6 MODERN ENGLISH FURTHER RESOURCES

Imperceptibly, during the 18th century, English loses the However, despite this apparent continuity, the language at
most noticeable remaining features of structural differ- the end of the 18th century is by no means identical to what
ence which distance the Early Modern English period we find today. Many words, though spelled the same, had
from us. By the end of that century, with but a few a different meaning. If we had tape recordings of the time,
exceptions, the spelling, punctuation, and grammar are we would also notice several differences in pronunciation,
very close to what they are today. If we take an essay of especially in the way words were stressed (p. 71). And an
William Hazlitt (1778–1830) or a novel of Jane Austen uninformed modern intuition would achieve only a super-
(1775–1817), for example, we can read for pages before ficial reading of the literary texts of the period. In reading
a point of linguistic difference might make us pause. We a novel of the 2000s, we can make an immediate linguistic
would find the vocabulary somewhat unfamiliar in places, response to the social and stylistic nuances introduced into
the idiom occasionally unusual or old-fashioned, the style the text, because we are part of its age: we recognize the
elegant or quaint, and we might feel that the language was differences between formality and informality, or educated
in some indefinable way characteristic of a previous age; and uneducated; and we can sense when someone is being
but we do not need to consult a special edition or his- jocular, ironic, risqué, archaic, or insincere. We can easily
torical dictionary at every turn in order to understand the miss such nuances in the writing of the early 19th century,
text. Jane Austen makes demands of our modern English especially in those works which take the manners of con-
linguistic intuitions which seem little different from those temporary society as their subject. This world is linguisti-
required by Catherine Cookson or P. D. James. cally more removed from us than at first it may appear.

SEEING BENEATH THE SURFACE

Emma Woodhouse, handsome, clever, and rich, with a comfortable home and happy disposition,
seemed to unite some of the best blessings of existence; and had lived nearly twenty-one years in the
world with very little to distress or vex her.

consequence of her sister’s marriage, been mistress of his house from a very early period. Her mother
had died too long ago for her to have more than an indistinct remembrance of her caresses; and her
place had been supplied by an excellent woman as governess, who had fallen little short of a mother
in affection…

Thus begins Jane Austen’s Emma, published in 1816. know that compliment had an additional sense in
To the modern reader, its language presents no Austen’s time, which it has since lost: it could mean
unexpected difficulties. We might be struck by the use simply ‘polite or conventional praise’. What Miss
of handsome (used more commonly today with male Bates means is ‘It wasn’t just flattery’.
reference), or by youngest referring only to two; but We do not always note such difference in usage,
neither of these points is likely to disturb our smooth because the context often enables us to see the
comprehension of these opening lines. intended sense. Here are some other instances from
Early 19th-century English can, however, deceive the novels where usage has changed in a subtle way
in its apparent familiarity. There are hundreds of (after K. C. Phillips, 1970, who also provides an index
instances where words have changed their meaning, and page references):
often in highly subtle ways. For example, in the
middle of a long and somewhat erratic monologue,
Emma’s garrulous acquaintance Miss Bates describes a inmate had not yet developed its sense of someone
reaction to some baked apples: occupying a prison or institution. A number of differences are of a more idiomatic kind,
where the substitution of one element produces the
‘“Oh!”, said he, directly, “there is nothing in the
nor manner’: genius did not yet have its modern modern equivalent:
way of fruit half so good, and these are the finest-
sense of ‘outstanding intellectual quality’.
looking home-baked apples I ever saw in my life.” event of (‘outcome’)
-
That, you know, was so very – And I am sure, by his fact (‘act’)
ment’: regard had a much stronger sense of
manner, it was no compliment.’ (Emma, Ch. 27) essay (‘attempt’)
‘affection’.
It is easy to let the speaker carry us on past this point, idea (‘in her mind’s eye’)
so that we do not notice the existence of the problem: as…’: irritation could be caused by a pleasurable character (‘by repute’)
if the first comment means anything at all, it is surely emotion. grateful to her
a compliment, yet Miss Bates seems to be denying (‘gratifying’)
it. The apparent contradiction is resolved when we lounge meant ‘stroll’, not ‘lie carelessly on a chair’. speak for tea (‘order’)

