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ABSTRACT: Anita Pincas of the University of London's Institute of
Education challenged "Trigg's Rules of Grammar" (TRG), asking why the
academic public doesn't want to accept "language change, flexibility,
and variety," and citing linguist William Labov and sociologist Basil
Bernstein as authorities in those areas. I quote a Labov passage
that might serve to answer Anita's question, and then pose two other
questions: (1) Would Labov challenge *all* of TRG? (2) Would
Bernstein challenge *any* of TRG?
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In response to my post "Trigg's Rules of Grammar" [Hake (2008], Anita
Pincas (2008), in her WBTOLL post of 20 June titled "Re: Trigg's
Rules of Grammar - challenged" wrote:
"Language change, flexibility, and variety, are aspects of reality
that the general public, especially of course the general academic
public, never want to accept. Why? [This is a serious question.
See W. Labov on USA variety, B. Bernstein on UK variety.]"
Why doesn't the academic public want to accept "language change,
flexibiilty, and variety"? William Labov (2001)
<http://www.ling.upenn.edu/~wlabov/> gives the following answer in
Section 1.1 "The social effects of language change" [bracketed by
lines "LLLLLLLL . . . ."; my insert at ". . . . [insert]. . . ."; my
CAPS]:
LLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL
". . . .many older citizens find themselves keenly irritated by new
forms that have crept into the language, and expend a great deal of
effort in demonstrating to their children the illogical character of
"hopefully," "aren't I," or "like" as a conjunction. But even the
most eloquent journalists and educators. . . . . [e.g., Safire (1979,
1991, 2005); Trigg (1979); ]. . . . find that their rhetorical tools
are not keen enough to cut the link that ties these forms to the
younger speakers of the language. These defective forms return again
and again until they are firmly fixed in the fabric of the language -
when suddenly they appear as very natural and not at all defective,
to all except a small group of traditionalists in professorial and
editorial chairs.
LLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL
Two questions:
1. Would linguist Labov challenge *all* of Trigg's Rules of Grammar?
Does he think, for example, that double negatives, as illustrated by
Trigg's (1979) 5th rule of grammar: "Don't use no double negatives,"
will eventually become "firmly fixed in the fabric of the language"?
2. Would sociologist Bernstein challenge *any* of Trigg's Rules of
Grammar? According to Wikipedia
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basil_Bernstein> [bracketed by lines
"WWWWWWW. . . . ."; my CAPS].
WWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW
Basil Bernstein (1924 -2000) was a British sociologist and linguist,
known for his work in the sociology of education. . . . .[He] makes a
correlation between social class and the use of either elaborated or
restricted code. He reports that in the working class you are likely
to find the use of the restricted code, whereas in the middle class
you find the use of both the restricted and elaborated codes. . . . .
The restricted code is less formal with shorter phrases interjected
into the middle or end of a thought to confirm understanding. For
example, "you know," "you know what I mean," "right?" and "don't you
think?" Elaborated codes have a longer, more complicated sentence
structure that utilizes uncommon words and thoughts. In the elaborate
code there is no padding or filler, only complete, well laid out
thoughts that require no previous knowledge on the part of the
listener. . . .
WWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW''
I think Bernstein, judging from his work a proponent of "well laid
out thoughts," would not necessarily challenge Trigg's rules of
grammar. To access Bernstein's work see e.g., "Pedagogy, Symbolic
Control, and Identity [Bernstein (2000)]; "Towards a Sociology of
Pedagogy: The Contribution of Basil Bernstein to Research" [Bernstein
et al. (2001)]; the scholarly obituary by Alan Sadovnik (2001); and
the University of London's Bernstein page
<http://www.ioe.ac.uk/library/archives/bb.html> and biblography at
<http://www.ioe.ac.uk/library/archives/bbb.html>.
REFERENCES
Bernstein, B.B. 2000. "Pedagogy, Symbolic Control, and Identity:
Theory, Research, Critique." Rowman & Littlefield (revised edition).
Amazon.com information at <http://tinyurl.com/3434lg>.
Bernstein, B.B., I. Neves, B. Davies, H. Daniels, & A. Morais, eds.
2001. "Towards a Sociology of Pedagogy: The Contribution of Basil
Bernstein to Research." Peter Lang Publishing. Amazon.com information
at <http://tinyurl.com/2zvhzt>.
Labov, W. 1994. "Principles of Linguistic Change, Internal Factors."
(Language in Society). Wiley-Blackwell. Amazon.com information at
<http://tinyurl.com/383bn3>; note the "Search Inside" feature.
Labov, W. 2001. "Principles of Linguistic Change: Social Factors,"
Vol. 2 (Language in Society) Wiley-Blackwell. Amazon.com information
at <http://tinyurl.com/ynor53>; note the "Search Inside" feature.
Pincus, A. 2008. "Re: Trigg's Rules of Grammar -challenged," WBTOLL
post of 20 Jan 2008 08:29:30+0000; online at
<http://tinyurl.com/22vjfe>. To access the archives of WBTOLL one
needs to subscribe, but that takes only a few minutes by clicking on
<http://hermes.gwu.edu/archives/wbtoll-l.html> and then clicking on
"Join or leave the list (or update your subscription options)." If
you're busy, then subscribe using the "NOMAIL" option under
"Miscellaneous." Then, as a subscriber, you may access the archives
and/or post messages at any time, while receiving NO MAIL from the
list!
Sadovnik, A.R. 2001. "Basil Bernstein (1924-2000)," Prospects: the
quarterly review of comparative education (Paris, UNESCO:
International Bureau of Education), vol. XXXI, no. 4, December, pp.
687-703; online at
<http://www.ibe.unesco.org/publications/ThinkersPdf/bernsteine.pdf> (160 kB).
Safire, W. 1979. "On Language," New York Times, 7 October. For
Safire's Fumblerules see Richoux (2002). See also the more recent
Safire (1991, 2005).
Safire, W. 1991. "Fumblerules (The Intrepid Linguist Library),
Laurel. Amazon.com information at <http://tinyurl.com/2d89jx>.
Safire, W. 2005. "How Not to Write: The Essential Misrules of
Grammar. Norton. Amazon.com information at
<http://tinyurl.com/2334at>. Note the "Search Inside" feature. This
book, evidently an update of Safire (1991), devotes one chapter to
each of 50 "Fumblerules."
Trigg, G.L. 1979. "Grammar," Physical Review Letters 42(12): 747-748,
19 March; online to subscribers at
<http://prola.aps.org/toc/PRL/v42/i12>. For Trigg's rules see
Richoux (2002). For similar lists see, e.g. Safire (1979, 1991, 2005).