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U.S.M.C. for autistic people

  10/09/2020       Pat Barrett      Add Comment

I shamefacedly admit that I and others in the family thought our grandson was being unrealistic for wanting to be a U.S. Marine. He joined (Continue Reading)

Autism
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Autism in bygone days….

  02/20/2020       Pat Barrett      Add Comment

Reading Patrick O’Brian’s well-drawn characters in his Aubrey-Maturin novels, I am struck over and over again by the way the behaviors of some of the (Continue Reading)

Autism, What I'm Reading Now

Fighting the state

  05/16/2019       Pat Barrett      Add Comment

No, not The State, as in The Deep State, but the state of Arizona, determined to preserve the life of the unborn but adopting the (Continue Reading)

Autism

Austism – a new category for me

  10/07/2018       Pat Barrett      Add Comment

Going on a year now, our 17 year old grandson has been living with us. He is autistic. I am sure you all have noticed (Continue Reading)

Autism

Notes on prescriptive notions in 17th cnt France

  09/19/2015       Pat Barrett      Add Comment

From The French Language Today by Adrian Battye and Marie-Anne Hintze an interesting passage re the setting of prescriptive grammar in the 17th cnt French (Continue Reading)

Autism

The not-so-sweet words of Mr. Honey

  03/17/2015       Pat Barrett      Add Comment

It’s been a busy day, so here’s just one item, a quote from Authority in Language by Milroy & Milroy, p. 7: “In the UK, (Continue Reading)

Autism

Good speak/bad speak – who knew?

  03/15/2015       Pat Barrett      Add Comment

Here’s a typical comment regarding language: “Thanks for your thoughtful reply. As a former English teacher, I found great delight in your grammar correction game. (Continue Reading)

Autism

Let’s correct the classics

  03/11/2015       Pat Barrett      Add Comment

I noticed today in church that the hymn Amazing Grace has the words “less days” where the Mavens would demand “fewer days”. Should we correct (Continue Reading)

Autism

Get there first

  01/24/2015       Pat Barrett      Add Comment

A poster to a language log said a client of his emphatically objected to the phrase “get there first”, declaring it completely ungrammatical. A blog (Continue Reading)

Autism

How prescriptivism can hurt understanding

  01/01/2015       Pat Barrett      Add Comment

Exploring language universals should be part of any introductory linguistics course and, as more and more people are taking such a course to fulfill requirements, (Continue Reading)

Autism

Exploring prescription and Prescriptivism

  10/28/2014       Pat Barrett      Add Comment

Let’s clear up a terminological confusion first. We all prescribe. Whenever we mark a double negative in a book report turned in by a student, (Continue Reading)

Autism, scolds and guardians, Shamans

The Last Word on Ain’t

  10/26/2014       Pat Barrett      Add Comment

As I finished this book, two more quotes from it struck me as worthy to include in my blog. One is a quote of what (Continue Reading)

Autism

Puristics

  10/26/2014       Pat Barrett      Add Comment

Purist was a label I left out of my category title: Shamans, Mavens, Scolds and Guardians, b/c many purists happily take up the task of (Continue Reading)

Autism

Le Bon Usage and prescriptivism

  10/17/2014       Pat Barrett      Add Comment

It is often written that the Anglo-Saxon, English-speaking world has a monopoly on prescriptivism. Obviously other language communities have their own ideas as to what (Continue Reading)

Autism

A good old grammar book

  10/08/2014       Pat Barrett      Add Comment

On p. 73, discussing infinitives, the example is given: I saw the leaves stir. Accompanying it is explanation: stir is an infinitive without the ‘to’. (Continue Reading)

Autism

Purity

  10/04/2014       Pat Barrett      Add Comment

When a Maven objects to a plural like “jackknifes” b/c “the dictionary says the plural of jackknife is jackknives”, even though it is not actually (Continue Reading)

Autism

Mavens: jackknifes or jackknives?

  10/04/2014       Pat Barrett      Add Comment

All Mavens: alert! The plural of jackknife, a move made in diving and workouts, is jackknifes, but you Mavens must set us straight and remind (Continue Reading)

Autism

The Most Dangerous Man

  09/29/2014       Pat Barrett      Add Comment

This, from The Story of Ain’t, p. 170, sums up the attitude of the Prescriptivists: “But this was several years before history’s most notorious dictionary (Continue Reading)

Autism

(No Title)

  09/23/2014       Pat Barrett      Add Comment

I just heard, “How does one govern and do their job”. The use of “their” as pronoun for “one” clearly jabs the prescriptivists in the (Continue Reading)

Autism

oh so posh

  09/03/2014       Pat Barrett      Add Comment

I was listening to an interview of an author who spoke Oxbridge English, oh so posh, in elevated discourse and so on. Suddenly I heard, (Continue Reading)

Autism

If it has a name, it’s OK

  06/17/2014       Pat Barrett      Add Comment

The list of faults of English speakers contains a number of items that crop up in other languages. The peculiar thing is, these same features (Continue Reading)

Autism

Authority In Language

  06/17/2014       Pat Barrett      Add Comment

Reading in Authority In Language, I noticed that pages 80 to 90 had so many excellent points, I needed to select the juiciest passages and (Continue Reading)

Autism

There’s a train comin’ for you………

  06/03/2014       Pat Barrett      Add Comment

Another feature of teaching SE in the schools I have failed to convey properly is language maintenance. In this way, a young person will speak (Continue Reading)

Autism
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