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Text of the page (random words):
e established an internal house style specifying preferred spellings and grammatical forms such as serial commas how to write acronyms and various awkward expressions to avoid most of these are internal documentation for the publisher s staff though various newspapers universities and other organizations have made theirs available for public inspection and sometimes even sell them as books e g the new york times manual of style and usage and the economist style guide in a few cases an entire publishing sector complies with a publication that originated as a house style manual such as the chicago manual of style and new hart s rules in non fiction book publishing in the united states and the united kingdom respectively and the associated press stylebook in american news style others are by self appointed advocates whose rules are propagated in the popular press as in proper cantonese pronunciation the aforementioned fowler and strunk white were among the self appointed as are some modern authors of style works like bryan a garner and his modern english usage formerly modern american usage various style guides are used for academic papers and professional journals and have become de facto standards in particular fields though the bulk of their material pertains to formatting of source citations in mutually conflicting ways some examples are those issued by the american medical association the modern language association and the modern humanities research association there are many others scientific style and format by the council of science editors seeks to normalize style in scientific journal publishing based where possible on standards issued by bodies like the international standards organization none of these works have any sort of legal or regulatory authority though some governments produce their own house style books for internal use they still have authority in the sense that a student may be marked down for failure to follow a specified style manual a professional publisher may enforce compliance a publication may require its employees to use house style as a matter of on the job competence a well respected style guide and usually one intended for a general audience may also have the kind of authority that a dictionary does consult as a reference work to satisfy personal curiosity or settle an argument origins edit historically linguistic prescriptivism originates in a standard language when a society establishes social stratification and a socio economic hierarchy the spoken and written language usages of the authorities state military church is preserved as the standard language departures from this standard language may jeopardize social success see social class sometimes archaisms and honorific stylizations may be deliberately introduced or preserved to distinguish the prestige form of the language from contemporary colloquial language likewise the style of language used in ritual also differs from everyday speech 36 special ceremonial languages known only to a select few spiritual leaders are found throughout the world liturgical latin has served a similar function for centuries traditional and simplified chinese characters when a culture develops a writing system orthographic rules for the consistent transcription of culturally important transactions such as laws scriptures contracts or poetry allow a large number of discussants to understand written conversations easily and across multiple generations early historical trends in literacy and alphabetization were closely tied to the influence of various religious institutions western christianity propagated the latin alphabet eastern orthodoxy spread the greek and cyrillic alphabets judaism used the hebrew alphabet and islam the arabic script hinduism used the devanagari script 37 in certain traditions strict adherence to prescribed spellings and pronunciations was and remains of great spiritual importance islamic naming conventions and greetings are notable examples of the linguistic prescription being a prerequisite to spiritual righteousness another commonly cited example of prescriptive language usage closely associated with social propriety is the system of japanese honorific speech most if not all widely spoken languages demonstrate some degree of social codification in how they conform to prescriptive rules linguistic prestige is a central research topic within sociolinguistics notions of linguistic prestige apply to different dialects of the same language and also to separate distinct languages in multilingual regions prestige level disparity often leads to diglossia speakers in certain social contexts consciously choose a prestige language or dialect over a less prestigious one even if it is their native tongue ptolemaic hieroglyphics from the temple of kom ombo government bureaucracy tends toward prescriptivism as a means of enforcing functional continuity such prescriptivism dates from ancient egypt where bureaucrats preserved the spelling of the middle kingdom of egypt into the ptolemaic period through the standard usage of egyptian hieroglyphics 38 sources edit from the earliest attempts at prescription in classical times grammarians have based their norms on observed prestige use of language modern prescriptivist textbooks which draw heavily on descriptive linguistic analysis the prescription may privilege some existing forms over others for the sake of maximizing clarity and precision in language use others are subjective judgments of what constitutes good taste some reflect the promotion of one class or region within a language community over another which can become politically controversial prescription can also reflect ethical considerations as in prohibiting swear words words referring to elements of sexuality or toilet hygiene may be regarded as obscene blasphemies against religion may be forbidden in the 21st century political correctness objects to the use of words perceived as offensive 39 some elements of prescription in english are sometimes thought by whom to have been based on the norms of latin grammar robert lowth is frequently cited by whom citation needed as having done so clarification needed but he specifically objected to forcing the english under the rules of a foreign language 40 criticisms edit prescriptivism is often subject to criticism many linguists such as geoffrey pullum and other posters to language log are skeptical of the quality of advice given in many usage guides including highly regarded books like strunk and white s the elements of style 41 linguists point out that popular books on english usage written by journalists or novelists e g simon heffer s strictly english the correct way to write and why it matters often make basic errors in linguistic analysis 42 43 a frequent criticism is that prescription has a tendency to favor the language of one particular area or social class over others and thus militates against linguistic diversity 44 frequently a standard dialect is associated with the upper class for example the united kingdom s received pronunciation rp rp has now lost much of its status as the anglophone standard and other standards are now alternative systems for english as a foreign language although these have a more democratic base they still exclude the vast majority of the english speaking world speakers of scottish english hiberno english appalachian english australian english indian english nigerian english or