Cover not available
Part of
Earlier North American Englishes
Edited by Merja Kytö and Lucia Siebers
[Varieties of English Around the World G66] 2022
► pp. 183–202

“Gems of elocution and humour”

Ideology, prescription and (self-)educational materials

| Università degli Studi di Bergamo

Recommended usage of linguistic forms has often been based on ideological tenets, such as in the case of early American English, when attention was paid to its patriotic value. Ideology is found in grammars, dictionaries, and in other more popular genres, the relatively low cost of which made them accessible also to minimally-schooled audiences.

The aim of this study is to highlight some significant features of the latter group of materials, in order to see how American distinctiveness was emphasized and placed in a specific historical context; examples taken from literary sources may prove of particular interest, in order to assess the indebtedness of those books to European and/or American traditions and to outline some of the connections existing between cultural attitudes and normativity.

Keywords: Nineteenth-century English, American English, educational materials, popular culture, ideology
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.The power of ideology in linguistic description and evaluation
  • 3.American English in textbooks and self-help books
    • 3.1Title pages
    • 3.2Sources
  • 4.Concluding remarks
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 15 July 2022
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/veaw.g66.08dos
References

Primary sources

Anon
1815 The United States’ Spelling Book, with Appropriate Reading Lessons: Being an Easy Standard for Spelling, Reading and Pronouncing the English Language, according to the Rules established by John Walker, in his Critical and [sic] Pronouncing Dictionary. Pittsburgh: Cramer, Spear and Eichbaum.Google Scholar
Beadle’s Dime Speakers
, [URL] (23 January 2022).
Bingham, C.
1832 The Columbian Orator: Containing a Variety of Original and Selected Pieces, Together with Rules, Calculated to Improve Youth and Others in the Ornamental and Useful Art of Eloquence. Boston: J. H. A. Frost.Google Scholar
Butler, N.
c1846 A Practical Grammar of the English Language. Louisville: John P. Morton & Co.Google Scholar
Chesterfield, P. D. S.
c1857 Chesterfield’s Art of Letter-writing Simplified: Being a guide to friendly, affectionate, polite and business correspondence: Containing a large collection of the most valuable information relative to the art of letter-writing, with clear and complete instructions how to begin and end correspondence, rules for punctuation and spelling, &c.: to which is appended the complete rules of etiquette and the usages of society: Containing the most approved rules for correct deportment in fashionable life, together with hints to gentlemen and ladies on irregular and vulgar habits, also, the etiquette of love and courtship, marriage etiquette, &c. New York: Dick & Fitzgerald.Google Scholar
CMSW
, Corpus of Modern Scottish Writing, [URL] (23 January 2022).
Cobb, L.
c1830 Cobb’s Juvenile Reader no. 1: Containing Interesting, Moral, and Instructive Reading Lessons, Composed of Easy Words of One and Two Syllables: Designed for the Use of Small Children in Families and in School. Ithaca, N.Y: Andrus, Woodruff, & Gauntlett.Google Scholar
1831 Cobb’s Juvenile Reader no. 3: Containing Interesting, Historical, Moral, and Instructive Reading Lessons, […], Both in Prose and Poetry, Selected from the Writings of the Best American and English Authors […]. Pittsburgh: Luke Loomis.Google Scholar
COHA
Corpus of Historical American English, [URL].
Cyr, E. M.
1903 Cyr’s Fourth Reader. Boston: Ginn and Company.Google Scholar
Davis, P.
1823 The Principles of the Government of the United States: Adapted to the Use of Schools. Philadelphia: H.C. Carey and I. Lea.Google Scholar
De Vere, S.
1872 Americanisms: The English of the New World. New York: Scribner.Google Scholar
Elwyn, A. L.
1859 Glossary of Supposed Americanisms. Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott.Google Scholar
