Standardising English: Norms and Margins in the History of the English Language

Cambridge University Press, 3/15/2018
EAN 9781107191051, ISBN10: 110719105X

Hardcover, 298 pages, 23.4 x 15.9 x 1.8 cm
Language: English

This path-breaking study of the standardisation of English goes well beyond the traditional prescriptivism versus descriptivism debate. It argues that the way norms are established and enforced is the result of a complex network of social factors and cannot be explained simply by appeals to power and hegemony. It brings together insights from leading researchers to re-centre the discussion on linguistic communities and language users. It examines the philosophy underlying the urge to standardise language, and takes a closer look at both well-known and lesser-known historical dictionaries, grammars and usage guides, demonstrating that they cannot be simply labelled as 'prescriptivist'. Drawing on rich empirical data and case studies, it shows how the norm continues to function in society, influencing and affecting language users even today.

Part I. Norms and Margins
Ideology and Concepts
Introduction
the norms and margins of English Linda Pillière, Wilfrid Andrieu, Valérie Kerfelec and Diana Lewis
1. Approaching norms and margins on different levels
going beyond the standard/non-standard divide Sandrine Sorlin
2. Prescriptive grammar and the rationalist cultural model of standardization Natalia Guermanova
Part II. Norms and Margins
A Historical Perspective
3. Norms and rules in the history of grammar
French and English handbooks in the seventeenth century Wilfrid Andrieu and Valérie Raby
4. The end of toleration? Language on the margins in Samuel Johnson's Dictionary of the English Language Lynda Mugglestone
5. Eighteenth-century pronouncing dictionaries
reflecting usage or setting their own standard? Véronique Pouillon
6. Setting a standard
authors and sources in the OED Charlotte Brewer
7. Conflicting linguistic norms in the letters of Virginian soldiers during the American Civil War Gaëlle Le Corre
8. Correcting English
Josephine Turck Baker and the early American usage guide tradition Viktorija Kostadinova
Part III. Norms and Margins
Moving into the Twenty-First Century
9. The grammatical margins of class Ingrid Tieken-Boon van Ostade
10. Concepts of correctness and acceptability in British English
exploring attitudes of lay people Carmen Eber
11. Maori English in Maori literature
standardising the margin into a norm Sonia Dupuy
12. Imposing a norm
the invisible marks of copy editors Linda Pillière.