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English grammar series
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Disputed English grammar denotes disagreement about whether given constructions constitute correct English. Such disagreements are often quite impassioned. Even when there is no disagreement over a given construction—when everyone agrees that it is incorrect—English speakers will sometimes express anger on encountering it.^[1][2]

Contents 1 Examples 2 Factors in disputes 3 Prescription and description 4 Different forms of English 4.1 English internationally 4.2 Regional dialects and ethnolects 4.3 Register 5 See also 6 References

[edit] Examples

The following are articles about various disputed usages:

• Double copulae – e.g. "The problem is, is he cannot do it."
• Generic you – e.g. "Brushing your teeth is healthy."
• Preposition stranding – e.g. "I do not know what he is talking about."
• Split infinitives – e.g. "I wanted to really help my mother."
• Double negatives – e.g. "I don't want no scrubs."
• Certain double modals – e.g. "You might could use it."
• Subject complements – e.g. "It is I." vs. "It is me."
• Gender-neutral language in English
  • The singular they – e.g. "Someone forgot their shoes."
  • Generic antecedents.
• Whether to use subjunctive mood – e.g. "I wish I were/was an Oscar Mayer wiener."

[edit] Factors in disputes

The following circumstances commonly feature in disputes:

No central authority

Unlike some languages, such as French, there is no governing academy for the English language. For this reason, different people often take different works of reference as authoritative. Others argue that, lacking a recognized authority, correctness is defined by common usage. That is, once its use is sufficiently prevalent, a certain construction or usage becomes correct.

Tradition

Older or better-established constructions—or those perceived as such—are often considered superior.

Education

In contrast to tradition, many newer constructions and recent innovations originate from or are associated with poorly educated or inexperienced users, or users of non-standard varieties. Such usages are often rejected by some speakers as mistakes or corruptions while embraced by others.

Authority

Use by widely respected authors can lend credibility and favor to a particular construction: for instance, Ernest Hemingway is known for beginning sentences with And.^[3] However, this is not a uniform rule: for instance, the intentional use of a non-standard style, such as an eye dialect, would not influence the canonical style.

Etymology

In cases involving the syntax of a specific word, the etymology of the word might be seen as supporting one construction over another. For example, some have objected to the phrase under the circumstances, pointing out the Latin root of the word circumstance suggests a ring or circle enclosing where one stands. See also etymological fallacy.

Logic and consistency

Often speakers will argue that a certain usage is inherently more logical than another, or that it is more consistent with other undisputed usages.

Clarity

Since the purpose of language is communication, as set out in the Gricean maxims, a speaker who finds a given construction to be clearer than another may well consider it to be more correct.

Clarity and consistency

Likewise, a speaker who finds that some construction can produce ambiguities (even if only in some circumstances) may avoid it altogether.

Differences in style and register

Certain styles and registers of speech may be stigmatized by some users. For example, uncommon but "technically correct" usages may be perceived as hypercorrections or may be perceived as pretentious by some, but others may consider the avoidance of the same usage a mark of ignorance.

Speakers and writers frequently do not consider it necessary to justify their positions on a particular usage, taking it for granted that a given usage is correct or incorrect. The position is often complicated by the user's reliance on false ideas on linguistic matters, such as the impression that a particular expression is newer than it really is.^[4]

[edit] Prescription and description

The prescriptivist and descriptivist approaches often clash: the former prescribes how English should be spoken—a teacher showing students how to write; the latter describes how English is spoken—a sociolinguist studying word usage in a population. An extreme prescriptivist might maintain that even if every sentence in current English uses a certain construction, that construction can still be incorrect. Conversely, an extreme descriptivist might maintain that there is no such thing as incorrect usage. In practice, however, speakers lie between these two extremes, holding that because English changes with time and is governed in large measure by convention, a construction may be considered correct once it is universal, but also that a given sentence is incorrect if it violates the conventions of English that apply to its context.

[edit] Different forms of English

One complicating factor is that there are many different forms of English, often with different conventions; what is plainly grammatical in one form may be plainly ungrammatical in another.

[edit] English internationally

English is spoken worldwide, and the Standard English grammar generally taught in schools around the world may vary only slightly, if at all. In actual usage, however, the English of one country is not always the English of another. For example, in addition to the differences in accent, spelling, and vocabulary, there are many points of spoken grammar that differ between and among the various British, American, and other dialects of the English language in everyday use. Ordinarily, speakers will accept many national dialects as correct, but may deem only one to be correct in a given setting, in the same way that an educated English-speaker might regard correct French as correct without considering it as correct English. Nonetheless, disputes can sometimes arise: for example, in India it is a matter of some debate whether British, American or Indian English is the best form for use.^[5][6]

[edit] Regional dialects and ethnolects

In contrast to their generally high level of tolerance for the dialects of other English-speaking countries, speakers often express disdain for features of certain regional or ethnic dialects, such as Southern American English's use of y'all, Geordies' use of "yous" as the second person plural personal pronoun, and non-standard forms of "to be" such as "The old dock bes under water most of the year" (Newfoundland English) or "That dock be under water every other week" (African-American Vernacular English).

Such disdain may not be restricted to points of grammar; speakers often criticize regional accents and vocabulary as well.

Arguments related to regional dialects must center on questions of what constitutes Standard English. For example, since fairly divergent dialects from many different countries are widely accepted as Standard English, it is not always clear why certain regional dialects, which may even be very similar to their standard counterparts, are not.

[edit] Register

Different constructions are acceptable in different registers of English. For example, a given construction will often be seen as too formal or too informal for a given situation.

Speakers do not always distinguish between "correct" English and the English of formal registers. For example, they might say that a given construction is incorrect for formal writing, but acceptable in ordinary writing or in everyday speech. Whereas linguists will often describe a construction as being correct in a certain register but not in another, English speakers as a whole tend to view "correct English" as a singular entity — either viewing informal registers as allowing deviations from correctness, or viewing formal registers as imposing additional syntactic constraints beyond mere correctness, or both.

[edit] See also

• Barbarism (grammar)
• English grammar
• Hypercorrection
• List of dialects of the English language
• List of English words with disputed usage
• Linguistic prescription
• Solecism
• Standard English

[edit] References