Prescription or practice?
-
Robin Straaijer
Abstract
This paper investigates variation in the usage of be and have with participles of mutative intransitive verbs by the Late Modern English grammarian Joseph Priestley. His usage, as exemplified by a corpus compiled from his private manuscript letters, is compared with a reference corpus and with the “rules” in his own grammar. The study shows that Priestley’s usage reflects the general change for this linguistic feature from a predominant use of be to a greater occurrence of have in the late eighteenth century, as discussed by Rydén & Brorström (1987). It is also shown that when compared to his grammar, Priestley’s usage upholds his reputation as an early descriptivist.
Abstract
This paper investigates variation in the usage of be and have with participles of mutative intransitive verbs by the Late Modern English grammarian Joseph Priestley. His usage, as exemplified by a corpus compiled from his private manuscript letters, is compared with a reference corpus and with the “rules” in his own grammar. The study shows that Priestley’s usage reflects the general change for this linguistic feature from a predominant use of be to a greater occurrence of have in the late eighteenth century, as discussed by Rydén & Brorström (1987). It is also shown that when compared to his grammar, Priestley’s usage upholds his reputation as an early descriptivist.
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Acknowledgements vii
- Introduction 1
-
part iVerbal constructions
- “Þonne hate we hine morgensteorra” 11
- Tracking and explaining variation and change in the grammar of American English 29
- Prevent and the battle of the - ing clauses 45
- Prescription or practice? 63
- On the idiomatization of “ give + O + to ” constructions 79
- The clausal complementation of good in extraposition constructions 95
-
part iiModality and (marginal) modals
- The ‘ fail to ’ construction in Late Modern and Present-Day English 123
- The interplay of modal verbs and adverbs 143
- Current change in the modal system of English 165
-
part iiiDevelopments in the English noun phrase
- Discontinuous quantificational structures in Old English 185
- Genitive variation in letters, history writing and sermons in Late Middle and Early Modern English 197
-
part ivSyntactic variation and change through contact
- On the use of beon and wesan in Old English 217
- The reflexes of OE beon as a marker of futurity in early Middle English 237
- Stylistic fronting in the history of English 255
- Subject and Word index 279
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Acknowledgements vii
- Introduction 1
-
part iVerbal constructions
- “Þonne hate we hine morgensteorra” 11
- Tracking and explaining variation and change in the grammar of American English 29
- Prevent and the battle of the - ing clauses 45
- Prescription or practice? 63
- On the idiomatization of “ give + O + to ” constructions 79
- The clausal complementation of good in extraposition constructions 95
-
part iiModality and (marginal) modals
- The ‘ fail to ’ construction in Late Modern and Present-Day English 123
- The interplay of modal verbs and adverbs 143
- Current change in the modal system of English 165
-
part iiiDevelopments in the English noun phrase
- Discontinuous quantificational structures in Old English 185
- Genitive variation in letters, history writing and sermons in Late Middle and Early Modern English 197
-
part ivSyntactic variation and change through contact
- On the use of beon and wesan in Old English 217
- The reflexes of OE beon as a marker of futurity in early Middle English 237
- Stylistic fronting in the history of English 255
- Subject and Word index 279
