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Historiographia Linguistica
Vol. 33:3 (2006) ► pp.303–334

‘…to this rule there are many exceptions’

Robert Maunsell and the Grammar of Maori

| Downing College, Cambridge

This article assesses Robert Maunsell’s (1810–1894) Grammar of the New Zealand Language (1842). In particular, it is shown that, contrary to established belief, Maunsell’s Grammar was not exclusively based upon European or Hebrew grammatical models, but rather that it constituted an intriguing synthesis of different aspects of both traditions. Consequently, the relationship between Maunsell’s work and influential English texts such as Robert Lowth’s A Short Introduction to English Grammar (1762) and Lindley Murray’s English Grammar (1795) is explored in considerable detail in an attempt to indicate exactly how the 18th century English grammatical tradition influenced the demanding task of analysing an indigenous language encountered in a British colony in the early 19th century.

Published online: 27 February 2007
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https://doi.org/10.1075/hl.33.3.03tom
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