This thesis explores the influence of prescriptivism on language use in American English. It does so by studying the relationship between language advice literature, patterns of language use,... Show moreThis thesis explores the influence of prescriptivism on language use in American English. It does so by studying the relationship between language advice literature, patterns of language use, and speakers’ attitudes. The thesis shows that the genre of usage guides, routinely associated with prescriptivism, is undergoing change to reflect processes of change in progress in American English. Furthermore, prescriptivism and language use are shown to mutually influence each other. Show less
1887/29753 This dissertation aims to provide inside into the family context of language development in ethnic minority children. In Chapter 2, the results of the meta-analyses show that host... Show more1887/29753 This dissertation aims to provide inside into the family context of language development in ethnic minority children. In Chapter 2, the results of the meta-analyses show that host language proficiency has a positive effect on the school outcomes of early literacy, reading, spelling, mathematics, and general academic achievement. For early literacy and reading proficiency, cross-language effects were also found. The results in Chapter 3 show that ethnic constellation of the neighborhood and the start of child care are related to changes in home language input in Turkish-Dutch families. Chapter 4 focuses on the differential pathways from SES to vocabulary in Dutch and Turkish, and shows that family SES is related to home language input in both languages but to literacy input in the host language only. Home language and literacy input are in turn related to children's vocabulary outcomes. The results in Chapter 5 indicate that under circumstances of more ethnic than host language use, there can be positive effects of ethnic language skills on the development of host language skills. Overall, our findings show that bilingualism is a complex puzzle of input and output in two languages that can only be solved by taking children's (family) environment into account Show less
