Language description, prescription and usage in seventeenth-century German
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Nicola McLelland
Abstract
This chapter examines the relationship between language prescription and language use in seventeenth-century German, reporting on a corpus investigation of the influence (or otherwise) of the leading grammarian Justus Georg Schottelius (1612–1676) on language usage. Drawing on a variety of corpora – a specially compiled corpus of writings by so-called Sprachhelden and Sprachverderber (cf. Jones 2000), the Bonn Early New High German corpus and the newly available GerManC corpus – the study finds only very limited, but still noteworthy, evidence of influence, including possible evidence of diffusion first to elite writers, then to wider usage.
Abstract
This chapter examines the relationship between language prescription and language use in seventeenth-century German, reporting on a corpus investigation of the influence (or otherwise) of the leading grammarian Justus Georg Schottelius (1612–1676) on language usage. Drawing on a variety of corpora – a specially compiled corpus of writings by so-called Sprachhelden and Sprachverderber (cf. Jones 2000), the Bonn Early New High German corpus and the newly available GerManC corpus – the study finds only very limited, but still noteworthy, evidence of influence, including possible evidence of diffusion first to elite writers, then to wider usage.
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Acknowledgements vii
- The interplay of language norms and usage patterns. Comparing the history of Dutch, English, French and German 1
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Dutch
- Language norms and language use in seventeenth-century Dutch 21
- Language norms and language use in eighteenth-century Dutch 49
- Norms and usage in nineteenth-century Southern Dutch 73
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English
- Norms and usage in seventeenth-century English 103
- Eighteenth-century English normative grammars and their readers 129
- Nineteenth-century English 151
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French
- From l’usage to le bon usage and back 173
- Jacques-Louis Ménétra and his experience of the langue d’oc 201
- From local to supra-local 223
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German
- Language description, prescription and usage in seventeenth-century German 251
- Standard German in the eighteenth century 277
- Prescriptive norms and norms of usage in nineteenth-century German 303
- Index 321
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Acknowledgements vii
- The interplay of language norms and usage patterns. Comparing the history of Dutch, English, French and German 1
-
Dutch
- Language norms and language use in seventeenth-century Dutch 21
- Language norms and language use in eighteenth-century Dutch 49
- Norms and usage in nineteenth-century Southern Dutch 73
-
English
- Norms and usage in seventeenth-century English 103
- Eighteenth-century English normative grammars and their readers 129
- Nineteenth-century English 151
-
French
- From l’usage to le bon usage and back 173
- Jacques-Louis Ménétra and his experience of the langue d’oc 201
- From local to supra-local 223
-
German
- Language description, prescription and usage in seventeenth-century German 251
- Standard German in the eighteenth century 277
- Prescriptive norms and norms of usage in nineteenth-century German 303
- Index 321
