Letters in mechanically-schooled language
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Tony Fairman
Abstract
Linguists normally assume print to be the only written mode and therefore describe only the Standard varieties of the minority higher classes, thereby mistaking those varieties for languages. But recently linguists in many countries began studying handwritten, Late Modern documents, particularly letters. Focusing on English letters 1800–1834, which the majority lower classes wrote in “non-Standard”, this paper examines the schemes of ideas, theories, ideologies and terminologies which linguists developed to analyse printed language, and argues that those concepts are biased towards the Standards, autonomous and in part untrue. It proposes a sociolinguistic concept – literacy – and illustrates one type of problem a new scheme must describe objectively, by discussing how class and schooling affect the use of Anglo-Saxon and Latinate words.
Abstract
Linguists normally assume print to be the only written mode and therefore describe only the Standard varieties of the minority higher classes, thereby mistaking those varieties for languages. But recently linguists in many countries began studying handwritten, Late Modern documents, particularly letters. Focusing on English letters 1800–1834, which the majority lower classes wrote in “non-Standard”, this paper examines the schemes of ideas, theories, ideologies and terminologies which linguists developed to analyse printed language, and argues that those concepts are biased towards the Standards, autonomous and in part untrue. It proposes a sociolinguistic concept – literacy – and illustrates one type of problem a new scheme must describe objectively, by discussing how class and schooling affect the use of Anglo-Saxon and Latinate words.
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Acknowledgements vii
- Introduction 1
- The study of correspondence 13
- A historical digital archive of Portuguese letters 31
- Between linguistic creativity and formulaic restriction 45
- Performing identities and interaction through epistolary formulae 65
- Fanny to William 89
- An atypical commercial correspondence 105
- Reporting the news in English and Italian diplomatic correspondence 121
- Letters as loot 139
- The problem of reading dialect in semiliterate letters 163
- “I will be expecting a letter from you before this reaches you” 179
- Letters in mechanically-schooled language 205
- Teaching grammar and composition through letter writing in seventeenth- and eighteenth-century England 229
- Index 251
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Acknowledgements vii
- Introduction 1
- The study of correspondence 13
- A historical digital archive of Portuguese letters 31
- Between linguistic creativity and formulaic restriction 45
- Performing identities and interaction through epistolary formulae 65
- Fanny to William 89
- An atypical commercial correspondence 105
- Reporting the news in English and Italian diplomatic correspondence 121
- Letters as loot 139
- The problem of reading dialect in semiliterate letters 163
- “I will be expecting a letter from you before this reaches you” 179
- Letters in mechanically-schooled language 205
- Teaching grammar and composition through letter writing in seventeenth- and eighteenth-century England 229
- Index 251
