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Strapline: The perpetuation of prescriptivism in popular culture

The persistence of prescriptive rules in English today, or watching television as a linguist (and cringing at prescriptive rules)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 December 2018

Carrie Ankerstein
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Extract

It is probably safe to say that whenever an expert encounters their field of expertise outside of science or academia, they shudder at misrepresentations, over-simplifications or flat out untruths. This sort of thing sometimes happens to me when I indulge in a bit of couch potato lounging and come across remarks about English or language in general on sitcoms. Thanks to Netflix, I can watch all the shows I missed when they first aired. I say this so that you, dear reader, will understand why my focus is on shows that aired several years ago and are now run as repeats or binge watched via streaming.

Type
Research Article
Information
English Today , Volume 35 , Issue 3 , September 2019 , pp. 55 - 60
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2018 

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