HEL: Ch. 9, 10, 11
What were the aims of the eighteenth-century prescriptive grammarians?
1. to codify the principles of the language and reduce it to rule. 2. to settle disputed points and decide cases of divided usage. 3. to point out common errors or what were supposed to be errors, and thus correct and improve the language.
Lindley Murray
A grammarian during the late 18th and early 19th century. His work imitates and draws upon the influence that he, along with other grammarians, received from the work that Robert Lowth had already done.
Give an example of the progressive passive. From what period can we date its development?
An example of the progressive passive is "the house is being built." The progressive passive began to develop around the end of the eighteenth century.
What did eighteenth-century writers mean by ascertainment of the English language? What means did they have in mind?
Ascertainment: was not so much to learn by inquiry as to settle a matter, to render it certain and free from doubt. It is a settled rule; an established standard. Means: to reduce the language to rule and set up a standard of correct usage to refine it- to remove supposed defects and introduce certain improvements to fix it permanently in the desired form.
Robert Lowth
Authored A Short Introduction to English Grammar in 1762. He was a clergyman that eventually became a bishop and he also worked as a grammarian.
OED
Begun in 1857 and first issue completed in 1928
Which foreign languages contributed the most words to English during the 18th century?
French, native American languages, Spanish, the native languages of India, Africa, and Australia
Thomas Sheridan
He was a very important rhetoritician. He is often called the father of the dramatist. His most important work was a lengthy treatise called British Education (1756). In this work he argued that language education could cure tendencies towards immorality.
George Campbell
He was also a very important rhetoritician. He authored Philosophy of Rhetoric in 1776.
How were the intellectual tendencies of the eighteenth century reflected in attitudes toward the English languages?
In the 18th Century, people were searching for stability after the Civil War and the Restoration. This was reflected in the language because the English wanted to "standardize, refine, and fix" the language (B&C 256).
What had been accomplished in Italy and France during the seventeenth century to serve as an inspiration for those in England who were concerned with the English language?
Italy and France had created academies to "purify" the language (B&C 264). The academies were groups of people that would meet and discuss the language in order to create rules to make the language better.
Who were among the supporters of an English Academy? When did the movement reach its culmination?
John Dryden and John Evelyn, Sprat, and Waller. It reached its culmination in 1662.
What did Johnson hope for his dictionary to accomplish?
Johnson hoped that his dictionary would, "fix the English language." He states that, "The chief intent of it is to preserve the purity, and ascertain the meaning of our English idiom." He wanted to produce a dictionary that would unify pronunciations across the board because he believed that that would help perpetuate the language.
John Dryden
Late 17th century. Disliked the fact that English did not have a set standard and actively spoke out that a standard to the English Language would be much more beneficial than speaking English in a barbarous manner.
How would you characterize the difference in attitude between Robert Loweth's Short Introduction to English Grammar and Joseph Priestly's Rudiments of English Grammar? Which was more influential?
Lowth was much more conservative and prescriptive than Priestly. Priestly showed more independence and tolerance. Lowth's was more influential.
Joseph Priestley
Published a book on grammar in 1761 titled The Rudiments of English Grammar. He held the opinion that the most essential and successful aspects of a language would be the ones to persist and establish themselves as the standard of the spoken and written language.
Samuel Johnson
Published an English Dictionary on April 15th 1755. More scientifically based than previous dictionary attempts. Johnson opposed many of Swift's ideas about the establishment of an English Academy.
What were some of the weaknesses of the early grammarians?
Some of the weaknesses of the early grammarians include: inability to recognize the the importance of usage as the sole arbiter in linguistic matters, an inability to that changes in language are often too complex to be fully analyzed, and an ignorance of the process of linguistic change.
Jonathan Swift
Swift believed that the golden age of the English language had occurred during the Elizabethan period. Swift also believed that language always followed a downward trend that led to corruptions and discontinuities within the language. Proposed a letter in 1712 to the erarl of Oxford titled A Proposal for Correcting, Improving, and Ascertaining the English Tongue.
In tracing the growth of progressive verb forms since the 18th century, what earlier patterns are especially important?
The progressive verb, and their uses in negative sentences.To be and the present participle = progressive The wide extension of the progressive forms. And the use of the participle as a noun contributed to the growth of the progressive form use in the 16th century.
How did prescriptive grammarians such as Loth arrive at their rules?
They arrived at these rules by taking these things into consideration: reason, etymology, and the example of Latin and Greek.
John Wilkins
Worked with linguistic matters of language. Worked to decipher philosophical ideas of universal linguistic principles. He wrote Essay Towards a Real Character and a Philosophical Language in 1668.
James Harris
wrote Hermes in 1751. After more than a century of relative neglect authors such as Harris and Wilkins have gained contemporary popularity for their work on "universal grammars" and linguistics.