Selected Publications
- Burridge, K. & A. Bergs 2017. Understanding Language Change. Routledge.
- Burridge, K. & T. Stebbins 2016. For the Love of Language. Cambridge University Press.
- Burridge, K. 2010. Gift of the Gob: Morsels of English Language History. HarperCollins.
- Allan, K. & Burridge K. 2006. Forbidden Words: Taboo & the censoring of language. Cambridge University Press.
- Burridge, K. 2005. Weeds in the Garden of Words. Cambridge University Press.
FRIAS Project
From obelisks and asterisks to modern-day views about English language usage.
In this research I explore popular perceptions of language, in particular linguistic prescription. I focus not on formal acts of censorship such as might be carried out by a language academy, but rather on the attitudes and activities of ordinary people in, say, letters to newspapers or comments on radio. In these contexts, language users act as self-appointed censors and take it upon themselves to condemn those words and constructions that they feel do not measure up to the standards they perceive should hold sway. The significance of this work lies in the key role that prescriptivism plays within a framework of folk linguistic attitudes (cf. Niedzielski & Preston 2003). And the social consequences of these attitudes are far-reaching.