here - O - Universiteit Leiden

WendyAyres-BennetandIngrid Tieken-BoonvanOstade,UniversityofCam bridge(UK)andUniversityof
Leiden( eNetherlands)
⇡ebatleofprescriptivism:FrancevsEngland
6eliteratureonprescriptivism frequentlyasertsthesameapparenttruismsaboutprescriptivism
inFranceandEngland.Atthebeginningofthe20 th century,thegreathistorian
oftheFrenchlanguage,FerdinandBrunot(1966: I,4)claimedthat‘6 ereignofgrammar
[ .]hasbeenlongerandm oretyrannicalinFrancethaninanyothercountry’,andthisidea
wasrepeatedbyRodneySampsonin1993,whoclaimed‘Fewlanguageshavebeenexposed
in such asustainedwaytoprescriptivein2uencesasFrench.Forthepastfourcenturies,
oPcialandunoPcialbodiesandindividualshavesoughttodirectthelanguage,andmany
ofthesehavecommanded,andcontinuetocommand,veryconsiderableatentionand
favouram ongsttheFrench’.
Discusionofprescriptivism inFrancetheno?encentresontheworkofthe17 th -
centurygrammariansandremarqueurs,theroleoftheAcadémieFrançaiseandotherbodies
concernedwiththeFrenchlanguage,andtheimpactoftwentieth-centurylinguisticlegislation
(Ayres-Bennet2010).AsforEngland,theFrench Academ yisusualyheld upasan
exampleofwhatwouldbeneededtoregulatetheEnglishlanguage:thiswasthecaseinthe
early18 th century,butasim ilaratitudecan stilbefound am ongthegeneralpublictoday.
Inarecentpublication,HenryHitchingswrotethat‘English-speakersaretouchy
aboutquestionsofusage’(2011:4).Itisinterestingtonotethathegoesontoclaim:‘Touchines[.]isnotuncommonamongspeakersofotherlanguages,butEnglishisthemostcontestedlanguage’.AretheEnglishnow
becom ingm oreprescriptiveaboutlebon usagethan
theFrenchinspiteofthelackofanAcadem y?Andistheenorm ouspopularityofusage
guidesintheUK today(Bu seandTieken-BoonvanOstade2011)symptomaticofthisrise
in prescriptivism ?
Inthispaperwewouldliketocom parethediJerenthistoricalandsocioculturalcontextsin
whichprescriptivism arosein FranceandBritain,leadingtodiJerentapproachesto
thesubject(e.g.therelativeim portanceofoP cialbodiesandprivateinitiatives),andthen
examinewhetherthisresultsinprescriptivism beingmanifestedindiJerentwaystoday.
References:
Ayres-Bennet,Wendy(2010).“SpeakingCorectly:Purism andPrescriptivism inFrance”.Festival
ofIdeasLecture,CambridgeOctober2010.
Buse,UlrichandIngridTieken-BoonvanOstade(2011).“TowardsaCorpusofPrescriptivism”.
PaperpresentedattheHelsinkiCorpusFestival,Helsinki(Finland),September/October
2011.
Brunot,Ferdinand(1966)Histoiredelalanguefrançaise,vol.3.Paris:A.Colin.
Hitchings,Henry(2011). eLanguageWars.AHistoryofProperEnglish.London:John M u ray.
Sampson,Rodney(ed.)(1993).AuthorityandtheFrenchLanguage.Münster:Nodus.