The usage of a
language is the ways in which its
written and
spoken variations are routinely employed by its speakers; that is, it refers to "the collective habits of a language's native speakers",
as opposed to idealized models of how a language works or (should work) in the abstract. For instance,
Fowler characterized usage as "the way in which a word or phrase is normally and correctly used" and as the "points of
grammar,
syntax
In linguistics, syntax () is the study of how words and morphemes combine to form larger units such as phrases and sentences. Central concerns of syntax include word order, grammatical relations, hierarchical sentence structure ( constituency) ...
,
style, and the choice of words."
In the
descriptive
In the study of language, description or descriptive linguistics is the work of objectively analyzing and describing how language is actually used (or how it was used in the past) by a speech community. François & Ponsonnet (2013).
All acad ...
tradition of language analysis, by way of contrast, "correct" tends to mean functionally adequate for the purposes of the speaker or writer using it, and adequately
idiomatic to be accepted by the listener or reader; usage is also, however, a concern for the
prescriptive tradition, for which "correctness" is a matter of arbitrating style.
Common usage may be used as one of the criteria of laying out
prescriptive norms for
codified standard language
A standard language (also standard variety, standard dialect, and standard) is a language variety that has undergone substantial codification of grammar and usage, although occasionally the term refers to the entirety of a language that includes ...
usage.
Modern
dictionaries
A dictionary is a listing of lexemes from the lexicon of one or more specific languages, often arranged alphabetically (or by radical and stroke for ideographic languages), which may include information on definitions, usage, etymologies, p ...
are not generally prescriptive, but they often include "usage notes" which may describe words as "formal", "informal", "slang", and so on. "Despite occasional usage notes,
lexicographers generally disclaim any intent to guide writers and editors on the thorny points of English usage."
History
According to Jeremy Butterfield, "The first person we know of who made ''usage'' refer to language was
Daniel Defoe
Daniel Defoe (; born Daniel Foe; – 24 April 1731) was an English writer, trader, journalist, pamphleteer and spy. He is most famous for his novel ''Robinson Crusoe'', published in 1719, which is claimed to be second only to the Bible in its ...
, at the end of the seventeenth century". Defoe proposed the creation of a
language society of 36 individuals who would set
prescriptive language rules for the approximately six million English speakers.
The Latin equivalent ''usus'' was a crucial term in the research of Danish linguists
Otto Jespersen and
Louis Hjelmslev.
They used the term to designate usage that has widespread or significant acceptance among speakers of a language, regardless of its conformity to the sanctioned standard language norms.
See also
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Error (linguistics)
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English writing style An English writing style is a combination of features in an English language composition that has become characteristic of a particular writer, a genre, a particular organization, or a profession more broadly (e.g., legal writing).
An individual's ...
*
Common English usage misconceptions
This list comprises widespread modern beliefs about English language usage that are documented by a reliable source to be misconceptions.
With no authoritative language academy, guidance on English language usage can come from many sources. Thi ...
*
List of English words with disputed usage
References
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{{Authority control
Sociolinguistics
Applied linguistics
Grammar
Language varieties and styles
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