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Showing posts with the label literary theory

Four differences between parody and satire?

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The words parody and satire are often used interchangeably but they are not synonymous .

What is a descriptivist? And a prescriptivist?

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Listen to this short description of two key words in linguistics: descriptivist and prescriptivist .

Is it wrong to split an infinitive?

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To boldly split the infinitive is fine - listen below: Listen! This is what Fowler says in his classic Dictionary of Modern Usage (1926). The English-speaking world may be divided into (1) those who neither know nor care what a split infinitive is; (2) those who do not know, but care very much; (3) those who know and condemn; (4) those who know and approve; and (5) those who know and distinguish. Those who neither know nor care are the vast majority, and are happy folk, to be envied. A Dictionary of Modern English Usage: The Classic First Edition  Grammar For Dummies Pocket Fowler's Modern English Usage (Oxford Paperback Reference) The Language Wars: A History of Proper English. by Henry Hitchings

What is a descriptivist? A prescriptivist?

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In linguistics very long words sometimes describe straightforward ideas. Listen to this short description of two key words: descriptivist and prescriptivist. listen to ‘What do linguists mean by descriptivist and prescriptivist?’ on Audioboo Essential Linguistics: What You Need to Know to Teach Reading, ESL, Spelling, Phonics & Grammar The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Linguistics (Oxford Paperback Reference) Teaching English as a Foreign Language For Dummies E.S.L - English As A Second Language

Is the general standard of English declining?

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Or  has there 'never been a time when English was not thought to be going to hell in a handcart'?  Complaints about English are (a) as old as the hills, (b) based on no linguistic logic, and (c) ultimately futile, since no one can stop language from varying and changing.   In The Language Wars , Henry Hitchings argues there has never been a time when English was not thought to be going to hell in a handcart. He cites what sounds like a contemporary essay on "the growing illiteracy of American boys" and invites us to guess when it was written. The answer turns out to be, in 1896 – and the boys whose illiteracy so alarmed the essay's author were not hillbillies or slum children, but Harvard undergraduates.  Source But aren't young people today reading far less?  Is the Internet destroying our 'book culture'? Adam Gopnik summarises the different approaches to this question: Never-Better : The internet is opening up a new information democracy. Everyone