Enfield, W.
1803 Speaker, or, Miscellaneous Pieces: Selected from the Best English Writers and Disposed under Proper Heads, with a View to Facilitate the Improvement of Youth in Reading and Speaking: To which is Prefixed an Essay on Elocution. Baltimore: Printed & sold by Warner & Hanna.Google Scholar
Fenning, D.
1767 The Universal Spelling-Book. London: Printed forS. Crowder, and M. Richardson, inPater-Noster-Row, and B. Collins, inSalisbury.Google Scholar
Frost, J.
1845 The American Speaker: Containing Numerous Rules, Observations, and Exercises on Pronunciation, Pauses, Inflections, Accent, and Emphasis: Also, Copious Extracts in Prose and Poetry, Calculated to Assist the Teacher, and to Improve the Pupil in Reading and Recitation. Philadelphia: Thomas, Cowperthwait, & Co.Google Scholar
Goodrich, S. G.
1850 A Pictorial History of the United States: With Notices of Other Portions of America. New York: Huntington and Savage, Mason and Law.Google Scholar
Hale, S.
1835 History of the United States: From their First Settlement as Colonies, to the Close of the War with Great Britain in 1815. Philadelphia: Uriah Hunt.Google Scholar
J.S.F. [John Stephen Farmer]
1888 Americanisms Old and New. A Dictionary of Words, Phrases and Colloquialisms. London: Privately printed by T. Poulter & Sons.Google Scholar
Macy, W. F. & Hussey, R. B.
(comps) 1916 The Nantucket Scrap Basket: Being a Collection of Characteristic Stories and Sayings of the People of the Town and Island of Nantucket, Massachusetts. Nantucket: The Inquirer and Mirror Press.Google Scholar
MOA
, The Making of America Collection, [URL] (23 January 2022).
Moore, J. H.
1802 The Young Gentleman and Lady’s Monitor, and English Teacher’s Assistant. New York: Printed for Evert Duyckinck, No. 110, Pearl-Street, by Southwick and Crooker.Google Scholar
Moore, M. B.
1864 The Dixie Speller. Raleigh, N.C.: Branson & Farrar.Google Scholar
Nietz Collection of Nineteenth-Century Schoolbooks
, [URL] (23 January 2022).
Norton, C. L.
1890 Political Americanisms. A Glossary of Terms and Phrases Current at Different Periods in American Politics. London: Longmans & Co.Google Scholar
OED
Oxford English Dictionary, [URL].
Osgood, L.
1858 Osgood’s Progressive Fifth Reader: Embracing a System of Instruction in the Principles of Elocution, and Selections for Reading and Speaking from the Best English and American Authors: Designed for the Use of Academies and the Highest Classes in Public and Private Schools. Pittsburgh: A.H. English & Co.Google Scholar
Pickering, J.
1816 A Vocabulary: or, Collection of Words and Phrases, which have been supposed to be peculiar to the United States of America. To which is prefixed an essay on the present state of the English language in the United States. Boston: Cummings and Hilliard; Hilliard and Metcalf.Google Scholar
Richardson, Ch. F.
1891 A Primer of American Literature. Boston: Houghton, Mifflin and Company.Google Scholar
Russell, T.
[1897] Current Americanisms: A Dictionary of Words and Phrases in Common Use. London: Howe & Co.Google Scholar
Sanders, C. W.
c1858 The School Reader: Containing Easy Progressive Lessons in Reading and Spelling. New York: Ivison, Phinney, Blakeman & Co.Google Scholar
Sellar, W. C. & Yeatman, R. J.
1930 1066 and All That: A Memorable History of England. London: Methuen & Co.Google Scholar
Sinclair, C.
1859 Sketches and Stories of Scotland and the Scotch, and Shetland and the Shetlanders. London: Simpkin, Marshall, and Co.Google Scholar
Town, S. & Holbrook, N. M.
c1857 The Progressive Third Reader, for Public and Private Schools: Containing the Elementary Principles of Elocution […]. Boston: Bazin & Ellsworth.Google Scholar
Walker, J.
1791 Critical Pronouncing Dictionary and Expositor of the English Language. Philadelphia: Budd and Bartram, etc.Google Scholar
Webster, N.
1828 An American Dictionary of the English Language. New York: Published by S. Converse, [URL] (23 January 2022).
Young, A. W.
1836 Introduction to the Science of Government, […]: Comprehending a General View of the Government of the United States, […]. Warsaw, [N.Y.]: Published by the author.Google Scholar