80
 FURTHER RESOURCES
Modern English CHAPTER 6

Grammatical Trends MY DEAR JAMES

Jane Austen would have arrived at school (Abbey School,
In Letter VIII of his Grammar of the English Language in a
in Reading) at a time when Lowth’s Grammar was well Series of Letters (1829), William Cobbett advises his son James
established, and a second generation of ‘young ladies’ (aged 14) on the problems of irregular verbs. Most of his list of
(p. 82) was having its tenets instilled into them. That she nearly 200 verbs recommends past tenses which are identical
was much concerned about correctness in grammar is with present-day usage, but there are a few differences:
suggested by the way she often changed her own gram- to bend I bended
matical usage in later editions of her novels. For example, to light I light
to sink I sunk
at one point in Pride and Prejudice, she wrote ‘the tables
to stink I stunk
were broke up’, but later emended the verb to broken.
A number of past participles also differ:
That she was also aware of the social role of gram-
mar is evident from many pieces of her dialogue, where chide chidden RULES TO BE OBSERVED
loaded loaden
nonstandard usage is seen as a mark of vulgarity, and In 1774, the year before Jane
sat sitten
Austen was born, John Walker
good grammar as a sign of good breeding. Thus, Emma shot shotten published his idea for a Pronouncing
is surprised at the linguistic standard of the letter from slid slidden Dictionary of English, with the aim
the yeoman farmer, Robert Martin (who, in her opinion, snow snown of doing for pronunciation what
spit spitten Johnson had done for vocabulary
is ‘plain’ and ‘clownish’), when he proposes marriage to
However, Cobbett does not list all the variations which were (p. 74) and Lowth for grammar
Harriet Smith:
found at the time, and some of his recommendations are of (p. 79). The book (which appeared
The style of the letter was much above her expectation. There questionable validity. Sat, for instance, was much used as a past in 1791) is a valuable information
tense form in the early 19th century, but he does not mention it. source about contemporary sound
were not merely no grammatical errors, but as a composition change, attitudes to pronunciation,
And several other forms occur in the Jane Austen novels, such
it would not have disgraced a gentleman. and differences in usage between
as a past tense sprung for sprang, and a past participle drank for
then and now. It also looks at major
The following examples from Austen’s novels illus- drunk. He is also uncertain about the best form to recommend
regional accents, and provides ‘rules
for sting, giving both stung and stang as past tenses.
trate some of the distinctive grammatical features of to be observed by the natives of
Usage of these old strong verbs (p. 21) was evidently very
early 19th-century English, compared with today (Part mixed at the time in polite society, and it was only during the
avoiding their respective
III). There are differences in (1) tense usage, (2) auxil- 19th century that grammarians managed in most cases to peculiarities’.
iary verbs (compare the Early Modern English practice, resolve the variation (though leaving a residue of uncertainty,
p. 74), (3) irregular verbs, (4) articles, (5) contracted p. 216). On the other hand, there was no doubt about the r ‘is never silent’, though
nonstandard status of some usages: Jane Austen allows only ‘particularly in London, the r in
forms, (6) prepositions, (7) adverbs, and (8) the com-
servants and other uneducated people to use such ‘barbarous’ lard . . . is pronounced so much
parative (also shown in the quotation from Emma on (in the words of Lowth) constructions as have went, had took, in the throat as to be little more
p. 80). All the examples come from the usage of educated or should have gave Sense than the middle or Italian a,
characters in the novels, or are part of Austen’s own and Sensibility). lengthened into laad…’.
narrative. (Uneducated characters have an identifiable dis ‘ought
always to be pronounced as
grammar and lexicon of their own.)
z, when it is not under the
accent…’, as in dismay and
(1) I am so glad we are got acquainted. dismiss.
So, you are come at last! au ‘are followed
(2) What say you to the day? by n and another consonant,
she doubted not… they change to the second sound
of a, heard in far’, as in haunt
(3) Fanny shrunk back…
and laundry.
and much was ate…
(4) It is a nothing of a part… differently: cement (noun) has
to be taken into the account… a stress on the first syllable;
(5) Will not it be a good plan? balcony on the middle; prefix
(verb) on the last.
It would quite shock you …would not it?
h is often sunk,
(6) he told me in our journey… particularly in the capital,
She was small of her age. where we do not find the
(7) I stood for a minute, feeling dreadfully. least distinction of sound
It is really very well for a novel. between while and wile…’.
-
(8) the properest manner…
ers do not invariably pronounce
the richest of the two… the participial ing, so as to
rhyme with sing’, and recom-
mends that ing should be used,
y pudden?” but allows an exception where
s any gentleman sa
ost. “Doe ys pudden.” there is an -ng ending in the
Hospitable H gentleman sa root (as in singing).
Precise Guest

