The Queen's English Society to close

The Queen's English Society, which promotes 'proper English', is to close, according to this article in today's Independent. It is apparently proving difficult to find people to take on responsibility and committee roles. Rhea Williams of the Society explained the demise as being down to the fact that "People don't want to join societies like they used to". Actually, that's not true - a recent article in the Daily Mail talked about how Women's Institute membership is thriving. That's mainly because the WI has moved with the times and is becoming more inclusive; a notice in my local shop window advertises a local 'jam-free WI', and a branch has recently started up in a maximum security women's prison, according to the aforementioned Daily Mail article.

 

One of the dangers of setting yourself up as a prescriptivist organisation, and offering advice on English grammar and usage to other people, is that you tend to get hoist by your own petard. On the Queen's English Society's sister website, the Academy of Contemporary English, there is an article about the misuse of the word 'like'. Unfortunately, Rhea Williams, chair of the Queen's English Society, uses 'like' wrongly herself in the sentence I quoted in the previous paragraph ("People don't want to join societies like they used to"). According to the QES' own guidelines, she should have used the conjunction 'as'. Another sentence I spotted on the Society's homepage was "The QES is by nature a prescriptivist organisation, because to adopt a wholly descriptivist approach, would render our existence to be meaningless." The verb 'render' is correctly followed by a direct object (our existence) and an adjective (meaningless) - not an infinitive, as in the QES sentence (to be). Moreover, there is no need for the second comma in that sentence.

 

Like it or not, there are fashions in grammar and pronunciation. Many of the grammar rules some people consider immutable in fact date back only to the 18th century or later (the idea that you shouldn't end a sentence with a preposition, for instance). The names Crufts and Harrods are spelled these days without an apostrophe, but they used to have one - the apostrophe is just dropping out of fashion in the days of the internet and URLs, which do not lend themselves to apostrophes. As for pronunciation, well even the Queen herself does not necessarily speak the Queen's English - her vowel sounds have changed over the years and she has been known to use the occasional Estuary English twang.

 

Here's the Independent article, and here's the website of the Queen's English Society.

Comments

[Marc Leavitt]

Susan;
Sic transit gloria mundi. Their passing will not be lamented.

[John]

Susan,

It is interesting to see the comments regarding people "joining" these days. I have been an officer in a professional organisation which has seen its membership decline. All too often, my peers among the leadership offer excuses regarding people today not being joiners.

I believe that they are - they just "join" differently. Younger people join in "virtual" ways; they are the children of the internet. Membership to them means participation and contribution, not membership cards and in-person meetings. They meet online; they communicate asynchronously, much the way you and your loyal readers do on this blog.

It's a challenge faced by almost every traditional association / society today.

Great post - thanks

[Virtual Linguist]

Thanks for these comments. Yes, John, I think you're right. I also think that there is more for people to do today - older people are often still working, or looking after grandchildren, plus there are more societies etc to join, so they can't get fully involved in everything. And Marc, I think the QES is, or was, fairly eccentric, but I rather like the presence of such eccentric little societies and interest groups.

[Marc Leavitt]

Susan:
Voltaire said,"I disagree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it."

The problem with groups like the QES is that they don't agree with Voltaire.

[john]

Agree. That applies very universally these days, Marc. Unfortunately, lots of groups, many people.