so little time left together! So many amazing things about the English Language still to discover!
Let's do some 1700s work (the oldest texts you may get on the exam paper are from the 1700s) with a little research and poetry.
Firstly, I know it's not very good yet but take a look at this very, very rough draft – can you spot the non-standard uses prescriptivists hate? Please comment with suggestions for re-drafting, observations or questions :)
Prescriptivism
(the idea in the study of English Language that some uses of language are right and proper and some are wrong)
I’m piffed off
Because some 18th century rules are well slow to die
(Not the one where esses were effs, obvs – that’s gone)
Language change is goals AF but some don’t agree...
What is the world coming to?
No apostrophe in Waterstones?
Is it literally the end of the civilised world?
And is it the done thing
To sadly wave goodbye to ‘manners’ and ‘decorum’
While the engines of language change are all like
“FML what is your problem?”
And tweeting things that prescriptivists
Would respond to with #crumblingcastle
If they weren’t sat reading the Telegraph instead?
I do have alot of bugbears
Like apostrophe’s in plurals
And their are homophone errors and misheard phrases
That make me like a bowl in a china shop
Until I remember that
Language makes meaning in myriad, uncountable ways
And error plays a part in the beauty of change
And playing brings heart to language
And if you don’t like it, then that use of language
Wasn’t meant for you – you are not its audience
And maybe if you don’t get it, you are behind the times
Stuck in the 18th century, perhaps?
So if you think the rules are immutable
Stay mute
And stop revealing your ignorance
Nextly, find out more about 'standardisation' as a language change issue. Not only was Dr Johnson's dictionary in the 1700s (which year?), but also Lowth's grammar texts. Find out more about how these and other influences on our language that made it more standard were influential. Put your research and bibliography on your blog - at least three sources. Work swiftly.
Then have a look at this poem by Jonathan Swift (he of Gulliver's travels fame and notorious prescriptivist to boot - find a quote of his to memorise for the exam to go with your John Humphries one). Identify how language is used in a different way to modern standard English and explore how meaning is made in terms of the power, gender, technology angles as well as any contextual comments you can make. Put that on your blog by Friday if not today. And see how much you can dig out of this for homework for next Monday: http://public.oed.com/aspects-of-english/english-in-time/early-modern-english-pronunciation-and-spelling/
On Stella's Birth-Day 1719 by Jonathan Swift
Stella this Day is thirty four,
(We shan't dispute a Year or more)
However Stella, be not troubled,
Although thy Size and Years are doubled,
Since first I saw Thee at Sixteen
The brightest Virgin on the Green,
So little is thy Form declin'd
Made up so largely in thy Mind.
Oh, woud it please the Gods to split
Thy Beauty, Size, and Years, and Wit,
No Age could furnish out a Pair
Of Nymphs so graceful, Wise and fair
With half the Lustre of your Eyes,
With half your Wit, your Years and Size:
And then before it grew too late,
How should I beg of gentle Fate,
(That either Nymph might have her Swain,)
To split my Worship too in twain.
(We shan't dispute a Year or more)
However Stella, be not troubled,
Although thy Size and Years are doubled,
Since first I saw Thee at Sixteen
The brightest Virgin on the Green,
So little is thy Form declin'd
Made up so largely in thy Mind.
Oh, woud it please the Gods to split
Thy Beauty, Size, and Years, and Wit,
No Age could furnish out a Pair
Of Nymphs so graceful, Wise and fair
With half the Lustre of your Eyes,
With half your Wit, your Years and Size:
And then before it grew too late,
How should I beg of gentle Fate,
(That either Nymph might have her Swain,)
To split my Worship too in twain.
“18th century rules are well slow to die” Prescriptivism ideas may suggest that using well as an adverb is from more slang uses and because it is in italics it places more emphasis on the word highlighting the verb of the sentence “slow “further drawing attention to the reader the ideas of language change and how it becoming different.
ReplyDelete“Is it literally the end of a civilised world” the word literally has broadened to mean as well as being literal; actually happening to literally where it emphasises something that hasn’t happened. This contrast the original meaning as it contradicts the whole idea of something actually happening.
I really enjoyed reading the poem, however there were a few things that stuck out that wouldn't be likely for prescriptivists. The first line "I'm piffed off" was interesting and it immediately made me think of the extended 's' but I didn't realise that it was deliberate until I read through the poem a few times and then noticed the line "when esses were effs obvs". The use of 'literally' and 'like' are also something that wouldn't be use by prescriptivists.
ReplyDeleteMishearing phrases changes the nature of the idiom, for instance ‘That make me like a bowl in a china shop’ is actually ‘a bull in a china shop’, yet people say both for the same meaning of being the odd one out. Yet it becomes meaningless as a bowl is could be found in a china shop, and would fit in with its surroundings.
ReplyDeleteI feel that one non-standard use that prescriptivists would not like is the 'obvs' abbreviation, meaning 'obviously'. This sociolectal abbreviation could be seen as a clipping, however the 's' phoneme is added to the 'obv' which would be he start of the word therefore it is not technically a clipping. This makes me think that it is a form of elision as the 'iou' and 'ly' are omitted to create this abbreviated colloquialism. Prescriptivists would not like this newly coined word because they take the 'crumbling castle' view of Jean Aitchison's metaphors. This means that they want to preserve the traditions of the English language and are not willing to be susceptible to change.
ReplyDelete<3 it !!!!!! #goalsaf #topnotch #wellsick #crumblingcastle
ReplyDeleteprescriptivists would totes h8 the missing space btween ''alot'' & ''bugbears'' shows how #lazyyyy we are as a population #geog #dampspoon #amirite #jeanisababe most prescriptivists would say FB & Twitter were too blame?? But theyre well old innit so why should we listen to Tweedie and Humphrey #so18thcenutry #archaicaf #obseleteashell