Fixing English

Fixing English demonstrates the important role prescriptivism plays in the history of the English language, both as a sociolinguistic factor in language change and as a vital meta-discourse about language.

Over the past 300 years, attempts have been made to prescribe how English should and should not be used through usage guides, dictionaries, and school curricula.

Curzan provides a pioneering definition of prescriptivism as a linguistic phenomenon and highlights significant examples including Microsoft's grammar checker, debates about 'real words', non-sexist language reform, and efforts to reappropriate stigmatized terms.