COMM 004 Lecture Notes - Lecture 12: Homophony, The Boston Globe
8 Sep 2020
School
Department
Course
Professor
Document Summary
The standard achieves its status because of its form. But historical claims may be distorted or false. Standard is definable in external terms only (the internal definition is circular: standard good form) Standards highlight boundaries between privileged and other groups that lack that privilege (recall linguistic facts of life) All forms of language, even variable ones, follow the rules of some kind. The standard has rules drawn from other varieties. We all have some rules that are also present in the standard. Prescriptivism: the imposition of a particular set of rules for grammar and word usage, for the purpose of maintaining an idealized standard. Prescriptive rules: false claims about language. Such rules may be unmotivated they have no basis; often presented as the logical or correct choice for us. Such rules may be contrary to actual convention. We say transpire when we mean happen. we say momentarily when we mean soon. we say livid when we mean angry.
