27.4418, Books: Language Between Description and Prescription: Anderwald

Mon Oct 31 17:45:39 UTC 2016

LINGUIST List: Vol-27-4418. Mon Oct 31 2016. ISSN: 1069 - 4875.

Subject: 27.4418, Books: Language Between Description and Prescription: Anderwald

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Date: Mon, 31 Oct 2016 13:45:33
From: Carolyn Napolitano [Carolyn.Napolitano at oup.com]
Subject: Language Between Description and Prescription: Anderwald

Title: Language Between Description and Prescription 
Subtitle: Verbs and Verb Categories in Nineteenth-Century Grammars of English 
Series Title: Oxford Studies in the History of English  

Publication Year: 2016 
Publisher: Oxford University Press
	   http://www.oup.com/us

Book URL: https://global.oup.com/academic/product/language-between-description-and-prescription-9780190270674 

Author: Lieselotte Anderwald

Hardback: ISBN:  9780190270674 Pages: 352 Price: U.S. $ 99

Abstract:

Language Between Description and Prescription is an empirical, quantitative
and qualitative study of nineteenth-century English grammar writing, and of
nineteenth-century language change. Based on 258 grammar books from Britain
and North America, the book investigates whether grammar writers of the time
noticed the language changing around them, and how they reacted. In
particular, Lieselotte Anderwald demonstrates that not all features undergoing
change were noticed in the first place, those that were noticed were not
necessarily criticized, and some recessive features were not upheld as
correct. The features investigated come from the verb phrase and include in
particular variable past tense forms, which -although noticed-often went
uncommented, and where variation was acknowledged; the decline of the
be-perfect, where the older form (the be-perfect) was criticized emphatically,
and corrected; the rise of the progressive, which was embraced
enthusiastically, and which was even upheld as a symbol of national
superiority, at least in Britain; the rise of the progressive passive, which
was one of the most violently hated constructions of the time, and the rise of
the get-passive, which was only rarely commented on, and even more rarely in
negative terms. Throughout the book, nineteenth-century grammarians are given
a voice, and the discussions in grammar books of the time are portrayed. The
book's quantitative approach makes it possible to examine majority and
minority positions in the discourse community of nineteenth-century grammar
writers, and the changes in accepted opinion over time. The terms of the
debate are also investigated, and linked to the wider cultural climate of the
time. Although grammar writing in the nineteenth century was very openly
prescriptivist, the studies in this book show that many prescriptive dicta
contained interesting grains of descriptive detail, and that eventually
prescriptivism had only a small-scale, short-term effect on the actual
language used.

Linguistic Field(s): History of Linguistics
                     Syntax

Subject Language(s): English (eng)

Written In: English  (eng)

See this book announcement on our website: 
http://linguistlist.org/pubs/books/get-book.cfm?BookID=107093

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