81
 PART I The History of English

THE RISE OF PRESCRIPTIVE GRAMMAR grammar. Over 200 works on grammar and rhetoric
appeared between 1750 and 1800. The most influential
The second half of the 18th century differs fundamentally was undoubtedly Bishop Robert Lowth’s Short Introduc-
from our own age in its attitudes towards English. tion to English Grammar (1762) – the inspiration for an
The middle of the century had seen the culmination of the even more widely used book, Lindley Murray’s English
first major effort to impose order on the language, in Grammar (1794). Both grammars went through many
the form of Johnson’s Dictionary (p. 78). With spelling and editions in the years following their publication, and had
lexicon now being handled in an increasingly systematic enormous influence on school practices, especially in
way, attention turned to grammar, and the first attempts to the USA. This is evident even in the comments of those
define this field in its own right began to appear. who disapproved of them. Thomas de Quincey, writing
Treatises on aspects of grammar are known from the in Blackwood’s Magazine in April 1839, condemns a
16th century. The dramatist Ben Jonson wrote An English number of ‘inferior attempts to illustrate the language’,
Grammar … for the Benefit of all Strangers, out of his and ends his list with Murray’s:
Observation of the English Language now Spoken, This book, full of atrocious blunders … reigns despotically
and in Use, published posthumously in 1640. John through the young ladies’ schools, from the Orkneys to the
Wallis’s Grammatica Linguae Anglicanae (Grammar of Cornish Scillys.
the English Language, 1653) was written ‘because there It would have taken only a generation for any intellectual
is clearly a great demand for it from foreigners, who want despotism to become firmly entrenched – and it is thus
to be able to understand the various important works not surprising to see dogmatic attitudes towards grammar
which are written in our tongue’ (which is why he, as routinely appearing in early 19th-century magazines,
others of his time, wrote in Latin). And Johnson, largely newspapers, letters, and novels (such as Jane Austen’s,
following Wallis, added a grammatical sketch at the front p. 80), as well as attracting the attention of satirists and
of his dictionary. cartoonists, such as those found in the weekly issues of
Punch magazine.
Which Authority?
From the outset, however, there were fundamental differ- A CASE OF RAGE AND VEXATION
ences of opinion about which way to proceed, and which By way of justifying his remark about ‘blunders’, De Quincey refers to the views of William Hazlitt,
authority to follow. Jonson (in his essay, ‘Timber: or, which had been forcibly expressed in an essay on English grammar in The Atlas some years before
Discoveries’, 1640) is in no doubt about where to look (15 March 1829). Hazlitt’s attack on the way grammarians talk about cases in English (p. 214) well
for models of usage (Custome): illustrates his position:
it is roundly asserted that there are six cases (why not seven?) in the English language; and a case
Custome, is the most certaine Mistresse of Language, as the is defined to be a peculiar termination or inflection added to a noun to show its position in the
publicke stampe makes the current money. But wee must
not be too frequent with the mint, every day coyning …Yet are a number of inflections; and for the same reason (if words have a meaning) in the English
when I name Custome, I understand not the vulgar Custome: language there are none, or only one, the genitive; because if we except this, there is no inflec-
For that were a precept no lesse dangerous to Language, tion or variety whatever in the terminations. Thus to instance in the present noun – A case, Of
then life, if wee should speake or live after the manners of a case, To a case, A case, O case, From a case – they tell you that the word case is here its own
the vulgar: But that I call Custome of speech, which is the nominative, genitive, dative, accusative, vocative, and ablative, though the deuce of any case –
consent of the Learned; as Custome of life, which is the
swear till he was black in the face that it is so; and would
consent of the good.
lie awake many a restless night boiling with rage and vexa-
Wallis, on the other hand, writing in his Preface about tion that any one should be so lost to shame and reason
suitable models of structure, is strong in his criticism of as to suspect that there is here also a distinction without a
difference.
Jonson and other grammarians hitherto:
They all forced English too rigidly into the mould of Latin And he comments:
(a mistake which nearly everyone makes in descriptions If a system were made in burlesque and purposely to call
of other modern languages too), giving many useless rules into question and expose its own nakedness, it could not
about the cases, genders and declensions of nouns, the go beyond this, which is gravely taught in all seminaries,
tenses, moods and conjugations of verbs, the government of and patiently learnt by all school-boys as an exercise and
nouns and verbs, and other things of that kind, which have discipline of the intellectual faculties … All this might
no bearing on our language, and which confuse and obscure be excusable as a prejudice or oversight; but then why
persist in it in the thirty-eighth edition of a standard book
matters instead of elucidating them.
published by the great firm in Paternoster-row?
These positions, and their opposites, were restated and
He is referring, of course, to Lindley Murray’s grammar, pub- William Hazlitt (1778–1830)
adopted anew in the 1760s, which marks the beginning lished by Longman.
of a new period of interest and involvement in English

