Book contents
- Worldwide Perspectives on English Usage
- Worldwide Perspectives on English Usage
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Tables
- Contributors
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction
- Section 1 Usage Variation and Codification
- 1 ‘All-Governing Custom’
- 2 On National Dictionaries
- 3 ‘No “Afringlish”, Please, We’re British’
- 4 Being Representative?
- Section 2 Usage Variation amid Social Diversity and Political Change
- Section 3 Corpus-Based Research on Variable Usage in Place and Medium
- Index
- References
1 - ‘All-Governing Custom’
Corpus Evidence in Pam Peters’ Usage Guide
from Section 1 - Usage Variation and Codification
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 25 June 2026
By
Book contents
- Worldwide Perspectives on English Usage
- Worldwide Perspectives on English Usage
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Tables
- Contributors
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction
- Section 1 Usage Variation and Codification
- 1 ‘All-Governing Custom’
- 2 On National Dictionaries
- 3 ‘No “Afringlish”, Please, We’re British’
- 4 Being Representative?
- Section 2 Usage Variation amid Social Diversity and Political Change
- Section 3 Corpus-Based Research on Variable Usage in Place and Medium
- Index
- References
Summary
In 2004 Pam Peters published arguably the first usage guide to systematically use corpus methods. Peters tackled three main challenges: using corpora to find relative frequencies of prescribed and proscribed forms; presenting corpus findings clearly and concisely in a general reference book; translating that information into practical usage advice. For the first challenge, Peters mostly used corpus evidence for issues that could be evaluated with string searches, like curriculums vs. curricula, as well as a more nuanced approach to evaluating matters like the evolving meaning of reticent. For the second challenge, Peters used both numbers and relationship terms to compare frequencies of prescribed and proscribed forms. For the third challenge Peters seldom gave categorical advice or treated variation as error. Instead she presented the data and let it speak for itself; her approach emphasised understanding the factors behind variation rather than condemning it. This chapter argues that Peters is a pioneer in showing ways to use corpus data on a large scale in a general usage guide, setting a model for future usage guides and inviting further exploration of unresolved challenges.
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- Worldwide Perspectives on English UsageInto the Third Millennium, pp. 17 - 34Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2026
References
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