Author: John T. Spencer
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : English language
Languages : en
Pages : 228

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Book Description

Author: Lindley Murray
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : English language
Languages : en
Pages : 204

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Book Description

Author: Lieselotte Anderwald
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0190624663
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 353

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Book Description
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.

Author: Simone E. Pfenninger
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing Company
ISBN: 9027269939
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 334

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Book Description
The papers in this volume aim at facilitating exchange between three fields of inquiry that are of great importance in historical linguistics: language change, (socio)linguistic research on variation, and contact linguistics. Drawing on a range of recently-developed methodological innovations, such as methods for quantifying the linguistic variation (that is a prerequisite for language change) or new corpus-based methods for investigating text-type variation, the contributors are able to trace linguistic change in different periods and contact situations, demonstrate how variation occurs, and in how far language change results out of this variation. Thus, the chapters go beyond core issues of language variation and change, focusing on the boundary between word and grammar, discourse and ideology in the history of the English language.

Author: Norma Goldman
Publisher: Hodder Arnold
ISBN: 9780340761076
Category : English language
Languages : en
Pages : 178

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Book Description
Thousands of students have found these books the ideal way to master the grammar of their chosen language. They offer a step-by-step explanation of a concept as it applies to English, a presentation of the same concept as it appplies to the target language, the similarities and differences between the two languages, stressing common pitfalls for English speakers and including review exercises with an answer key.

Author: Amelia Alderson Opie
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 714

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Book Description

Author: Manfred Görlach
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing
ISBN: 9027237522
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 405

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Book Description
In the 19th century, education became accessible to much wider circles of society in a great number and variety of schools and the teaching of grammar came to be obligatory from 1870/72 with the advent of general education. Whereas these general trends of the 19th century are well-known to scholars working in different disciplines of social history, and the history of education in particular, it is still true that major sections of the evidence are largely uncollected. This is especially so for school books: there is virtually a gap between the 18th century and the present grammatical tradition. This bibliography lists some 1930 works on English grammar published in the 19th century, mainly in Britain and the US, half of which are accompanied by short descriptions of their physical make-up, content and affiliation.

Author: Goold Brown
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : English language
Languages : en
Pages : 360

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Book Description

Author: Goold Brown
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 360

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Book Description

Author: Allen Fisk
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : English language
Languages : en
Pages : 194

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Book Description