<p>Prescriptivism U6 Language – Stabilising English</p><p>The English language was in a state of flux throughout the medieval and early modern periods, so much so that various ‘authorities’ attempted to stabilise it and set down a set of conventions which would govern usage. This approach to language is known as prescriptivism.</p><p>Task A:</p><p>Read through this group of extracts and identify which authors have a prescriptive attitude to language:</p><p>Two negatives in English destroy one another, or are equivalent to an alternative (Lindley Murray, 1794)</p><p>It must be allowed, that the custom of speaking is the original and only just standard of any language (Joseph Priestley, 1761)</p><p>Custome, is the most certaine Mistresse of Language, as the publicke stampe makes the current money (Ben Jonson, 1640)</p><p>The now fashionable pronunciation of several words is to me at least very offensive: contemplate is bad enough, but balcony makes me sick (Samuel Rogers, c.1800)</p><p>If you do not immediately suppress the person who takes it upon himself to lay down the law almost every day in your columns on the subject of literary composition, I will give up The Chronicle altogether (George Bernard Shaw, 1892)</p><p>Fussing about split infinitives is one of the more tiresome pastimes invented by the nineteenth century grammarians (Barbara Strang, 1962)</p><p>Language was made before grammar, not grammar before language (Thomas Hardy, 1904)</p><p>‘We’re getting the language into its final shape – the shape it’s going to have when nobody speaks anything else.’ (from 1984 by George Orwell, 1948)</p><p>© 2006 www.teachit.co.uk 0f3c9dd6b4bc85def33b16733690219e.doc Page 1 of 3 Prescriptivism U6 Language – Stabilising English</p><p>Task B:</p><p>Can you work out what is ‘wrong’ with the following phrases?</p><p>1. Between you and I, I’m sure that prescriptivism is outdated. 2. I will make sure to definitely ask tomorrow. 3. I only saw Lost last night; I missed X-factor. 4. None were left on the table. 5. My haircut is different to yours. 6. That was the film that I went to. 7. I will go to parents’ evening tonight. 8. Hopefully, I will be allowed out on Saturday. 9. That’s the man who I saw yesterday. 10.They haven’t done nothing.</p><p>These were the top ten annoyances voiced by listeners of Radio 4 in 1986!</p><p>Task C:</p><p>Using the Cambridge Encyclopedia of the English Language (2001), make notes on the following prescriptivist phenomena:</p><p> a) Spelling and capitalisation reforms (p 66–67). b) Johnson’s dictionary (p 74–5). c) The grammarians of the eighteenth century (p 78–9).</p><p>© 2006 www.teachit.co.uk 0f3c9dd6b4bc85def33b16733690219e.doc Page 2 of 3 Prescriptivism U6 Language – Stabilising English</p><p>Teacher’s Answer Sheet for Task B</p><p>1) should be ‘you and me’ – object rather than subject form of first person pronoun 2) split infinitive 3) should be ‘saw only’ rather than ‘only saw’ – ‘only’ refers to the programme 4) should be ‘none was’ – plural rather than singular 5) should be ‘different from’ 6) ends with a preposition 7) should be ‘shall’ rather than ‘will’ 8) adverb at the beginning of the sentence – should be ‘I hope that …’ 9) should be ‘whom’ I saw 10) double negative</p><p>© 2006 www.teachit.co.uk 0f3c9dd6b4bc85def33b16733690219e.doc Page 3 of 3</p>