Appeal to Authority (1650-1800)



  1. Language "Ascertainment"
    1. Reduce language to rules and establish standards of correct usage
    2. Refine language by removing "defects" and introducing improvements
    3. Preserve language in its improved form


  2. England & the "Age of Reason"
    1. Royal Society, founded 1662: "In all reports of experiments to be brought into the Society, the matter of fact shall be barely stated, without any prefaces, apologies, or rhetorical flourishes."
      1. Italy, Accademiq della Crusca (1582); France, l'Académie Française (1635) both sought to study and improve national language.
      2. The Royal Society (1662) sought to facilitate communication among scientists, and they recognized that to do so would benefit from a "plain style."
    2. Trend moved from rhetoric (language intended to persuade, often by appealing to emotion) to a simple style emphasizing content.


  3. England & Neo-Classicism

  4. Dictionaries
    1. Dictionaries tend to be conservative and prescriptive. In addition to listing words, they often comment on usage ("low," "rarely used," etc.)
    2. Johnson's Dictionary, 1755
        1. 2 vol.; took almost 7 years to complete, mostly single handed; illustrated its words with quotations from English classics.
        2. Fraught with ludicrous etymologies; "marred by prejudice and caprice"

  5. Two Kinds of Grammarians:
        1. From 1700-1750, one finds fewer than 50 grammars & linguistic theory; from 1750-1800, over two hundred
        2. Prescriptive grammarians sought to eliminate inconsistency in usage by applying logic and "studying" etymologies
        3. Descriptive grammarians applied scientific empirical method to language
    1. Lowth Lays Down the Law!
      1. Robert Lowth (1710-1787). His tremendously popular Short Introduction to English Grammar (1762) established many prescriptive rules of English grammar
        1. 45 editions by 1800, including German translation. (more than one a year.)
      2. "The English Language, as it is spoken by the politest part of the nation, and as it stands in the writings of our most approved authors, often offends against every part of Grammar."
      3. Negatives: as in mathematics, double negatives cancel each other out.
      4. Prepositions: since these are "pre" position words, they cannot come at the ends of a sentence or clause.
      5. Infinitives: wrong to split an infinitive verb
      6. Usage quirks
        1. Different from vs. different than
        2. between = 2; among > 2
        3. lay vs. lie
        4. shall vs. will
    2. Priestly Pummels Prescriptivists!
      1. Joseph Priestly (1733-1804). Rudiments of English Grammar (1761).
        1. Priestly is more often remembered as "the father of chemistry" because of his experiments isolating various gases, including oxygen, ammonia, nitrous oxide, sulfur dioxide, and carbon monoxide. Among his other accomplishments, however, is
        2. A scientist, Priestly was used to observing and describing rather than judging (like a clergyman?). Like Lowth, he was also a clergyman.
      2. In language, "the general prevailing custom, where ever it happen to be, can be the only standard for the time it prevails."