Paradigm shifts in 19th-century British grammar writing
-
Beatrix Busse
Abstract
Systematic and comprehensive linguistic studies of 19th-century British grammar books are scarce. This is surprising since the 19th century has often been claimed to constitute a turning point in English grammar writing, particularly due to the assumed paradigm shift from prescriptive works to predominantly descriptive grammars, the emergence of the comparative-historical approach around 1830, and phonetics gaining importance in the 1890s.
Combining methods from network analysis and historical corpus linguistics, we aim to reassess these assumed (meta)linguistic developments in grammar writing by examining authors’ references to other grammarians in a corpus of 19th-century British grammars. We will show that changes, such as the turn away from prescriptive grammar writing, can indeed be further enhanced and systematically supported by quantitative results from the analysed network of referenced grammars and grammarians. Further, the analysis of the grammars’ lexical inventory shows which authors take the lead in terminological progress.
Abstract
Systematic and comprehensive linguistic studies of 19th-century British grammar books are scarce. This is surprising since the 19th century has often been claimed to constitute a turning point in English grammar writing, particularly due to the assumed paradigm shift from prescriptive works to predominantly descriptive grammars, the emergence of the comparative-historical approach around 1830, and phonetics gaining importance in the 1890s.
Combining methods from network analysis and historical corpus linguistics, we aim to reassess these assumed (meta)linguistic developments in grammar writing by examining authors’ references to other grammarians in a corpus of 19th-century British grammars. We will show that changes, such as the turn away from prescriptive grammar writing, can indeed be further enhanced and systematically supported by quantitative results from the analysed network of referenced grammars and grammarians. Further, the analysis of the grammars’ lexical inventory shows which authors take the lead in terminological progress.
Kapitel in diesem Buch
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Linguistic norms and conventions 1
- Usage guides and the Age of Prescriptivism 1
- “Splendidly prejudiced” 29
- Paradigm shifts in 19th-century British grammar writing 49
- Promotional conventions on English title-pages up to 1550 73
- What can we learn from constructed speech errors? 99
- The proverbial discourse tradition in the history of English 129
- Testing a stylometric tool in the study of Middle English documentary texts 149
- Pragmatic and formulaic uses of shall and will in Older Scots and Early Modern English official letter writing 167
- Studying dialect spelling in its own right 191
- Index 213
Kapitel in diesem Buch
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Linguistic norms and conventions 1
- Usage guides and the Age of Prescriptivism 1
- “Splendidly prejudiced” 29
- Paradigm shifts in 19th-century British grammar writing 49
- Promotional conventions on English title-pages up to 1550 73
- What can we learn from constructed speech errors? 99
- The proverbial discourse tradition in the history of English 129
- Testing a stylometric tool in the study of Middle English documentary texts 149
- Pragmatic and formulaic uses of shall and will in Older Scots and Early Modern English official letter writing 167
- Studying dialect spelling in its own right 191
- Index 213
