Language-Change Index

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Language-Change Index. The third edition of Garner’s Modern American Usage reflects several new practices. Invariably inferior forms, for example, are now marked with asterisks preceding the term or phrase, a marking common in linguistics. The most interesting new feature is the Language-Change Index. Its purpose is to measure how widely accepted various linguistic innovations have become. Such a measuring system for usage guides was first proposed by Louis G. Heller and James Macris in 1967. They noted that “usage specialists can make a clear-cut demarcation of phases in the evolutionary process relevant to the inception and development of alternative terms.” In these tips, the five stages are tagged as: Stage 1 (“rejected”): A new form emerges as an innovation (or a dialectal form persists) among a small minority of the language community, perhaps displacing a traditional usage (e.g.: “your” misused for “you’re”). Stage 2 (“widely shunned”): The form spreads to a significant fraction of the language community but remains unacceptable in standard usage (e.g.: *”pour over books” for “pore over books”). Stage 3 (“widespread but . . .”): The form becomes commonplace even among many well-educated people but is still avoided in careful usage (e.g.: “clinch” misused for “clench”). Stage 4 (“ubiquitous but . . .”): The form becomes virtually universal but is opposed on cogent grounds by a few linguistic stalwarts (die-hard snoots) (e.g.: “often” pronounced “OF-tuhn””). Stage 5 (“fully accepted”): The form is universally accepted (not counting pseudo-snoot eccentrics) (e.g.: “decimate” for inflicting large-scale destruction).

53 thoughts on “Language-Change Index”

  1. Pingback: Garner’s Usage Tip of the Day: Miscellaneous Entries. | My Blog

  2. Pingback: Garner’s Usage Tip of the Day: regardless of whether. | My Blog

  3. Pingback: Garner’s Usage Tip of the Day: regiment. | My Blog

  4. Pingback: Garner’s Usage Tip of the Day: regardless. | My Blog

  5. Pingback: Garner’s Usage Tip of the Day: register; registrar. | My Blog

  6. Pingback: Garner’s Usage Tip of the Day: Miscellaneous Entries. | My Blog

  7. Pingback: Garner’s Usage Tip of the Day: registrable. | My Blog

  8. Pingback: Garner’s Usage Tip of the Day: registrate. | My Blog

  9. Pingback: Garner’s Usage Tip of the Day: regretful; regrettable. | My Blog

  10. Pingback: Garner’s Usage Tip of the Day: reify. | My Blog

  11. Pingback: Garner’s Usage Tip of the Day: Miscellaneous Entries. | My Blog

  12. Pingback: Garner’s Usage Tip of the Day: rein; reign(2). | My Blog

  13. Pingback: Garner’s Usage Tip of the Day: rein; reign (3). | My Blog

  14. Pingback: Garner’s Usage Tip of the Day: reiterate, -tion; iterate, -tion. | My Blog

  15. Pingback: Garner’s Usage Tip of the Day: relative to. | My Blog

  16. Pingback: Garner’s Usage Tip of the Day: Miscellaneous Entries. | My Blog

  17. Pingback: Garner’s Usage Tip of the Day: Remote Relatives (1). | My Blog

  18. Pingback: Garner’s Usage Tip of the Day: Remote Relatives (2). | My Blog

  19. Pingback: Garner’s Usage Tip of the Day: rewrite. | My Blog

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  21. Pingback: Garner’s Usage Tip of the Day: rhetoric. | LawProse Blog

  22. Pingback: Garner’s Usage Tip of the Day: rhyme; rime. | LawProse Blog

  23. Pingback: Garner’s Usage Tip of the Day: Miscellaneous Entries. | LawProse Blog

  24. Pingback: Garner’s Usage Tip of the Day: routinize. | LawProse Blog

  25. Pingback: Garner’s Usage Tip of the Day: effect; affect. | LawProse Blog

  26. Pingback: Garner’s Usage Tip of the Day: entomology; etymology. | LawProse Blog

  27. Pingback: Garner’s Usage Tip of the Day: Miscellaneous Entries. | LawProse Blog

  28. Pingback: Garner’s Usage Tip of the Day: share. | LawProse Blog

  29. Pingback: Garner’s Usage Tip of the Day: sheath, n.; sheathe, vb. | LawProse Blog

  30. Pingback: Garner’s Usage Tip of the Day: shirk. | LawProse Blog

  31. Pingback: Garner’s Usage Tip of the Day: Miscellaneous Entries. | LawProse Blog

  32. Pingback: Garner’s Usage Tip of the Day: signee. | LawProse Blog

  33. Pingback: Garner’s Usage Tip of the Day: Miscellaneous Entries. | LawProse Blog

  34. Pingback: Garner’s Usage Tip of the Day: Subject-Verb Agreement (5). | LawProse Blog

  35. Pingback: Garner’s Usage Tip of the Day: Subject-Verb Agreement (6). | LawProse Blog

  36. Pingback: Garner’s Usage Tip of the Day: Subject-Verb Agreement (7). | LawProse Blog

  37. Pingback: Garner’s Usage Tip of the Day: Subject-Verb Agreement (8). | LawProse Blog

  38. Pingback: Garner’s Usage Tip of the Day: Miscellaneous Entries. | LawProse Blog

  39. Pingback: Garner’s Usage Tip of the Day: Subjunctives. | LawProse Blog

  40. Pingback: Garner’s Usage Tip of the Day: subsequently. | LawProse Blog

  41. Pingback: Garner’s Usage Tip of the Day: substantive. | LawProse Blog

  42. Pingback: Garner’s Usage Tip of the Day: such. | LawProse Blog

  43. Pingback: Garner’s Usage Tip of the Day: suffice it to say. | LawProse Blog

  44. Pingback: Garner’s Usage Tip of the Day: suffragist; suffragette. | LawProse Blog

  45. Pingback: Garner’s Tip of the Day: Miscellaneous Entries | LawProse Blog

  46. Pingback: Garner’s Usage Tip of the Day: Subject-Verb Agreement (4). | LawProse Blog

  47. Pingback: Garner’s Usage Tip of the Day: Subject-Verb Agreement (3). | LawProse Blog

  48. Pingback: Garner’s Usage Tip of the Day: stride / strode / stridden. | LawProse Blog

  49. Pingback: Garner’s Usage Tip of the Day: strew. | LawProse Blog

  50. Pingback: Garner’s Usage Tip of the Day: there is; there are (1). | LawProse Blog

  51. Pingback: Garner’s Usage Tip of the Day: tortuous; torturous; tortious. | LawProse Blog

  52. Pingback: Garner’s Usage Tip of the Day: trek, n. | LawProse Blog

  53. George A. Murphy

    Has “busted” -meaning “destroyed or broken,” become a LC 4, given its adoption by sportscasters, news anchors and others who seem to have taken to it as a way of being “with it”?

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