Book contents
- Standardising English
- Standardising English
- Copyright page
- Contents
- List of Figures, Maps and Tables
- List of Contributors
- Acknowledgements
- Part I Norms and Margins: Ideology and Concepts
- Part II Norms and Margins: A Historical Perspective
- Part III Norms and Margins: Moving into the Twenty-First Century
- 10 The Grammatical Margins of Class
- 11 Concepts of Correctness and Acceptability in British English: Exploring Attitudes of Lay People
- 12 Maori English in Maori Literature: Standardising the Margin into a Norm
- 13 Imposing a Norm: The Invisible Marks of Copy-Editors
- Author Index
- Subject Index
- References
11 - Concepts of Correctness and Acceptability in British English: Exploring Attitudes of Lay People
from Part III - Norms and Margins: Moving into the Twenty-First Century
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 02 March 2018
By
Book contents
- Standardising English
- Standardising English
- Copyright page
- Contents
- List of Figures, Maps and Tables
- List of Contributors
- Acknowledgements
- Part I Norms and Margins: Ideology and Concepts
- Part II Norms and Margins: A Historical Perspective
- Part III Norms and Margins: Moving into the Twenty-First Century
- 10 The Grammatical Margins of Class
- 11 Concepts of Correctness and Acceptability in British English: Exploring Attitudes of Lay People
- 12 Maori English in Maori Literature: Standardising the Margin into a Norm
- 13 Imposing a Norm: The Invisible Marks of Copy-Editors
- Author Index
- Subject Index
- References
Summary
Usage guides have developed into an unprecedented literary and social phenomenon. They aim to teach their linguistically insecure reader, how English should be used, but principally how it should not be used (Weiner, 1988; Albakry, 2007). Their authors publically express their opinions regarding what is and what is not correct English, but the attitudes of lay people remain largely under-researched. This chapter examines laypeoples’ attitudes towards disputed usages such as dangling participles, split infinitives and like as a filler. Using an online survey three research questions are addressed: How acceptable are the selected usage problems in various contexts? Do any social factors play a decisive role in determining their acceptability? What are the usage and language attitudes of the respondents? The survey tested participants’ knowledge and understanding of the aforementioned disputed usage problems and offered them the opportunity to share their views on language in an open question. Thus, prescriptive and descriptive attitudes are analysed on multiple levels. The results of the questionnaire are also investigated on social variables such as gender, age and mother tongue.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Standardising EnglishNorms and Margins in the History of the English Language, pp. 213 - 233Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2018
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