Prescribing & Describing: Grammar and Variation Test
Week 1 (History of prescriptivism)
What is English?
The language of England
Common cores and structure of words that are recognised as being English.
Started in 449 AD. with the Anglo-Saxon settlement.
450 – 1100: Old English (OE)
1100 – 1500: Middle English (ME)
1500 -1750: Early Modern English (EModE)
1750 – present: Modern English (ModE)/Present Day English (PDE)
Prescriptive grammar/school= viewing grammar as a set of rules that must be
learned/taught in order to speak “correct” English. Speakers who don’t adhere to the rules
are seen as uneducated and sloppy.
Only the standard variation of a language is seen as correct
Practiced by grammarians
Socially imposed
Descriptive grammar/school= views grammar as ‘rule-governed’. Grammar is a blueprint of
shared rules that guide speakers to form coherent meaningful sentences. There’s no right or
wrong use of grammar as long as a sentence has meaning and understanding.
Each dialect has its own grammar, there’s not just one grammar
Practiced by linguists
Intuitive
SVO Language = Subject – Verb – Object system in forming sentences. Typical for the English
language.
Historical perspective = used to explain variation
Retentions = the use of earlier pronunciation or structures in a variation.
Innovations = the development of distinctive features in a variation.
Non-standard subject – verb concord = the use of a non-standard verb with a subject. E.g.
My parents was thinking…, “The king axeth where his wyf and child is” (Chauser).
!Double negatives are a result of social mistakes rather than linguistic mistakes!
!Double negatives are a result of social mistakes rather than linguistic mistakes!
, Vernacular universals = a small number of phonological and grammatical processes that
recur in vernaculars wherever they are spoken.
Alveolar substitution e.g. talkin’, darlin’
Default singular = e.g. They was the last ones.
Multiple negation = e.g. I ain’t got no time for that.
Copular deletion = e.g. She smart.
Middle English variations southern & northern
Variation in dialects noticed by Caxton.
Early Modern English witnesses the emerge of a written standard derived from London-
based variety of educated English. The standardization of English causes the rise of
prescriptivism(18th century).
After the rise of prescriptivism, grammar books, and RP seen as standard English; regional
dialect variations are stigmatised.
Week 2 (World Englishes)
Three circle model = the English of countries labelled as native, second language, or foreign
language.
1. Inner circle = where the majority of the
country speaks English as their first or only
language.
2. Outer circle = countries where English has an
official role, but where the majority has a
different first language.
3. Expanding circle = where English is taught and
another language is their first language. English
does not have an official status or role here.
Founder-effect = native English settlers establish and reinforce the dominance of English
where it was not spoken before.
Colonial lag = the theory that the language spoken in the colonies changes less than
that in the mother country
Rhoticity is a retention of OE and ME, got lost in the 15th century. Loss of rhoticity started in
the South-East and South-East Midlands.
= recessive
Ben Johnson’s English Grammar (1640), mentions the /r/ to be firm in the beginning and
soft/liquid in the middle and at the end.
H-dropping = loss of prevocalic /h/ in stressed syllables. Stigmatized and ridiculed.
Week 1 (History of prescriptivism)
What is English?
The language of England
Common cores and structure of words that are recognised as being English.
Started in 449 AD. with the Anglo-Saxon settlement.
450 – 1100: Old English (OE)
1100 – 1500: Middle English (ME)
1500 -1750: Early Modern English (EModE)
1750 – present: Modern English (ModE)/Present Day English (PDE)
Prescriptive grammar/school= viewing grammar as a set of rules that must be
learned/taught in order to speak “correct” English. Speakers who don’t adhere to the rules
are seen as uneducated and sloppy.
Only the standard variation of a language is seen as correct
Practiced by grammarians
Socially imposed
Descriptive grammar/school= views grammar as ‘rule-governed’. Grammar is a blueprint of
shared rules that guide speakers to form coherent meaningful sentences. There’s no right or
wrong use of grammar as long as a sentence has meaning and understanding.
Each dialect has its own grammar, there’s not just one grammar
Practiced by linguists
Intuitive
SVO Language = Subject – Verb – Object system in forming sentences. Typical for the English
language.
Historical perspective = used to explain variation
Retentions = the use of earlier pronunciation or structures in a variation.
Innovations = the development of distinctive features in a variation.
Non-standard subject – verb concord = the use of a non-standard verb with a subject. E.g.
My parents was thinking…, “The king axeth where his wyf and child is” (Chauser).
!Double negatives are a result of social mistakes rather than linguistic mistakes!
!Double negatives are a result of social mistakes rather than linguistic mistakes!
, Vernacular universals = a small number of phonological and grammatical processes that
recur in vernaculars wherever they are spoken.
Alveolar substitution e.g. talkin’, darlin’
Default singular = e.g. They was the last ones.
Multiple negation = e.g. I ain’t got no time for that.
Copular deletion = e.g. She smart.
Middle English variations southern & northern
Variation in dialects noticed by Caxton.
Early Modern English witnesses the emerge of a written standard derived from London-
based variety of educated English. The standardization of English causes the rise of
prescriptivism(18th century).
After the rise of prescriptivism, grammar books, and RP seen as standard English; regional
dialect variations are stigmatised.
Week 2 (World Englishes)
Three circle model = the English of countries labelled as native, second language, or foreign
language.
1. Inner circle = where the majority of the
country speaks English as their first or only
language.
2. Outer circle = countries where English has an
official role, but where the majority has a
different first language.
3. Expanding circle = where English is taught and
another language is their first language. English
does not have an official status or role here.
Founder-effect = native English settlers establish and reinforce the dominance of English
where it was not spoken before.
Colonial lag = the theory that the language spoken in the colonies changes less than
that in the mother country
Rhoticity is a retention of OE and ME, got lost in the 15th century. Loss of rhoticity started in
the South-East and South-East Midlands.
= recessive
Ben Johnson’s English Grammar (1640), mentions the /r/ to be firm in the beginning and
soft/liquid in the middle and at the end.
H-dropping = loss of prevocalic /h/ in stressed syllables. Stigmatized and ridiculed.