african american english may feel the standard is arbitrarily selected or slanted against them 45 46 therefore prescription has political consequences indeed it can be and has been used consciously as a political tool citation needed a second issue with prescriptivism is that it tends to explicitly devalue non standard dialects it has been argued that prescription apart from formulating standard language norms often attempts to influence speakers to apply the proposed linguistic devices invariably without considering the existence of different varieties and registers of language while some linguists approve the practical role of language standardization in modern nation states 13 47 certain models of prescriptive codification have been criticized for going far beyond mere norm setting i e by promoting the sanctioned language variety as the only legitimate means of communication and presenting it as the only valid baseline of correctness while stigmatizing non standard usages as mistakes 48 49 13 such practices have been said to contribute to perpetuating the belief that non codified forms of language are innately inferior creating social stigma and discrimination toward their speakers 50 51 in contrast modern linguists would generally hold that all forms of language including both vernacular dialects and different realizations of a standardized variety are scientifically equal as instruments of communication even if deemed socially inappropriate for certain situational contexts 52 53 resulting in standard language ideology normative practices might also give rise to the conviction that explicit formal instruction is an essential prerequisite for acquiring proper command of one s native language thus creating a massive feeling of linguistic insecurity 54 propagating such language attitudes is characteristic of the prescriptivists in eastern europe where normativist ideas of correctness can be found even among professional linguists 54 55 56 another serious issue with prescription is that prescriptive rules quickly become entrenched and it is difficult to change them when the language changes thus there is a tendency for prescription to lag behind the vernacular language in 1834 an anonymous writer advised against the split infinitive reasoning that the construction was not a frequent feature of english as he knew it today the construction is in everyday use and generally considered standard usage yet the old prohibition can still be heard 57 a further problem is a challenge of specifying understandable criteria although prescribing authorizations may have clear ideas about why they make a particular choice and their choices are seldom entirely arbitrary there exists no linguistically sustainable metric for ascertaining which forms of language should be considered standard or otherwise preferable judgments that seek to resolve ambiguity or increase the ability of the language to make subtle distinctions are easier to defend judgments based on the subjective associations of a word are more problematic citation needed finally there is the problem of inappropriate dogmatism although competent authorities tend to make careful statements popular pronouncements on language are apt to condemn thus wise prescriptive advice identifying a form as colloquial or non standard and suggesting that it be used with caution in some contexts may when taken up in the classroom become converted into a ruling that the dispreferred form is automatically unacceptable in all circumstances a view academic linguists reject 58 59 linguists may accept that a construction is ungrammatical or incorrect in relation to a certain lect if it does not conform to its inherent rules but they would not consider it absolutely wrong simply because it diverges from the norms of a prestige variety 47 a classic example from 18th century england is robert lowth s tentative suggestion that preposition stranding in relative clauses sounds colloquial this blossomed into a grammatical rule that a sentence should never end with a preposition citation needed samuel johnson c 1772 for these reasons some writers argue that linguistic prescription is foolish or futile samuel johnson commented on the tendency of some prescription to resist language change when we see men grow old and die at a certain time one after another from century to century we laugh at the elixir that promises to prolong life to a thousand years and with equal justice may the lexicographer be derided who is able to produce no example of a nation that has preserved their words and phrases from mutability shall imagine that his dictionary can embalm his language and secure it from corruption and decay that it is in his power to change sublunary nature and clear the world at once from folly vanity and affectation with this hope however academies have been instituted to guard the avenues of their languages to retain fugitives and repulse intruders but their vigilance and activity have hitherto been vain sounds remain too volatile and subtle for legal restraints to enchain syllables and to lash the wind are equally the undertakings of pride unwilling to measure its desires by its strength the french language has visibly changed under the inspection of the academy the stile of amelot s translation of father paul is witnessed by pierre françois le courayer to be un peu passé and no italian will maintain that the diction of any modern writer is not perceptibly different from that of boccace machiavel or caro preface to a dictionary of the english language at project gutenberg see also edit constructionism learning theory learning theory involving the construction of mental models skunked term word avoided due to problematic meanings history of english grammars history of linguistic prescription in english hypercorrection non standard language usage language policy body of practices intended to cause a desired change in language linguistic insecurity lack of confidence about one s way of speaking linguistic purism preferring a language variety as purer politics and the english language 1946 essay by george orwell traditional grammar framework for the description of the structure of a language error linguistics unintended deviation from the rules of a language variety schizoglossia linguistic insecurity about one s native language barbarism linguistics linguistic deviation solecism phrase that transgresses the rules of grammar legalese english as used in legal matters pages displaying short descriptions of redirect targets psychobabble form of speech or writing that uses psychological jargon in a misleading way technobabble jargon sounding nonsense plain english simple terms in the english language notes edit also called prescriptivism or prescriptive grammar examples of prescriptivist topics edit common english usage misconceptions beliefs about the use of the english language considered by others as wrong fowler s modern english usage style guide by henry watson fowler list of germanic and latinate equivalents in english list of english words with disputed usage wikipedia list of commonly misused english words pleonasm redundancy in linguistic expression rectification of names confucian political concept pages displaying short descriptions of redirect targets citations edit crystal david 2008 a dictionary of linguistics and phonetics 6th ed blackwell p 384 isbn 978 1 4051 5296 9 matthews peter hugoe 2007 the concise oxford dictionary of linguistics p 316 isbn 978 0 1...
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