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Wilson Follett's Arguments Regarding The Usage Of Language

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1 Wilson Follett, in the article “On Usage, Purism, Pedantry” from Modern American Usage, promotes how two parties view the rights and wrongs concerning the usage of language.
2 When Follett presents usage, he introduces two groups. The first group are conservatives. Conservatives believe that there is a correct way and a wrong way when using standard English relating to words and writing sentences. The second group, the linguists deny that there is a thing as correct language usage. 3 Although linguists say there is no such thing as correctness, their actions show that they do believe in correctness. Correctness is seen through Linguists writing dictionaries that promote standard English. Hence, if linguists do not believe in correctness of standard English, why are they producing dictionaries. The promoting of dictionaries shows the hypocrisy of the linguist. This is evidently an illustration that linguists do believe in some correctness. 4 With correctness and word usage, Follett, discusses usage rules and tact. The best usage avoids errors by following both rules and tact. Rules are the steps taken to …show more content…
Usage books discuss issues like rules, tact, and structural errors. Usage books provide writers and speakers with the frequent grammar norms and suggest reasons that can help writers and speakers preserve the standard of English language and its usage. Usage books are better than dictionaries. Follett mentions that dictionaries do not give reasons even when presenting examples of various word usage in quotations. The dictionary context can seem narrow and does not enforce anything. Some dictionaries statistically document what the people of a generation say and write. But, dictionaries do not give examples of how words should be used in conversation and in writing. Usage books, provide the discussions needed to help readers to detect good usage of words and versatility of

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