Prescriptive vs. Descriptive Grammar: Key Differences
Prescriptive Grammar
- Describes the regularities which underlie the structure of languages and varieties.
- Does not take dialectal variation into account.
- Does not take into account the differences between styles (written/spoken).
- Does not take the natural evolution of languages into account.
- Imposes rules, sometimes borrowed from other languages.
- Interested in telling people how they should speak.
- No distinction between formal/informal situations.
- Some varieties are considered inferior.
- The varieties of language
Victorian Novelists: Dickens, Thackeray, and Trollope
The Rise of the Novel in the Victorian Era
Victorian writers often reflected the values of their society, emphasizing family, domesticity, and religion. Their literature served as a form of propaganda, showcasing economic progress while highlighting stark class differences. They drew characters and stories from everyday life, aiming to portray the realities and conditions of England.
Individualism was highly valued, with linear narratives often featuring characters who succeeded by embodying Victorian
Read MoreGalician Authors: Méndez Ferrín, Casares, Ferreiro, and Novoneyra
Xosé Luís Méndez Ferrín
His Work
From a literary standpoint, Méndez Ferrín is a fundamental author of current Portuguese literature, both in poetry and narrative.
His Narrative Work
As a narrator, he writes stories and novels. His early works are within the New Galician Narrative, influenced by European and American literature.
His narrative work revolves around three themes:
- A fantastic theme, recreating characters and environments of the Matter of Britain and the Arthurian legends.
- The exploration
Late 20th and Early 21st Century Poetry: Trends and Authors
The Poetry of the Late 20th and Early 21st Century
The late twentieth and early twenty-first century is characterized by a genuine poetic expression and evolution of a genre that leads to the decay of the previous social realism and diversification thematic and formal.
Poetry before 1976 centered on reclamation of standardization of language and the conquest of areas of use. Two basic aspects are clear antecedents of poetic production later are the teaching of the elders and the decline of poetry
Read MorePhonological Shifts in English: Vowels, Consonants, Stress
The Great Vowel Shift
The Great Vowel Shift was the greatest and most important phonological change in the history of English. Yet, Old English spelling was maintained because printers based spelling on medieval manuscripts, not on the new pronunciation. For example:
- Middle English: feet [e]
- Modern English: feet [i:]
Learned men preferred an archaic spelling: ‘y’ was used as ‘th’:
- ‘y’ as an abbreviation of ‘that’
- ‘ye’ as an abbreviation of ‘the’
- Example: Ye Olde Shoppe
‘i’ as a vowel and ‘j’ as a consonant
Read MoreMastering Punctuation and Accentuation in Spanish
Punctuation
Punctuation aims to help continue the thought of writing, stating in writing pauses, intonation, and emphasis. You cannot write without punctuation or use the signs without knowing their value and meaning, so it was deemed necessary to make a sketch of the most used.
- Comma (,) represents the shortest pause. It is used to:
- Separate phrases, words, or sentences in a series of similar elements.
- Separate the vocative from the rest of the sentence.
- Separate anything set in front of the subject.