An Old Story?

Question 1

STEVEN POOLE

Answer 1

(writing for The Guardian)
“Writing was going to destroy people’s memories; printed books were more superficial than inscribed parchment; pencils with rubbers on the end were going to rot schoolchildren’s minds because they would no longer need to think before scribbling; typewriters were going to leach all the humanity from letters.”

Question 2

DEBORAH CAMERON

Answer 2

• Verbal Hygiene, 1995 - identifies a moral and political strand in some prescriptivist thinking:
• Many prescriptivists see language as a proxy battleground for wider social and cultural concerns - grammar has become a useful tool for waging this war because of its ‘strong metaphorical association with order, tradition, authority, hierarchy and rules’.

Question 3

DAVID MITCHELL

Answer 3

(Observer article):

“it’s the debate and conflict between the two camps that keeps our language evolving”