ABSTRACT
Though not interested in prescriptivism, linguists would find a wealth of data in the comments by novelists, who sometimes spot new contested usages before they are treated in linguistic studies. Similarly, complaints by members of the general public when writing to the press or the BBC will indicate changes in progress that are worthy of linguistic analysis. The internet, where usage advice now proliferates as well, is often assumed to herald the end of the usage guide, but the text type is alive and well. There are now two trends in usage guide literature, one that has become more descriptive in time and another that continues to be pre- and proscriptive. The latter type is the most popular of the two, in catering for what the general public wants: clear and straightforward usage advice rather than elaborate linguistic accounts. Since the market is a lucrative one, usage guides will continue to appear, even as printed books. This study offers the tools – the HUGE database, and showing how usage advice can be related to actual usage and how the general public can be involved in expressing their attitudes to usage problems – to continue to provide new, and better informed usage guides.
