Prescriptive grammar
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Rosemarie Whitney Ostler
Abstract
Eighteenth-century prescriptive grammars were based for the most part on observable linguistic facts. Discrepancies between the prescriptive rules and actual usage usually indicate changes in progress; eventually the disputed usages either disappear or become standard. A major exception is nonstandard case marking. The same forms that grammarians condemned two hundred years ago are still in use and still marginal. I propose that case marking continues to be problematic because, as Emonds (1986) and Hudson (1995) claim, abstract case does not exist in modern English. I further argue that in opaque structural environments such as conjoined noun phrases, where the appropriate case is not immediately obvious, speakers tend to choose the more stylistically marked form. This will normally be nominative case or whom.
Abstract
Eighteenth-century prescriptive grammars were based for the most part on observable linguistic facts. Discrepancies between the prescriptive rules and actual usage usually indicate changes in progress; eventually the disputed usages either disappear or become standard. A major exception is nonstandard case marking. The same forms that grammarians condemned two hundred years ago are still in use and still marginal. I propose that case marking continues to be problematic because, as Emonds (1986) and Hudson (1995) claim, abstract case does not exist in modern English. I further argue that in opaque structural environments such as conjoined noun phrases, where the appropriate case is not immediately obvious, speakers tend to choose the more stylistically marked form. This will normally be nominative case or whom.
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Phrasal and clausal architecture 1
- Restructuring and clausal architecture in Kannada 8
- The position of adverbials 25
- Bare, generic, mass, and referential Arabic DPs 40
- The possessor raising construction and the interpretation of subject 66
- Syntactic labels and their derivations 93
- Separating “Focus Movement” from Focus 108
- In search for Phases 146
- Wh-movement, interpretation, and optionality in Persian 167
- Structure preservingness, internal Merge, and the strict locality of triads 188
- Using description to teach (about) prescription 206
- ‘More complicated and hence, rarer’ 221
- Prescriptive grammar 243
- The syntax of valuation and the interpretability of features 262
- Linear sequencing strategies or UG-defined hierarchical structures in L2 acquisition? 295
- Minimalism vs. organic syntax 319
- Location and locality 339
- Conceptual space 365
- ‘Adjunct theta-roles’ and the configurational determination of roles 396
- Author index 412
- Subject index 417
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Phrasal and clausal architecture 1
- Restructuring and clausal architecture in Kannada 8
- The position of adverbials 25
- Bare, generic, mass, and referential Arabic DPs 40
- The possessor raising construction and the interpretation of subject 66
- Syntactic labels and their derivations 93
- Separating “Focus Movement” from Focus 108
- In search for Phases 146
- Wh-movement, interpretation, and optionality in Persian 167
- Structure preservingness, internal Merge, and the strict locality of triads 188
- Using description to teach (about) prescription 206
- ‘More complicated and hence, rarer’ 221
- Prescriptive grammar 243
- The syntax of valuation and the interpretability of features 262
- Linear sequencing strategies or UG-defined hierarchical structures in L2 acquisition? 295
- Minimalism vs. organic syntax 319
- Location and locality 339
- Conceptual space 365
- ‘Adjunct theta-roles’ and the configurational determination of roles 396
- Author index 412
- Subject index 417
