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prescriptivism

Book Review: Making a Point: The Pernickety Story of English Punctuation, David Crystal

With three whole chapters about the comma alone, anyone interested in English should read this book.

October 17, 2015 General, Language, Life

Why people get peevish about English

Given the facts about modern English, prescriptivism will not only fail under the far greater force of change, but prescriptivism will steadily die out.

March 16, 2015 General, Language, Life

Proper English – a Slashdot debate

Following an essay by Oliver Kamm (whose latest book is reviewed here) in the Wall Street Journal attacking […]

March 16, 2015 Language

Modern English Grammars – 1 Student grammars and manuals of style

The first of two articles, this covers student grammars, style guides, and the like, which are useful to those already fluent in English who wish to take that further. All avoid being prescriptive.

March 14, 2015 Language

Book review: Accidence will Happen: The Non-Pedantic Guide to English Usage, by Oliver Kamm

This little book puts the case against prescriptivist ‘grammars’, then offers some useful tips about a range of issues in ‘Standard English’.

March 11, 2015 General, Language, Life

Rules for a prescriptive grammar

There is no shortage of grammars, particularly of English, which will tell you how you must write a […]

February 1, 2015 General, Language
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