11. The Early Modern English Verbal Constructions and 18th Century Prescriptivism: Porovnání verzí
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+ | Zdroj: Laurel J. Brinton, Leslie K. Arnovick. The English Language: A Linguistic History |
Verze z 24. 4. 2016, 11:09
2. Discuss the reasons, aims and methods of the 18c prescriptivism.
focus on usage and grammar, rather than spelling and vocabulary as in Renaissance
social, linguistic, and philosophical reasons
• social:
industrial revolution brought the rise of the middle class and an increase in social mobility
- in cities the upper classes felt their position is crumbling
- the early grammars were written to help the social elite to maintain the distance
- later written for lower and middle class who wished to rise socially
- both assumed that language mattered and people should be given guidance
• linguistic: period of linguistic conservatism o
- concern about refining and fixing the language
- belief that the language has decayed from an earlier, better stage and change is bad
• philosophical: philosophy of reason, Age of Reason
- language ought to be logical, orderly and symmetrical
important grammarians:
Johnson, Defoe, Swift, Sheridan and Addison, Noah Webster, Lowth, Priestley
aims:
• ascertainment: seen English as uncodified, unsystematised and uncertain in places
- change endangers the integrity of the language
- language has been corrupted from the earlier golden age → wish to reverse the harmful changes by refining, purifying and perfecting
- prevent further changes
- process of ascertainment → ridding of doubts and uncertainties
- standardize the language, codify the rules and establish a standard of correct usage
- refine the language, remove supposed defects and common errors
- fix the language permanently in the desired form and prevent further changes
• academy: thought the best way to achieve ascertainment
- academy to regulate the language as in Italy and France
- never came to fruition
- came to realize it is in vain, language will change
methods:
no academy, so they have to rely on their own devices – their own authority, authority of the best writers, the model of classical languages, etymology, and reason
• authority: prescription often embodied individual´s preconceptions, prejudices and preferences
- take authority of the best writers and men of letters, but also pointing out faults
• model of Latin: they valued synthetic languages
- analogical use of grammar to Latin
- Latin serves as a model for most 18th C prescriptions concerning case usage
• etymology: etymological meaning of a word possesses a certain authority over the current one
• reason: the application of logic resulted in prescriptions and proscriptions:
- do not use a double negative
- do not use a double comparative or superlative form
- do not compare incomparables
- use the comparative for two things, superlative for more than two
- place only before the word it modifies
- do not split an infinitive
- do not end a sentence with a preposition
Zdroj: Laurel J. Brinton, Leslie K. Arnovick. The English Language: A Linguistic History