Grammars, Grammarians and Grammar-Writing in Eighteenth-Century England

Ingrid Tieken-Boon van Ostade

• Publisher: De Gruyter Mouton
• Year: 2008
• Print ISBN: 9783110196276
• eBook ISBN: 9783110199185
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Languages & Linguistics
• Subtopic: Languages
• Index: Languages & Linguistics

The book offers insight into the publication history of eighteenth-century English grammars in unprecedented detail. It is based on a close analysis of various types of relevant information: Alston's bibliography of 1965, showing that this source needs to be revised urgently; the recently published online database Eighteenth Century Collections Online (ECCO) with respect to sources of information never previously explored or analysed (such as book catalogues and library catalogues); Carol Percy's database on the reception of eighteenth-century grammars in contemporary periodical reviews; and so-called precept corpora containing data on the treatment in a large variety of grammars (and other works) of individual grammatical constructions.

By focussing on individual grammars and their history a number of long-standing questions are solved with respect to the authorship of particular grammars and related work (the Brightland/Gildon grammar and the Bellum Grammaticale; Ann Fisher's grammar) while new questions are identified, such as the significant change of approach between the publication of one grammar and its second edition of seven years later (Priestley), and the dependence of later practical grammars (for mothers and their children) on earlier publications.

The contributions present a view of the grammarians as individuals with (or without) specific qualifications for undertaking what they did, with their own ideas on teaching methodology, and as writers ultimately engaged in the common aim presenting practical grammars of English to the general public. Interestingly - and importantly - this collection of articles demonstrates the potential of ECCO as a resource for further research in the field.

Table of contents

• Frontmatter
• Table of contents
• Grammars, grammarians and grammar writing: An introduction
• Background: Introduction
• The eighteenth-century grammarians as language experts
• Grammar writers in eighteenth-century Britain: A community of practice or a discourse community?
• Eighteenth-century grammars and book catalogues
• Reception and the market for grammars: Introduction
• Bellum Grammaticale (1712) – A battle of books and a battle for the market
• The 1760s: Grammars, grammarians and the booksellers
• Mid-century grammars and their reception in the Monthly Review and the Critical Review
• The grammarians: Introduction
• Ann Fisher’s A New Grammar, or was it Daniel Fisher’s work?
• Joseph Priestley’s two Rudiments of English Grammar: 1761 and 1768
• Eighteenth-century teacher-grammarians and the education of “proper” women
• “Borrowing a few passages”: Lady Ellenor Fenn and her use of sources
• The grammars: Introduction
• Preposition stranding in the eighteenth century: Something to talk about
• Foolish, foolisher, foolishest: Eighteenth-century English grammars and the comparison of adjectives and adverbs
• On normative grammarians and the double marking of degree
• Backmatter