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Chapter 11. Theatrical practices and grammatical standardization in eighteenth-century Britain

you was and you were
  • James Hyett and Carol Percy
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English Historical Linguistics
This chapter is in the book English Historical Linguistics

Abstract

This chapter extends the discussion of second-person pronouns and of eighteenth-century language norms by examining three playwrights’ use of you was in the period before its proscription by grammarians like Robert Lowth (1762). Our analysis corroborates historical sociolinguistic surveys by Tieken-Boon van Ostade (2002) and Laitinen (2009) that identify you was as informal/familiar before 1762. We also show that you was was salient and associated with social lowness in comedies well before it was stigmatized by prescriptivists. Finally, while acknowledging the distinctness of theatrical language, we have identified one useful general property of comedy and especially romantic comedy. The stylized opposition between comic characters (particularly lovers) can signal sociolinguistic salience, here of you was/were by 1747.

Abstract

This chapter extends the discussion of second-person pronouns and of eighteenth-century language norms by examining three playwrights’ use of you was in the period before its proscription by grammarians like Robert Lowth (1762). Our analysis corroborates historical sociolinguistic surveys by Tieken-Boon van Ostade (2002) and Laitinen (2009) that identify you was as informal/familiar before 1762. We also show that you was was salient and associated with social lowness in comedies well before it was stigmatized by prescriptivists. Finally, while acknowledging the distinctness of theatrical language, we have identified one useful general property of comedy and especially romantic comedy. The stylized opposition between comic characters (particularly lovers) can signal sociolinguistic salience, here of you was/were by 1747.

Chapters in this book

  1. Prelim pages i
  2. Table of contents v
  3. Acknowledgements vii
  4. Introduction 1
  5. Part I. Phonology and morphology
  6. Chapter 1. Grimm’s Law and Verner’s Law 15
  7. Chapter 2. The foot in the history of English 41
  8. Chapter 3. Ambiguity resolution and the evolution of homophones in English 61
  9. Chapter 4. The threshold of productivity and the ‘irregularization’ of verbs in Early Modern English 91
  10. Part II. Syntax
  11. Chapter 5. The reanalysis of VO in the history of English 115
  12. Chapter 6. The role of (the avoidance of) centre embedding in the change from OV to VO in English 137
  13. Chapter 7. Syntactic changes in verbal clauses and noun phrases from 1500 onwards 163
  14. Chapter 8. Prepositions in Early Modern English argument structure and beyond 201
  15. Chapter 9. Should with non-past reference 225
  16. Chapter 10. Shifting responsibility in passing information 245
  17. Part III. Semantics and pragmatics
  18. Chapter 11. Theatrical practices and grammatical standardization in eighteenth-century Britain 263
  19. Chapter 12. Towards a companionate marriage in Late Modern England? 287
  20. Chapter 13. On the development of OE swā to ModE so and related changes in an atypical group of demonstratives 309
  21. Index 345
https://doi.org/10.1075/cilt.358.11hye

Chapters in this book

  1. Prelim pages i
  2. Table of contents v
  3. Acknowledgements vii
  4. Introduction 1
  5. Part I. Phonology and morphology
  6. Chapter 1. Grimm’s Law and Verner’s Law 15
  7. Chapter 2. The foot in the history of English 41
  8. Chapter 3. Ambiguity resolution and the evolution of homophones in English 61
  9. Chapter 4. The threshold of productivity and the ‘irregularization’ of verbs in Early Modern English 91
  10. Part II. Syntax
  11. Chapter 5. The reanalysis of VO in the history of English 115
  12. Chapter 6. The role of (the avoidance of) centre embedding in the change from OV to VO in English 137
  13. Chapter 7. Syntactic changes in verbal clauses and noun phrases from 1500 onwards 163
  14. Chapter 8. Prepositions in Early Modern English argument structure and beyond 201
  15. Chapter 9. Should with non-past reference 225
  16. Chapter 10. Shifting responsibility in passing information 245
  17. Part III. Semantics and pragmatics
  18. Chapter 11. Theatrical practices and grammatical standardization in eighteenth-century Britain 263
  19. Chapter 12. Towards a companionate marriage in Late Modern England? 287
  20. Chapter 13. On the development of OE swā to ModE so and related changes in an atypical group of demonstratives 309
  21. Index 345
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