Cover not available
Part of
Norms and Usage in Language History, 1600–1900: A sociolinguistic and comparative perspective
Edited by Gijsbert Rutten, Rik Vosters and Wim Vandenbussche
[Advances in Historical Sociolinguistics 3] 2014
► pp. 151–170

Nineteenth-century English

Norms and usage

This paper focuses on language variation and change in nineteenth-century England. The first part of the paper is concerned with grammar writing and the influence that grammatical norms may have had on the English language. The second part of the paper takes a closer look at actual language usage. Throughout the paper particular attention is paid to language history ‘from below’, i.e. the linguistic situation of the lower social orders. For instance, the paper confirms, based on empirical data, that you was, a stigmatised feature in prescriptive grammars, was the dominant form in lower-class language usage. All in all, the paper also tries to show that nineteenth-century English still deserves a lot more scholarly attention.

Published online: 19 December 2014
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/ahs.3.07aue
References
Alston, Robin Carfrae
1965–72 A bibliography of the English language from the invention of printing to the year 1800. Leeds: Arnold.Google Scholar
Aarts, Bas, Maria José López-Couso & Belén Méndez-Naya
2012. Late Modern English: Syntax. In Alex Bergs & Laurel Brinton (eds.), Historical linguistics of English, 869–887. Berlin: de Gruyter.Google Scholar
Aarts, Flor
1986 William Cobbett: Radical, reactionary and poor man’s grammarian. Neophilologus 70.603–614. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
1994 William Cobbett’s grammar of the English language. Neuphilologische Mitteilungen XCV.319–332.Google Scholar
Anderwald, Lieselotte
2012  Clumsy, awkward or having a peculiar propriety? Prescriptive judgements and language change in the 19th century. Language Sciences 34.28–53. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Auer, Anita
2012 Late Modern English: Standardization. In Alex Bergs & Laurel Brinton (eds.), Historical linguistics of English, 939–952. Berlin: de Gruyter.Google Scholar
forthc.) Stylistic Variation. In Anita Auer, Daniel Schreier & Richard J. Watts (eds.) Letter writing and language change Cambridge Cambridge University Press
Auer, Anita & Tony Fairman
2013 Letters of artisans and the labouring poor (England, c. 1750–1835). In Paul Bennett, Martin Durrell, Silke Scheible & Richard J. Whitt (eds.), New methods in historical corpus linguistics, 77–91. Tübingen: Narr.Google Scholar
Auer, Anita, Tony Fairman, Moragh Gordon & Mikko Laitinen
2014 An electronic corpus of letters of artisans and the labouring poor (England, c. 1750–1835): Compilation principles and coding conventions. In Kristin Davidse, Caroline Gentens, Ditte Kimps & Lieven Vandelanotte (eds.), Recent advances in corpus linguistics: Developing and exploiting corpora. Amsterdam & New York: Rodopi.Google Scholar
Bailey, Richard W
1996 Nineteenth-century English. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.Google Scholar
Baugh, Albert C. & Thomas Cable
1993 A history of the English language. 4th edition. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul.Google Scholar
Beal, Joan C
2004 English in modern times 1700–1945. London: Arnold.Google Scholar
Biber, Douglas & Edward Finegan
1990–93/2002/2007/2010 A representative corpus of historical English registers (ARCHER). Version 3.1. Consortium of fourteen universities, see [URL].Google Scholar
Cobbett, William
1818 A grammar of the English language. New York.Google Scholar
Crowley, Tony
2003 Standard English and politics of language. London: Palgrave. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Curme, George O
1977 A grammar of the English language. Essex, CT: Verbatim.Google Scholar
Dekeyser, Xavier
1975 Number and case relations in 19th-century British English: A comparative study of grammar and usage. Antwerpen & Amsterdam: De Nederlandsche Boekhandel.Google Scholar
Denison, David
1998 Syntax. In Suzanne Romaine (ed.), The Cambridge history of the English language Vol. IV 1776–1997, 92–329. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Denison, David, Graeme Trousdale & Linda van Bergen
1994 A corpus of late modern English prose. [URL]Google Scholar
De Smet, Hendrik
2005 A corpus of Late Modern English. ICAME Journal 29. 69–82.Google Scholar
Edgeworth, Maria & Richard Lovell Edgeworth
1815 Essays on practical education, Volume 2. London.Google Scholar
Elspaß, Stephan
2007 A twofold view ‘from below’: New perspectives on language histories and language historiographies. In Stephan Elspaß, Nils Langer, Joachim Scharloth & Wim Vandenbussche (eds.), Germanic Language Histories ‘from Below’ (1700–2000), 3–9. Walter de Gruyter. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Fairman, Tony
2007 Writing and the “Standard”: England, 1795–1834. Multilingua 26–2/3.167–201. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2008 Strike-throughs: What textual alterations can tell us about writers and their scripts, 1795–1835. In Marina Dossena & Ingrid Tieken-Boon van Ostade (eds.), Studies in late modern English correspondence: Methodology and data, 193–211. Bern: Peter Lang.Google Scholar
Fens-de Zeeuw, Lyda
2011 Lindley Murray (1745–1826), Quaker and grammarian. Utrecht: LOT.Google Scholar
Görlach, Manfred
1998 An annotated bibliography of 19th-century grammars of English. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
1999 English in nineteenth-century England. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2001 Eighteenth-century English. Heidelberg: Winter.Google Scholar
Haugen, Einar
1966 Dialect, language, nation. American Anthropologist 68.922–935. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Henry, Maura A
