In the US, it seems that the Right is associated with bad or incorrect language use. The Left, on the other hand, seems to be associated with prescribing language. According to Chapman (2012), in...Show moreIn the US, it seems that the Right is associated with bad or incorrect language use. The Left, on the other hand, seems to be associated with prescribing language. According to Chapman (2012), in the UK, Conservatives are often associated with prescriptivism because they are “bound up with issues of tradition and control” (p. 128). After creating a corpus of American and British English Facebook comments, I analysed the comments written by people who are anti-Trump, pro-Trump, anti-Brexit and pro-Brexit and found that overall the pro-Brexit and Trump group are more inclined to make linguistic mistakes and use non-standard English, whereas the anti-Trump and Brexit group is more likely to write prescriptive comments.Show less
The principal idea of this thesis is to study a particular aspect of language practice, namely involvement. Charlotte Brontё’s private language use in her letters by focusing on linguistic...Show moreThe principal idea of this thesis is to study a particular aspect of language practice, namely involvement. Charlotte Brontё’s private language use in her letters by focusing on linguistic involvement is analysed in the present work. In order to examine the degree of Charlotte Brontё’s involvement exhibited in her personal letters, the following topics have been addressed: the language of correspondence of Charlotte Brontё with regard to the actual usage of the English language of the Late Modern English period based on the information of the language during that time provided in the Cambridge History of the English Language, Volume IV: 1776–1997 (ed. Romaine 1999), the nature of the relationships of Charlotte Brontё with her private interlocutors and the notion of involvement with respect to letter-writing activity. The main hypothesis of this thesis is strongly based on Sairio (2005: 24–25) and suggests that the level of linguistic involvement, as examined by her, differs between different addressees and can be revealed by analyzing the use of evidential adverbs, degree adverbs and first- and second-person singular pronouns.Show less
The twenty-first century has seen an increase in prescriptive attitudes towards language correctness, with usage guides, language blogs and even automated Twitter bots offering advice on what is or...Show moreThe twenty-first century has seen an increase in prescriptive attitudes towards language correctness, with usage guides, language blogs and even automated Twitter bots offering advice on what is or is not permissible within Standard English. Using comments posted below-the-line (BTL) by members of the public, in response to a regular column on language use in The Times titled “The Pedant”, written by Oliver Kamm, this thesis examines grassroots prescriptive attitudes – defined as attitudes held by non-linguists towards language correctness – towards prescriptive ideologies and a specific usage problem: less with countable nouns. This thesis concludes that a small majority of BTL posters hold well-documented grassroots prescriptive attitudes towards language correctness.Show less
Since Brown and Levinson (1987) published their work on politeness, many studies have been carried out on the use of politeness strategies in discourse. The Late Modern English period is known as...Show moreSince Brown and Levinson (1987) published their work on politeness, many studies have been carried out on the use of politeness strategies in discourse. The Late Modern English period is known as the age of politeness and therefore the use of politeness markers should be particularly present in works of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The dialogues in Fanny Burney's journals and letters offer the best possible access to the Late Modern English spoken language, which is of interest to us, because still little is known about the spoken language of this period. This thesis has tried to establish what politeness markers, both positive and negative, can be found in Fanny Burney's language and in that of her addressees. Moreover, this thesis has tried to determine whether the use of politeness strategies resembles someone's social class, social role and their social relationship with the addressee. Furthermore, this thesis has tried to show whether language use can be taken to reflect the different social roles of the members of Fanny Burney's social network.Show less
Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands had an English governess, Miss Winter, from when she was six years old. Because of this, Wilhelmina quickly acquired the English language at a young age. Her...Show moreQueen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands had an English governess, Miss Winter, from when she was six years old. Because of this, Wilhelmina quickly acquired the English language at a young age. Her progress in learning English, is clearly visible in the many letters that she wrote to Miss Winter from 1886 to 1936. Most of these letters were transcribed by me, and were studied in order to determine to what degree Wilhelmina learned to master the English language, and how her acquisition of English progressed over time, which is the leading intention of this study. The letters were studied on several points: spelling, lexis and grammar, in which a distinction was made between various phases of the language learning process. The letters that Wilhelmina wrote were divided into three periods: 18881892, 18931896 and 18971898. In this situation, the communicative approach that was used to teach Wilhelmina English was very effective when it comes to learning grammar and vocabulary. It appears that only by regular contact with native speakers a person can improve his proficiency in a second language the way Wilhelmina did in such a short time. Even though spelling is only fully acquired somewhat later, proper instruction can quickly cause this to catch up. Thus, in this thesis I demonstrated the positive effect of teaching methods focused on communication rather than on grammar and writing, such as the Communicative method and the Task-based approach.Show less
