hypercorrection
Sign in to saveAlso known as hypercorrectism, hypercorrectness, overcorrection
In sociolinguistics, hypercorrection is the nonstandard use of language that results from the overapplication of a perceived rule of language-usage prescription. A speaker or writer who produces a hypercorrection generally believes through a misunderstanding of such rules that the form or phrase they use is more "correct", standard, or otherwise preferable, often combined with a desire to appear formal or educated.
~14 min read
Article
17 sectionsContents
- Types of overapplied rules
- English
- Personal pronouns
- H-adding
- Hyperforeignism
- English as a second language
- Additional examples
- Chinese
- Serbo-Croatian
- Hebrew and Yiddish
- Spanish
- German
- Swedish
- See also
- References
- Citations
- Sources
In sociolinguistics, hypercorrection is the nonstandard use of language that results from the overapplication of a perceived rule of language-usage prescription. A speaker or writer who produces a hypercorrection generally believes through a misunderstanding of such rules that the form or phrase they use is more "correct", standard, or otherwise preferable, often combined with a desire to appear formal or educated.
Linguistic hypercorrection occurs when a real or imagined grammatical rule is applied in an inappropriate context, so that an attempt to be "correct" leads to an incorrect result. It does not occur when a speaker follows "a natural speech instinct", according to Otto Jespersen and Robert J. Menner.