Tikal, notably conservative in culture among its peer polities, maintains that tendency in the case of monumental texts. In this dissertation I draw on a corpus of Late Classic monuments (ca. AD 600-900) to argue, through analysis of morphological forms, that scribal tradition at Tikal was not only conservative but intentionally so. Literacy…

The present paper looks in detail at the process of codification, i.e. how a single variety is altered in such a way as to become the publicly accepted, stigma-free variety of a country or major region. There is both implicit and explicit codification. For Haugen it would seem that he was referring to the latter process in which there is formal…

Weiner (1988. "On Editing a Usage Guide." In "Words for Robert Burchfield's Sixty-Fifth Birthday," edited by E. G. Stanley, and T. F. Hoad, 171-183. Cambridge: D.S. Brewer, 173) describes usage guides as being 'as broad as the English language, covering spelling, punctuation, phonology, morphology, syntax, and lexis, and…

How a person teaches grammar depends on what he or she believes it does. Some see grammar as a set of rules, inherited from wise forefathers. For them, teaching grammar means making students aware of, and then holding them to, these rules. Others see grammar as an expression of style, an invitation to the writer to explore how to create a…

Seven teachers voice their opinions (mostly negative) about contemporary, self-appointed language critics. (RL)

Questions the validity of two assumptions behind the search for the "best" pedagogical (English as a second language) grammar: (1) that there is one ideal pedagogical grammar; and (2) that the success of a pedagogical grammar depends primarily on the linguistic theoretical assumptions incorporated in it. (Author/CB)

Discusses the role of rule in language as well as the role of the linguist in preserving and/or altering the rules. The article lists three terms and the distinctions among them emerging from Harris's viewpoint: law of nature, rule, and regularity. (14 references) (CK)

Discusses the pros and cons of grammatical consciousness raising in (English as a second language) pedagogy, arguing that meaningful research on the effectiveness of formal instruction must abandon notions of language learning as the accumulation of language entities and consider consciousness raising with regard to grammatical processes and the…

Analyzes some of the educational problems that can arise from teachers' lack of awareness of the systematic differences between standard English and nonstandard dialects. Discusses the serious linguistic and social consequences of the situation in Britain, where most schoolchildren speak nonstandard English. (SK)

Offers arguments for and against the teaching of grammar in the English classroom. (RL)