Language Between Description and Prescription

Download or read book Language Between Description and Prescription written by Lieselotte Anderwald and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2016 with total page 353 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Based on 258 English grammar books, Language Between Description and Prescription investigates nineteenth-century grammar writing relating to actual language change, especially in the verb phrase. Lieselotte Andewald proposes that not all changes were noticed in the first place, and those that were noticed were not necessarily criticized. The book also demonstrates that though grammars were prescriptivist, their effect was at best minimal.