It has long been noted that style manuals and other usage advice frequently contain unintended examples of the usage they condemn. (This is sometimes referred to as
Hartman's law or
Muphry's law - an intentional misspelling of Murphy.)
Starting from this observation, Joseph Williams' paper
The Phenomenology of Error offers an examination of our selective attention to different types of grammatical and usage errors that goes beyond the descriptivism-prescriptivism debate. (alternate
pdf link for "The Phenomenology of Error")
[more inside]
posted by nangar
on Nov 28, 2011 -
17 comments
Want to run for president in
Kyrgyzstan? Better bone up on your
Kyrgyz language skills. The 83 declared candidates
are being tested, on live television on how well they can use the country's official language. Five grammar mistakes, and you're out. (Clearly, the election commissioners are
prescriptivists.) The intent, it appears, is to weed out politicians with Russian educations.
posted by beagle
on Sep 9, 2011 -
30 comments
