Kingsley Amis: The Prescriptivist

Abstract

In The King’s English: A Guide to Modern Usage, Kingsley Amis identified H. W. Fowler as his great predecessor. Amis revealed himself as a soldier in the army of prescriptivists, voices that settle ‘modern linguistic problems’ while proudly parading as non-linguists. The book exposed Amis’s acrimonious dispute with descriptive linguists, while the writer delivered his very own brand of linguistics to his readers. This paper looks at the success of Amis’s book and its similarities with Fowler’s. It also emphasizes the continuity and popularity of usage handbooks while presenting some of their chief characteristics as exemplified by Amis’s work.

Keywords

• h. w. fowler
• kingsley amis
• prescriptivism
• sociolinguistics
• usage handbooks