2002 The making of elite culture. In H.T. Dickinson (ed.), A companion to eighteenth-century Britain, 311–28. Malden, MA & Oxford, UK: Blackwell Publishing.Google Scholar
Hibbert, Christopher
1998 George III. New York: Basic Books.Google Scholar
Ingrams, Richard
2005 The life and adventures of William Cobbett. London: Harber Perennial.Google Scholar
Johnson, Samuel
1755 A dictionary of the English language. London.Google Scholar
Karlin, Daniel & Tom Keymer
2000 Nineteenth-century fiction. Chadwyck-Healey Ltd. [URL]Google Scholar
Kytö, Merja & Juhani Rudanko
Forthcoming. Corpus of nineteenth-century English (CONCE). Uppsala University and University of Tampere.
Kytö, Merja, Mats Rydén & Erik Smitterberg
(eds.) 2006 Nineteenth-century English: Stability and change. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Lass, Roger
1999 Phonology and morphology. In Roger Lass (ed.), The Cambridge history of the English language Volume III, 1476–1776, 56–186. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Laitinen, Mikko
2009 Singular YOU WAS/WERE variation and English normative grammars in the eighteenth century. In Arja Nurmi & Minna Nevala & Minna Palander-Collin (eds.), The language of daily life in England (1400–1800), 199–217. Amsterdam & Philadelphia: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Lawson, John & Harold Silver
1973 A social history of education in England. London: Methuen.Google Scholar
Leonard, Sterling Andrus
1929 The doctrine of correctness in English usage 1700–1800. Wisconsin: Madison.Google Scholar
Linn, Andrew
2006 English grammar writing. In Bas Aarts & April McMahon (eds.), The handbook of English linguistics, 72–92. Malden, MA/Oxford, UK: Blackwell Publishing. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Lowth, Robert
1762 A short introduction to English grammar. London: A. Millar, R. and J. Dodsley.Google Scholar
Michael, Ian
1970 English grammatical categories and the tradition to 1800. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
1991 More than enough English grammars. In Gerhard Leitner (ed.), English traditional grammars, 11–26. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Milroy, James & Lesley Milroy
1999 Authority in language: Investigating Standard English. 3rd edition. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Mondorf, Britta
2012 Late Modern English: Morphology. In Alex Bergs & Laurel Brinton (eds.), Historical linguistics of English, 842–869. Berlin: de Gruyter.Google Scholar
Mugglestone, Lynda C
2006 The Oxford history of English. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Murray, Lindley
1795 English grammar, adapted to the different classes of learners: With an appendix, containing rules and observations, for assisting the more advanced students to write with perspicuity and accuracy. York.Google Scholar
Rissanen, Matti
1999 Syntax. In Roger Lass (ed.), The Cambridge history of the English language. Vol. III: 1476–1776, 187–331. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Schneider, Edgar W
2007 Postcolonial English: Varieties around the world. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Schneider, Edgar W., Clive Upton, Bernd Kortmann, Rajend Mesthrie & Kate Burridge
(eds.) 2004 A handbook of varieties of English. Vol 2: Morphology and syntax. Berlin/New York: Mouton de Gruyter.Google Scholar
Shelley, Edward
1848 The people’s grammar; or English grammar without difficulties for ‘the million’. Huddersfield.Google Scholar
Stephens, W.B
1987 Education, literacy and society, 1830–70: The geography of diversity in provincial England. Manchester: Manchester University Press.Google Scholar
Sundby, Bertil, Anne Kari Bjørge & Kari E. Haugland
1991. A dictionary of English normative grammar 1700–1800. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Sweet, Henry
1891–8 A new English grammar, logical and historical. Oxford: Clarendon.Google Scholar
Tagliamonte, Sali
1998  Was/were variation across the generations: View from the city of York. Language variation and change 10.153–191. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Tieken-Boon van Ostade, Ingrid
2002  You was and eighteenth-century normative grammar. In Katja Lenz & Ruth Mölig (eds.), Of dyuersitie & chaunge of langage: Essays presented to Manfred Görlach on the occasion of his 65th birthday, 88–102. Heidelberg: C. Winter.Google Scholar
(ed.) 2008 Grammars, grammarians and grammar-writing in eighteenth-century England. Berlin & New York: Walter de Gruyter.Google Scholar
2008 Grammars, grammarians and grammar writing: An introduction. In Ingrid Tieken-Boon van Ostade (ed.), Grammars, grammarians and grammar-writing in eighteenth-century England, 1–14. Berlin & New York: Walter de Gruyter.Google Scholar
2010 The usage guide: Its birth and popularity. English today: The international review of the English language 26.14–23. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Traugott, Elizabeth C
1972 A history of English syntax. A transformational approach to the history of English sentence structures. New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston.Google Scholar
Vincent, David
1989 Literacy and popular culture. England 1750–1914. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Visser, F.T
1970 An historical syntax of the English language. Leiden: E.J. Brill.Google Scholar
Wal, Marijke van der
2006 Onvoltooid verleden tijd. Witte vlekken in de taalgeschiedenis. Amsterdam: Koninklijke Nederlandse Akademie van Wetenschappen.Google Scholar
Walker, John
1791 A critical pronouncing dictionary. London: Robinson.Google Scholar
Wright, Joseph
1898–1905 The English dialect dictionary. 6 vols. London: Kegan Paul for the English Dialect Society.Google Scholar
Wright, Pip, Joy Wright & Léonie Robinson
(eds.) 2004 The diary of a poor Suffolk woodman. Cromer, Norfolk: Poppyland Publishing.Google Scholar