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Analysing the huge mailbag: Reception of John Honey'sThe Language Trap

A controversial publication inspiring linguistic comments bymembers of the general public

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 August 2018

Ingrid Tieken-Boon van Ostade
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Extract

Just after the start of the research project Bridging theUnbridgeable: Linguists, Prescriptivists and the General Public in2011, we laid our hands on a file called ‘Reactions to L. Trap’. Thefile contains well over 200 documents: letters, picture postcards,notes, newspaper clippings, and various other items, almost all ofthem relating to the reception of a pamphlet called TheLanguage Trap, written by John Honey (1933–2001) andpublished in 1983 by the British National Council for EducationalStandards (NCES). The file was offered for sale by Plurabelle Booksin Cambridge as part of the late John Honey's library, and acquiringit offered a unique opportunity to study the reception of thishighly controversial publication, not only by linguists, but also bythe general public. Both groups responded in large numbers to thepublicity the pamphlet inspired, in the press as well as on theradio.

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Type
Research Article
Information
English Today , Volume 34 , Special Issue 4: “Bridging the Unbridgeable”:Special Issue on Prescriptivism , December 2018 , pp. 13 - 20
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Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2018 

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Footnotes

Thanks to John Edwards and Dick Hudson for providing me withbackground information relating to the reception of TheLanguage Trap, and to Joan Beal for her comments onan earlier version of this paper.

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