| Event type: | Group Session |
| Date: | 3rd December 2024 |
| Time: | 14:00 - 15:30 |
| Group: | English Language and Linguistics |
| Venue: | Roomfield Baptist Church |
| Organiser: |
This session will be concerned with the idea that some users of English don't always succeed in using the rules of English grammar `correctly', and that such usage should be deprecated. Students of linguistics as an academic discipline tend to view their own stance as 'descriptive', in contrast to people who would like others to speak and write `correctly', whose stance is labelled 'prescriptive'. The difference between the two approaches is outlined in a British Council article: https://www.britishcouncil.org/voices-magazine/what-are-correct-rules-english-grammar. The wider, international application of ideas about language standardisation and prescription is also discussed in the Wikipedia article entitled Linguistic Prescription.
For a contrasting outlook, focussing on punctuation rather than grammar per se, a nice starting point is the Apostrophe Protection Society's website, which is well worth a chuckle. As I find more suitable reading material, I'll extend this text with more links. Please feel free to submit suggestions.
Before the session ...
Participants are invited to submit to the convenor some examples from their own experience of the sort of usage that arouses in them a feeling that the speaker or writer has betrayed a lack of education about grammar. The purpose of this is to compile examples of the scope of the phenomenon of linguistic prescription in our own experience, before we engage in a discussion of its social and moral significance.
Putting the other side of the coin, some of us may be more inclined to report on others' attempts to constrain our own use of language, through e.g. the notion of political correctness.
I'd like to exclude matters related to pronunciation, as accents and regional language variation is a whole other topic, which I hope we'll get to another time.
Topics for discussion
Does linguistic prescription serve a positive social function in facilitating social cohesion, e.g. through the media?
Do older people have a tendency to fret about lapses of grammar, punctuation and other kind of language use merely because they have been alive through more extensive language changes than younger people?
In which professions or occupations is it important to take care how you communicate, with respect to norms of correctness?
Is linguistic prescriptivism primarily a tool of social oppression? (This one can be developed further in a separate session I plan to hold on language and social class.)
NB: The time and venue above are currently provisional, as the venue booking has not yet been confirmed. A notice will be circulated in advance of the meeting.