82
 FURTHER RESOURCES
Modern English CHAPTER 6

Traditional Grammar all times these rules were as forcefully attacked as they
The books by Lowth and Murray, and those which they were authoritatively formulated. Thus, we find Bishop
influenced, contain the origins of most of the grammati- Lowth saying in 1762:
cal controversies which continue to attract attention today The principal design of a Grammar of any Language is to
(p. 206). This is the period which gave rise to the concept teach us to express ourselves with propriety in that Lan-
of ‘traditional grammar’ (as 20th-century linguists would guage; and to enable us to judge of every phrase and form of
one day call it), and in which the rules of ‘correct’ gram- construction, whether it be right or not.
matical usage were first drawn up. It was a time when the
And we have the scientist Joseph Priestley saying in The
subject was debated at length, with philosophical, logical,
Rudiments of English Grammar (1761):
aesthetic, historical, and occasionally linguistic reasons
proposed for adopting one position rather than another. Our grammarians appear to me to have acted precipitately …
Most fiercely argued was the question of whether gram- It must be allowed, that the custom of speaking is the original Robert Lowth (1710–87)
mars and dictionaries should reflect usage, describing and only just standard of any language.
Lowth, born in Winchester,
and analysing current practice, or should evaluate usage, This was the chief controversy in the 1760s, and it Hampshire, was both scholar
by prescribing certain forms as correct and proscribing remains with us today (pp. 206, 388). and clergyman. In 1742 he
others as incorrect. During the last decades of the 18th became Professor of Poetry at
century, the latter position was the influential one. But at Oxford, and in 1766 Bishop

He was consecrated Bishop of

CORRUPTION EVERYWHERE London in 1777. Apart from
his Grammar, he was known
Lowth’s ‘short introduction’ contained fewer than 200 pages, but in And he adds: for his work on Hebrew poetry,
it there are hundreds of examples of what he felt to be corrupt especially as it appears in the
In all these places, it ought to be whom.
grammar. It is important to note that these examples are not taken Old Testament.
from the speech or writing of the uneducated, or even of the There is irony, of course (if his usage is not deliberate), in that
reasonably well-educated, but from ‘the politest part of the nation, Lowth himself commits the error he is criticizing. But whether
- deliberate or not, in this case Murray would have none of it. His
version of Lowth’s sentence silently corrects its grammar: ‘This is
His procedure has been imitated for over 200 years: ‘to an idiom to which our language is strongly inclined’!
lay down rules, and to illustrate them by examples’. These
examples, moreover, are of two kinds, so that ‘beside
shewing what is right, the matter may be further explained by
pointing out what is wrong’.
In illustrating Lowth, we simultaneously illustrate Murray, who
copies extensively from him. An example is the
condemnation of the double negative construction (p. 194),
where Murray uses exactly the same words as Lowth:

Two negatives in English destroy one another, or are equivalent

to an affirmative.
And here is Lowth identifying what was to become one of the

preposition at the end of a sentence.’ His tone here is in fact much

less condemnatory than that of his imitators a generation later.
The preposition is often separated from the Relative which it
Lindley Murray (1745–1826)
or of some member of it: as, ‘Horace is an author, whom I am
much delighted with’ …This is an idiom, which our language Creek, Pennsylvania. He trained
is strongly inclined to: it prevails in common conversation, and as a lawyer, and had a highly
suits very well with the familiar style in writing: but the placing
of the Preposition before the Relative is more graceful, as well as In 1784 he retired to England,
more perspicuous; and agrees much better with the solemn and because of ill health, and lived
elevated style.
Grammar, he wrote other books
His list of bad examples includes the following:
on English, as well as religious
‘Who servest thou under?’ works.

‘Who do you speak to?’ As you like it…

‘We are still much at a loss, who civil power belongs to.’
Locke.

