A Linguistic Doctrine in English Reexamined

Suzdržanost lingvista prema jezičnom propisivanju značajka je inspirirana raznim lingvističkim pravcima u povijesti. Američki strukturalisti, sljedbenici Bloomfielda, dali su toj suzdržanosti snažan doktrinarni poticaj, koji se do danas osjeća u diskursu o engleskom jeziku, a preuzela ga je dijelom i sociolingvistika. No zahtjevi »nove osjećajnosti« da se mijenjaju elementi leksika, tvorbe riječi i gramatike, koji prema tom shvaćanju, diskriminiraju žene i »manjinske grupe« u društvu vodi nužno u preispitivanje toga stava.The paper argues that the anti-prescriptivist doctrine, well established among academic linguists in USA and Britain, inspired by American Structuralism and later accepted by sociolinguists, is facing a revision. Demands to change alleged discriminatory elements of usage remain unopposed by linguists, and 'verbal hygiene' is now being explicitely justified in a theoretical work by D. Cameron. How comprehensive this revision is going to be is not yet clear. Does it include only the anti-discriminatory interventions in the usage or would it reconsider some aspects of 'old prescriptivism' based on etymology, logic and chauvinism