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Language Usage

The usage of a language refers to the collective habits and conventions of how a language is routinely used by its native speakers in both written and spoken form. Descriptively, something can be considered "correct" if it is adequately idiomatic and functional for communication, while prescriptively "correctness" involves arbitrating norms of style. Common usage can help inform prescriptive language standards, though modern dictionaries generally aim to describe rather than prescribe usage. The concept of usage in linguistics analysis originated in the late 17th century and was an important term for Danish linguists in researching language norms versus actual usage patterns.

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163 views2 pages

Language Usage

The usage of a language refers to the collective habits and conventions of how a language is routinely used by its native speakers in both written and spoken form. Descriptively, something can be considered "correct" if it is adequately idiomatic and functional for communication, while prescriptively "correctness" involves arbitrating norms of style. Common usage can help inform prescriptive language standards, though modern dictionaries generally aim to describe rather than prescribe usage. The concept of usage in linguistics analysis originated in the late 17th century and was an important term for Danish linguists in researching language norms versus actual usage patterns.

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Nilmalvila Blue Lilies Pond
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© © All Rights Reserved
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Usage (language)

The usage of a language is the ways in which its written and spoken variations are


routinely employed by its speakers; that is, it refers to "the collective habits of a
language's native speakers",[1] as opposed to idealized models of how a language works
or (should work) in the abstract. For instance, Fowler characterized usage as "the way
in which a word or phrase is normally and correctly used" and as the "points
of grammar, syntax, style, and the choice of words."[2]
In the descriptive tradition of language analysis, by way of contrast, "correct" tends to
mean functionally adequate for the purposes of the speaker or writer using it, and
adequately idiomatic to be accepted by the listener or reader; usage is also, however, a
concern for the prescriptive tradition, for which "correctness" is a matter of arbitrating
style.[3][4]
Common usage may be used as one of the criteria of laying out prescriptive
norms for codified standard language usage.[5]
Modern dictionaries are not generally prescriptive, but they often include "usage notes"
which may describe words as "formal", "informal", "slang", and so on.[6] "Despite
occasional usage notes, lexicographers generally disclaim any intent to guide writers
and editors on the thorny points of English usage."[1]

History[edit]
According to Jeremy Butterfield, "The first person we know of who made usage refer to
language was Daniel Defoe, at the end of the seventeenth century". Defoe proposed the
creation of a language society of 36 individuals who would set prescriptive language
rules for the approximately six million English speakers.[3]
The Latin equivalent usus was a crucial term in the research of Danish linguists Otto
Jespersen and Louis Hjelmslev.[7] They used the term to designate usage that has
widespread or significant acceptance among speakers of a language, regardless of its
conformity to the sanctioned standard language norms.[8]

See also[edit]
 Error (linguistics)
 English writing style
 Idiom (language structure)
 Common English usage misconceptions
 List of English words with disputed usage

References[edit]
 Nebeská, Iva (2017). "ÚZUS". In Karlík, Petr; Nekula, Marek; Pleskalová, Jana
(eds.). Nový encyklopedický slovník češtiny (in Czech).
 Markowski, Andrzej (2005). Kultura języka polskiego. Teoria. Zagadnienia
leksykalne (in Polish). Warsaw: Wydawnictwo Naukowe PWN. ISBN 83-01-14526-
9.

1. ^ Jump up to:a b University of Chicago (2010).  The Chicago Manual of Style (16th ed.). Chicago:


University of Chicago Press. pp.  261–262.  ISBN  9780199574094.
2. ^ H. W. Fowler's A Dictionary of Modern English Usage
3. ^ Jump up to:a b Butterfield, Jeremy (2008). Damp Squid: The English Language Laid Bare. Oxford:
Oxford University Press. pp.  137–138.  ISBN  9780199574094.
4. ^ Curzan, Anne (2014). Fixing English: Prescriptivism and Language History. Cambridge
UP. ISBN 978-1107020757.
5. ^ Korpysz, Tomasz (2017-01-29).  "Uwaga na uzus". Porady  (in Polish). Idziemy. Retrieved 2019-02-
10.
6. ^ R. Thomas Berner, "Usage Notes in the Oxford American Dictionary", The Journal of General
Education 33:3:239–246 (Fall 1981)
7. ^ Dace Strelēvica-Ošiņa (2019), "The Language of Correctness: Some Terms of Latin
Origin", Antiquitas Viva,  5: 191, doi:10.22364/av5.16,  ISSN  2255-9779
8. ^ Markowski (2005), p. 21

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