83
 PART I The History of English

NEW NATION, NEW THEMES lexicographical venture, A Compendious Dictionary of WEBSTER’S PROBLEM
the English Language (1806), he writes: The following words are
The linguistic issues and developments which had preoc- among those spelled -our in
No great change should be made at once, nor should any Johnson’s Dictionary:
cupied British scholars in the first half of the 18th century change be made which violates established principles, cre-
anteriour, ardour, armour,
were to hold the attention of American scholars in the ates great inconvenience, or obliterates the radicals of the behaviour, clamour, colour,
second. A gap of 33 years separates the grammars of language. But gradual changes to accommodate the written dishonour, emperour, errour,
Lowth and Murray (p. 83), and a similar period separates to the spoken language, when they occasion none of those fervour, flavour, governour,
Johnson’s Dictionary (p. 78) from Noah Webster’s Dis- evils, and especially when they purify words from corrup- harbour, honour, horrour,
tions, improve the regular analogies of a language and illus- humour, inferiour, interiour,
sertations on the English Language (1789). In this work, labour, neighbour, odour,
trate etymology, are not only proper, but indispensable.
Webster proposed the institution of an ‘American stan- oratour, parlour, rancour,
dard’. It was partly a matter of honour ‘as an independent This dictionary was no small achievement: it contained c. rumour, saviour, splendour,
nation … to have a system of our own, in language as well superiour, terrour, tremour,
28,000 words, as well as encyclopedic information (such
valour, vapour, warriour
as government’; it was partly a matter of common sense, as population figures). However, it received a mixed
The following are some of
because in England ‘the taste of her writers is already reception: despite its inclusion of new American vocabu- those spelled with -or:
corrupted, and her language on the decline’; and it was lary, many were offended by the way Webster attacked actor, auditor, author, captor,
partly a matter of practicality, England being at ‘too great Johnson’s Dictionary (he objected in particular to its collector, conductor, creditor,
a distance to be our model’. This national or ‘federal’ difficult words, its vulgarisms, and its excessive use of director, doctor, editor, elector,
language was inevitable, because the exploration of the quotations) and by his evident ambition to surpass John- equator, exterior, factor,
inspector, junior, languor,
new continent would bring many new words into the lan- son’s achievement. His recommended spellings were liquor, manor, mediator, mirror,
guage, which Britain would not share; but it also needed also treated with suspicion, as were some of his pronun- motor, pastor, posterior,
fostering. Spelling reform, he concluded, would be a ciations. Critics pointed to inconsistencies in the way he professor, protector, rector,
major step in that direction: ‘a difference between the tried to justify his proposals. If the u in labour is to be sculptor, sector, senator, senior,
stupor, tailor, torpor, tutor
English orthography and the American … is an object of omitted because it is not used in laborious, why not omit
Given the inconsistency in the
vast political consequence’. the u of curious because it is not used in curiosity? And list (e.g. interiour vs exterior), it
Although Webster went through a period in which he why not keep -re, given the links between centre and cen- is not surprising to find
advocated radical reform, the position he finally adopted tral, theatre and theatrical, and many others? Webster, and Worcester after
was a fairly moderate one. In the Preface to his first him (p. 86), opting to dispense
with the distinction altogether.

THE BLUE-BACKED SPELLER

The American Spelling Book was from a few ‘trifling alterations’, such as
first published in 1783 as Part 1 of A diacritics and ligatures). These proposals,
Grammatical Institute of the English first advocated in a 1789 essay, were
Language (Part 2, a grammar, ap- based instead on ‘the omission of all
peared in 1784, and Part 3, a reader, superfluous and silent letters’ (e.g. bred
in 1785). Within the next 60 years for bread) and on the ‘substitution of
this book, in its distinctive blue cover, a character that has a certain definite
went through over 250 printings, and sound, for one that is more vague and
had several revised editions. Undoubt- indeterminate’ (e.g. greeve for grieve).
edly the most popular schoolbook ever The major revision of the speller in
published, it was selling a million cop- 1804 contained his first proposals,
ies a year in the 1850s – and in a total deleting u from words ending in -our
c. 23 million. (e.g. favor) and -k from those ending
In the introduction to the speller, Web- in -ick (e.g. music). His full range of
ster follows British spelling norms, and proposals was published in his Compen-
cites Johnson’s Dictionary as his guide. dious Dictionary of 1806; they included
He even goes so far as to denounce -er for -re (e.g. theater), -se for -ce (e.g.
those spelling reformers who ‘alter the defense), -k for -que (e.g. check), and
spellings of words, by expunging the single l before a suffix, depending on
superfluous letters’, such as favor. the stress (traveling vs excelling). These
Within a few years, however, he had changes are now familiar because they
changed his mind. At first he planned a were to become standard features of
radically different phonetic alphabet, but
when this received little support he devel- dropping of final e (as in definit and
oped a more moderate solution, avoiding examin) or of silent letters (as in fether
the introduction of any new letters (apart and ile) never caught on.

