Editing Usage (language) (section)

{{Short description|Manner in which the written and spoken language is routinely employed by its speakers}}
{{Expand Polish|Uzus językowy|date=December 2019}}
The '''usage''' of a [[language]] is the ways in which its [[written language|written]] and [[spoken language|spoken]] variations are routinely employed by its speakers; that is, it refers to "the collective habits of a language's native speakers",<ref name="CMOS">{{cite book|author=University of Chicago|title=The Chicago Manual of Style|edition=16th|chapter=Grammar versus usage|year=2010|publisher=University of Chicago Press|location=Chicago|isbn=978-0226104201|url=https://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/16/ch05/ch05_sec216.html}}</ref> as opposed to idealized models of how a language works (or should work) in the abstract. For instance, [[A Dictionary of Modern English Usage|Fowler]] characterized usage as "the way in which a word or phrase is normally and correctly used" and as the "points of [[grammar]], [[syntax]], [[Style guide|style]], and the choice of words."<ref>[[Henry Watson Fowler|H. W. Fowler]]'s ''[[A Dictionary of Modern English Usage]]''</ref> In everyday usage, language is used differently, depending on the situation and individual.<ref>{{Citation |last=Smith |first=N. |title=History of Linguistics: Discipline of Linguistics |date=2006-01-01 |url=https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/B0080448542044461 |work=Encyclopedia of Language & Linguistics (Second Edition) |pages=341–355 |editor-last=Brown |editor-first=Keith |access-date=2023-11-01 |place=Oxford |publisher=Elsevier |doi=10.1016/b0-08-044854-2/04446-1 |isbn=978-0-08-044854-1|url-access=subscription }}</ref> Individual language users can shape language structures and language usage based on their community.<ref>{{Citation |last=von Mengden |first=Ferdinand |title=Introduction. The role of change in usage-based conceptions of language |date=2014 |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1075/sfsl.69.01men |work=Studies in Functional and Structural Linguistics |pages=1–20 |access-date=2023-11-01 |place=Amsterdam |publisher=John Benjamins Publishing Company |last2=Coussé |first2=Evie}}</ref>

In the [[Linguistic description|descriptive]] tradition of language analysis, by way of contrast, "correct" tends to mean functionally adequate for the purposes of the speaker or writer using it, and adequately [[idiom (language structure)|idiomatic]] to be accepted by the listener or reader; usage is also, however, a concern for the [[Linguistic prescription|prescriptive]] tradition, for which "correctness" is a matter of arbitrating style.<ref name="JB">{{Cite book|first=Jeremy|last=Butterfield|year=2008|title=Damp Squid: The English Language Laid Bare|publisher=Oxford University Press|location=Oxford|isbn=9780199574094|pages=[https://archive.org/details/dampsquidenglish0000butt/page/137 137–138]|url=https://archive.org/details/dampsquidenglish0000butt/page/137}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|last=Curzan|first=Anne|title=Fixing English: Prescriptivism and Language History|publisher=Cambridge UP|year=2014|isbn=978-1107020757}}</ref>

Common usage may be used as one of the criteria of laying out [[linguistic prescription|prescriptive norms]] for [[codification (linguistics)|codified]] [[standard language]] usage.<ref>{{cite web|first=Tomasz|last=Korpysz|title=Uwaga na uzus|work=Porady|publisher=Idziemy|url=http://idziemy.pl/porady/jezyk/uwaga-na-uzus/1512/|date=2017-01-29|access-date=2019-02-10|language=pl}}</ref> 

Everyday language users, including editors and writers, look at dictionaries, style guides, usage guides, and other published authoritative works to help inform their language decisions. This takes place because of the perception that Standard English is determined by language authorities.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Frandsen |first=Jacob |date=2014-03-20 |title=Interpreting Standard Usage Empirically |url=https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/etd/3986 |journal=Theses and Dissertations}}</ref> For many language users, the dictionary is the source of correct language use, as far as accurate vocabulary and spelling go.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Fronk |first=Amanda |date=2014-06-10 |title=Determining Dictionary and Usage Guide Agreement with Real-World Usage: A Diachronic Corpus Study of American English |url=https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/etd/4093 |journal=Theses and Dissertations}}</ref> Modern [[Dictionary|dictionaries]] are not generally prescriptive, but they often include "usage notes" which may describe words as "formal", "informal", "slang", and so on.<ref>R. Thomas Berner, "Usage Notes in the Oxford American Dictionary", ''The Journal of General Education'' '''33''':3:239–246 (Fall 1981)</ref> "Despite occasional usage notes, [[Lexicography|lexicographers]] generally disclaim any intent to guide writers and editors on the thorny points of English usage."<ref name=CMOS />