Transcript Establishing an English grammar

ESTABLISHING AN
ENGLISH GRAMMAR
Starter: explain the grammatical change processes happening
here?
“I’m not going, innit?”
“She’s so not going to do that, is she?”
“The food was well good.”
The Rise of the Grammarians
• Until the 18th Century, ‘English’ did not really exist as a school subject: student studied
Latin and its grammar, so English grammar was not seriously studied, or indeed taught,
until the 18th Century.
• Now that English had an established and codified lexicon and spelling system,
attention turned to the rules.
Robert Lowth (1762) Short
Introduction to English Grammar
• A guide intended for Lowth’s son but became very influential – he believed that rigorous understanding
of English grammar would support the learning of Latin.
• Responding to Swift’s Proposal, Lowth stated: “Does it mean, that the English Language as it is spoken by
the politest part of the nation, and as it stands in the writings of our most approved authors, often offends
against every part of Grammar? Thus far, I am afraid, the charge is true.”
• He used mathematical logic to make the case that double negatives weren’t acceptable: “Two
negatives in English destroy one another, or are equivalent to an affirmative”, ie. two negatives make a
positive.
• Other rules:
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No more use of pronoun ‘thou’
Differentiation between ‘will’ and ‘shall’
Differentiation between ‘who’ and ‘which’ or ‘that’
Regularisation between ‘who’ and ‘whom’
Prepositions should be ‘before the noun to which they are applied’
The infinitive verb should not be split.
Using Lowth’s rules, rewrite these
sentences ‘correctly’
1. We don’t know who/whom is responsible.
2. Who/Whom did you send the letter to?
3. I buy less/fewer CDs than I used to.
4. I had to quickly finish my homework.
5. Mine was different to everyone else’s.
6. It was him that won the race.
• Many of Lowth’s rules were rooted in Latin – in Latin, for instance, it is physically
impossible to ‘split’ an infinitive because the infinitive is a single word e.g. tangere.
• Likewise, Latin did not have any articles – vir could refer to man, the man or a man. So
going by Lowth’s logic we should not be able to insert an adjective between the
article and noun.
• Steven Pinker: “forcing modern speakers of English…not to split an infinitive because it
isn’t done in Latin makes about as much sense as forcing modern residents of English to
wear laurels and togas.”
Prescriptivist or
Descriptivist?
Like Johnson, Lowth seems to demonstrate both
prescriptivist and descriptivist ideas:
The preposition is often separated from the Relative which it
governs, and joined to the Verb at the end of the Sentence, or of
some member of it: as, ‘Horace is an author, whom I am much
delighted with’ … This is an idiom, which our language is strongly
inclined to; it prevails in common conversation, and suits very well
with the familiar style in writing; but the placing of the Preposition
before the Relative is more graceful, as well as more perspicuous;
and agrees much better with the solemn and elevated Style.
Lowth’s contemporaries
• Lindley Murray (1795) – English Grammar was one of the most influential English
grammars ever written.
• Where Lowth suggested ‘tendencies’, Murray made them ‘rules’: “All the parts of a
sentence should correspond with each other: a regular and dependent construction,
throughout, should be carefully preserved.”
• Joseph Priestley offers a more descriptivist perspective. The Rudiments of English
Grammar (1761):
Poor grammar and morality
• During the 18th and 19th centuries, the rise in grammatical attention led to a change in
written style – writing became elaborate, overly rhetorical and sometimes pompous. And
correct usage of ‘good’ grammar began to be associated with social status. ‘Bad’
language was criticised and seen as an indicator of lower social status or low morality – an
idea which still prevails today.
‘Grammarland’,
published
in 1878
How is grammar
made interesting
for children in this
text?