By Anne Curzan. I was reminded the other day of two things about prescriptive usage rules: (a) the power that comes with feeling like you know rules of usage that other people don’t (or have forgotten); and (b) the sometimes fine line between a usage rule that promotes standard usage and one that falls into nostalgia, stuffiness, or obscurity. As I’ve written about on Lingua Franca before, I am a fairly meticulous copy editor (or at least I like to think I am). More...
U de M language controversy is a scary indicator of intolerance
By Vincent Iacono. As a law student at McGill University and as a lifelong Montrealer, I was disappointed to read that two law students at the Université de Montréal — one affiliated with a student association that supports sovereignty, the other with the Parti Québécois student association — have been speaking out against accommodations for anglophone students there, such as letting them write papers and exams in English (“ ‘Galloping anglicization’ is hardly a threat at the U de M” Don Macpherson, Feb. 4).
I am concerned not because a majority of students feel this way (they don’t), but rather that this undercurrent of thought even exists. More...
