Political perspectives on linguistic innovation in independent America
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Carol Percy
Abstract
In this study, I focus the large subject of Late Modern English in newly independent America through the lens of the politician and scholar Thomas Jefferson. Drawing on evidence relating to the several libraries he assembled serially over his lifetime, especially on catalogues and correspondence, I focus particularly on lexis and on lexicography – especially, how American neologisms and a new American dictionary might relate both to linguistic tradition in Britain and to political affiliations in America. The grammars and dictionaries catalogued in Jefferson’s library hint at this politician’s lifelong interest in English usage. The correspondence connected with his library (including the spelling of his letters) demonstrates in more detail that Jefferson was interested in American neologisms and in non-standard spelling. In brief, Jefferson’s republican, anti-federalist political principles are consistent with his linguistic opinions, especially with his resistance to imposed reform despite his enthusiasm for lexical and orthographical innovation. In turn, these epistolary debates remind us of the linguistic consequences of political divisions within the new republic.
Abstract
In this study, I focus the large subject of Late Modern English in newly independent America through the lens of the politician and scholar Thomas Jefferson. Drawing on evidence relating to the several libraries he assembled serially over his lifetime, especially on catalogues and correspondence, I focus particularly on lexis and on lexicography – especially, how American neologisms and a new American dictionary might relate both to linguistic tradition in Britain and to political affiliations in America. The grammars and dictionaries catalogued in Jefferson’s library hint at this politician’s lifelong interest in English usage. The correspondence connected with his library (including the spelling of his letters) demonstrates in more detail that Jefferson was interested in American neologisms and in non-standard spelling. In brief, Jefferson’s republican, anti-federalist political principles are consistent with his linguistic opinions, especially with his resistance to imposed reform despite his enthusiasm for lexical and orthographical innovation. In turn, these epistolary debates remind us of the linguistic consequences of political divisions within the new republic.
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Acknowledgements vii
- Introduction 1
- Studying real-time change in the adverbial subjunctive 13
- Political perspectives on linguistic innovation in independent America 37
- Five Hundred Mistakes Corrected 55
- Transatlantic perspectives on late nineteenth-century English usage 73
- “Provincial in England, but in common use with us” 99
- “Across the ocean ferry” 117
- Legitimising linguistic devices in A Cheering Voice from Upper Canada (1834) 135
- Nineteenth-century institutional (im)politeness 153
- ‘[B]ut sure its only a penny after all’ 179
- Assigned gender in a corpus of nineteenth-century correspondence among settlers in the American Great Plains 199
- Index 219
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Acknowledgements vii
- Introduction 1
- Studying real-time change in the adverbial subjunctive 13
- Political perspectives on linguistic innovation in independent America 37
- Five Hundred Mistakes Corrected 55
- Transatlantic perspectives on late nineteenth-century English usage 73
- “Provincial in England, but in common use with us” 99
- “Across the ocean ferry” 117
- Legitimising linguistic devices in A Cheering Voice from Upper Canada (1834) 135
- Nineteenth-century institutional (im)politeness 153
- ‘[B]ut sure its only a penny after all’ 179
- Assigned gender in a corpus of nineteenth-century correspondence among settlers in the American Great Plains 199
- Index 219
