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Article published In: International Journal of Corpus Linguistics
Vol. 29:2 (2024) ► pp.131–154

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Pinpointing prescriptive impact

Using change point analysis for the study of prescriptivism at the idiolectal level

ORCiD logo with link | University College London
Published online: 26 September 2023
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/ijcl.22001.mal
Abstract
This paper presents a single-author case study which demonstrates that the statistical modelling technique change point analysis (CPA) can provide compelling evidence of prescriptive impact at an idiolectal level. It has been hypothesized that Late Modern English review periodicals consistently pushed a prescriptive agenda, and that this impacted language use (McIntosh, C. (1998). The Evolution of English Prose, 1700–1800: Style, Politeness, and Print Culture. Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar; Percy, C. (2009). Periodical reviews and the rise of prescriptivism: The Monthly (1749–1844) and Critical Review (1756–1817) in the eighteenth century. In I. Tieken-Boon van Ostade & W. van der Wurff (Eds.), Current Issues in Late Modern English (pp.117–150). Peter Lang.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar). A lack of empirical research has, however, left these claims unsubstantiated, partly because evaluating prescriptivist endeavours has proven challenging. Using a purpose-built 3-million-token idiolectal corpus spanning 7 decades, this paper reports that it is possible to discern a striking change in usage. Use of CPA enables this change to be located precisely, and correlated to the author’s exposure to a prescriptive review of her work. In demonstrating how effectively CPA can provide a sophisticated correlation indicative of causality, this paper showcases the suitability of this technique to the study of prescriptivism.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Evaluating prescriptive success in Late Modern English
    • 2.1Measuring prescriptive impact
    • 2.2“[T]he cant of Clermont”: Burney and the Monthly Review
    • 2.3Flat adverbs
  • 3.Data and method
    • 3.1Data
    • 3.2Method
  • 4.Assessing idiolectal prescriptive impact using CPA
    • 4.1Aggregated dual-form adverb data
    • 4.2Disaggregated dual-form adverb data
    • 4.3Generating a posteriori hypotheses
  • 5.Conclusions
  • References
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