Secondary sources

Anderwald, L.
2012 Clumsy, awkward or having a peculiar propriety? Prescriptive judgements and language change in the nineteenth century. Language Sciences 34: 28–53. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Beal, J. C.
2009 Three hundred years of prescriptivism (and counting). In Current Issues in Late Modern English, I. Tieken-Boon van Ostade & W. Van der Wurff (eds), 35–56. Bern: Peter Lang.Google Scholar
Bergs, A. & Brinton, L. J.
(eds) 2012 HSK 34.1 – English Historical Linguistics – An International Handbook. Berlin: De Gruyter.Google Scholar
Busse, U.
2015 Transatlantic perspectives on late nineteenth-century English usage: Alford (1864) compared to White (1871). In Transatlantic Perspectives on Late Modern English, Marina Dossena (ed.), 73–97. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Cartosio, B.
2016 American artists look west. In Knowledge Dissemination in the Long Nineteenth Century. European and Transatlantic Perspectives, M. Dossena & S. Rosso (eds), 9–25. Newcastle u.T.: Cambridge Scholars.Google Scholar
Dossena, M.
1997 The search for linguistic excellence in eighteenth-century Scotland. Textus 10 (2): 355–376.Google Scholar
2005 Scotticisms in Grammar and Vocabulary. Edinburgh: John Donald (Birlinn).Google Scholar
2008 Prescriptivism a century ago: Business correspondence taught to emigrants – a case study. In Perspectives on Prescriptivism, J. C. Beal, C. Nocera & M. Sturiale (eds), 41–58. Bern: Peter Lang.Google Scholar
2013 “John is a good Indian”: Reflections on Native American culture in Scottish popular writing of the nineteenth century. In Within and Without Empire: Scotland Across the (Post)colonial Borderline, C. Sassi & T. van Heijnsbergen (eds), 185–199. Newcastle u. T.: Cambridge Scholars.Google Scholar
2015 (Re)constructed eloquence. Rhetorical and pragmatic strategies in the speeches of Native Americans as reported by nineteenth-century commentators. Brno Studies in English 41(1): 5–28. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Hubbard, C.
1968 The language of Ruxton’s mountain men. American Speech 43 (3): 216–221. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Hunston, S.
2011 Corpus Approaches to Evaluation: Phraseology and Evaluative Language. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Hunston, S. & Thompson, G.
2000 Evaluation in Text: Authorial Stance and the Construction of Discourse. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
McConchie, R. W.
2013 Some reflections on Early Modern printed title-pages. In Principles and Practices for the Digital Editing and Annotation of Diachronic Data, A. Meurman-Solin & J. Tyrkkö (eds), [URL] (23 January 2022).
Milroy, J.
2001 Language ideologies and the consequences of standardization. Journal of Sociolinguistics 5 (4): 530–555. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Milroy, J. & Milroy, L.
1987 Authority in Language: Investigating Language Prescription and Standardization. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Percy, C.
2012 Early advertising and newspapers as sources of sociolinguistic investigation. In The Handbook of Historical Sociolinguistics, J. M. Hernández-Campoy & J. C. Conde-Silvestre (eds), 191–210. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Poster, C. & Mitchell, L. C.
2007 Letter-Writing Manuals and Instruction from Antiquity to the Present: Historical and Bibliographic Studies. Columbia, SC: University of South Carolina Press.Google Scholar
Rosso, S.
2016 The winning of the western: Early dissemination of a literary genre. In Knowledge Dissemination in the Long Nineteenth Century. European and Transatlantic Perspectives, M. Dossena & S. Rosso (eds), 27–44. Newcastle u. T.: Cambridge Scholars.Google Scholar
Ruano-García, J., García-Bermejo Giner, M. F. & Sánchez-García, P.
2015 “Provincial in England, but in common use with us”: John R. Bartlett’s Dictionary of Americanisms and the English Dialect Dictionary . In Transatlantic Perspectives on Late Modern English, M. Dossena (ed.), 99–116. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Sturiale, M.
2016 As The Times goes by: The codification of (British) English pronunciation and the press. Textus, Special Issue on Late Modern English Norms and Usage, G. Iamartino & L. Wright (eds), 29 (3): 59–80.Google Scholar
2018 Late Modern newspapers as a mirror of linguistic (in)stability and change. Token: A Journal of English Linguistics 7: 35–51.Google Scholar
Tieken-Boon van Ostade, I.
1985 I will be drowned and no man shall save me’: The conventional rules for shall and will in eighteenth-century English grammars. English Studies 66 (2): 123–142. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
(ed.) 2008 Grammars, Grammarians and Grammar-Writing in Eighteenth-Century England. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2015  Five Hundred Mistakes Corrected: An early American English usage guide. In Transatlantic Perspectives on Late Modern English, M. Dossena (ed.), 55–71. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Watts, R. J.
2011 Language Myths and the History of English. Oxford: Oxford University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Wodak, R. & Meyer, M.
(eds) 2001 Methods for Critical Discourse Analysis. London: Sage. DOI logoGoogle Scholar