The Bishop's Grammar: Robert Lowth and the Rise of Prescriptivism
Ingrid Tieken-Boon van Ostade
Abstract
This book examines the life, language and grammar of Robert Lowth (1710–1787), founder of prescriptivism. Drawing on private documents, it maps his social networks and compares his own language to the grammar's model of correctness. By analysing his role in the establishment of the prescriptive canon, it portrays Lowth as a precursor to usage guides like Fowler's Modern English Usage.
Keywords: codification, prescriptivism, grammar writing, communicative competence, corpus linguistics, eighteenth century, Lowth, correctness, letters, sociolinguistics, linguistic norms
Bibliographic Information
| Print publication date: 2010 | Print ISBN-13: 9780199579273 |
| Published to Oxford Scholarship Online: January 2011 | DOI:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199579273.001.0001 |
