Usage (language)

{{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 and spoken variations are routinely employed by its speakers; that is, it refers to "the collective habits of a language's native speakers",{{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}} as opposed to idealized models of how a language works (or should work) in the abstract. For instance, 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, and the choice of words."H. W. Fowler's A Dictionary of Modern English Usage In everyday usage, language is used differently, depending on the situation and individual.{{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 }} Individual language users can shape language structures and language usage based on their community.{{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}}

In the 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 idiomatic to be accepted by the listener or reader; usage is also, however, a concern for the prescriptive tradition, for which "correctness" is a matter of arbitrating style.{{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}}{{Cite book|last=Curzan|first=Anne|title=Fixing English: Prescriptivism and Language History|publisher=Cambridge UP|year=2014|isbn=978-1107020757}}

Common usage may be used as one of the criteria of laying out prescriptive norms for codified standard language usage.{{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}}

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.{{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}} For many language users, the dictionary is the source of correct language use, as far as accurate vocabulary and spelling go.{{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}} Modern dictionaries are not generally prescriptive, but they often include "usage notes" which may describe words as "formal", "informal", "slang", and so on.R. Thomas Berner, "Usage Notes in the Oxford American Dictionary", The Journal of General Education 33:3:239–246 (Fall 1981) "Despite occasional usage notes, lexicographers generally disclaim any intent to guide writers and editors on the thorny points of English usage."