 1970, 2000 • 29 in COCA • SPOK 12, NEWS 4, MAG 3, FIC 1 • ACAD 9 – casted cadence (3)

21. Casted: Br vs Am usage

22. forecasted • 2 Usage guides • Fowler1926 • “we may thankfully rid ourselves of the uglyforecasted” • Carter&Skates1988: acceptable alternative to forecast • Accepted today? • BNC (14), COCA (138), COHA (30)

23. Treatment (5) • Most elaborate, most scholarly: • Peters2004 − treatment by verb class • Peters is a linguist • Best qualified • Best usage guide • Based on surveys • Suitable for a usage guide? • beseech, blow, burn, bust, cloathe, dive, drink, get, hang, hew, lie/lay, light, load, prove, sew, shit, slay, sneak, sweat, swear, tread, underlay/lie, wring

24. The effects of prescriptivism? • Irregular verbs: not fixed • No uniform treatment, Br/Am usage • New meanings arise: hang, go • Effects measured by some linguists • Peters (2006), Albakry (2007) • e.g. very unique, like for as • Effect of newspaper style guides • Ebner (forthc.), Kostadinova (forthc.) • Surveys and interviews

25. Flat adverb • No longer a usage problem • Jane Austen’s avoidance • Conscious change, not from above • Rise of thusly − hypercorrection • Stigmatised, edited out • Popular among young speakers • Change in progress away from usage guide advice

26. The tide is turning • Informants’ pet peeves (survey 2015) • Avoidance of preposition stranding • Objection to hopefully • Insistence on whom • Another informant (F, American): “[whom is] fine … if you are in the objective case and are trying to sound like a snob, but otherwise say who. I won't say who directly after a preposition, but I do re-write sentences to avoid being in that position. It's lovely to have that as an option for when you do (for whatever reason) want to sound like a snob, but only then.”

27. Conclusion • The Age of Prescriptivism is NOW • Stage 8 in the Milroyan standardisation process • After prescription • Counter-reaction • Fed up with prescriptivism • Led by young speakers? • Real question: • What will come next?