84
 FURTHER RESOURCES
Modern English CHAPTER 6

Webster’s The other, some years later (1854), was sent to the pub-
In 1828 appeared An American Dictionary of the English lishers by the Superintendent of Common Schools in the
Language, in two volumes, containing some 70,000 state of Maine:
words. The work greatly improved the coverage of sci- Nationality of language is a stronger bond of union than
entific and technical terms, as well as terms to do with constitutional compromises or commercial affiliations. Your
American culture and institutions (such as congress and Dictionaries afford every facility for a national standard.
plantation), and added a great deal of encyclopedic infor-
mation. A new feature was the introduction of Webster’s The later history of Webster’s dictionary is reviewed
own etymologies – though the speculative nature of many on p. 499.
of these was an early source of unwelcome criticism. The
spellings were somewhat more conservative than those
used in the 1806 book. Its pronunciations were generally NOAH WEBSTER (1758–1843)
provincial in character – those of Webster’s own New Webster was born in West He began his dictionary work the text of the American
England. Hartford, Connecticut. He in 1800, and 25 years later, Dictionary in Cambridge,
The label ‘American’ in the title is more a reflection following a year’s research in England. It finally appeared
European libraries, he finished in 1828, when he was 70.
of the works of American authors referred to than of its
War of Independence. He then
uniquely American lexicon. Indeed, at one point Webster worked as a teacher, clerk,
observed (though not with any great accuracy) that ‘there and lawyer; and it was during
were not fifty words in all which were used in America his time as a teacher that he
and not in England’. On the other hand, nearly half of became dissatisfied with the
the words he did include are not to be found in Johnson’s texts which were available,
especially with their lack of
Dictionary, which added considerable force to his claim
a distinctively American per-
that he was giving lexicography a fresh direction. spective. After publishing his
Despite its weaknesses and its critics, the American speller, grammar, and reader
Dictionary made Webster a household name in the USA. (1783–5), he spent a great
It was fiercely attacked in Britain for its Americanism, deal of time travelling and
lobbying, partly to support
especially in matters of spelling and usage; but the work
himself, and partly to obtain
was crucial in giving to US English an identity and status support for his ideas, as well
comparable to that given to the British English lexicon as protection for his writing
by Dr Johnson. Indeed, it is difficult to appreciate today (there being no copyright law
the impact which ‘Webster’s’ made at the time, and just at that time). In 1798 he
-
how authoritative the book was perceived to be. Two con-
necticut, where he became
temporary quotations are quite clear on the point. One is active in local politics, and later
from a letter sent to Webster by the principal of a New helped to found academic
York high school in 1827 – a year before the dictionary institutions, notably Amherst
actually appeared: College in Massachusetts.

Your Dictionary, Sir, is the best book of the kind that has been
published since the flood. As soon as it is published, I will lay
it on my table, and tell my pupils, ‘That is your canon; follow
that, and no other book’. AN AMERICAN ACADEMY
The concept of an Academy as a of ‘ascertaining and improving the
means of regulating the language was American tongue’.
THE ORIGINAL AMERICANISM
(p. 77). A proposal for an ‘American City, that an American Academy of
John Witherspoon was a Language and Belles Lettres was finally
early as 1774. In 1780, Congress launched, with John Quincy Adams as
in 1768, becoming president of the College received a letter hoping that it would president. Its aim was ‘to promote the
form ‘the first public institution for purity and uniformity of the English
An enthusiastic supporter of the American refining, correcting, and ascertaining language’, and it had plans for a dic-
colonists, he was the only clergyman to sign the English language’, and a bill for the tionary – though of a rather different
the Declaration of Independence. His place incorporation of a national academy kind from Webster’s, for the members
in English linguistic history is assured as the was actually introduced into Congress strongly disapproved of American
first to use the term Americanism – a way of in 1806, but unsuccessfully. The short- neologisms. However, after only two
speaking ‘peculiar to this country’ – in an essay years, having received little support
on English in America, written in 1781. formed in 1788, and with Webster a from government or public, the group
John Witherspoon (1723–94) prominent member, also had the aim broke up.

85
 PART I The History of English

THE FIRST DICTIONARY WAR

Webster’s American Dictionary cost $20 – an principles were at stake. Webster’s unequivo-
expensive item, and with a first edition of only cal Americanism was in marked contrast with
2,500 copies, it was not a commercial success. Worcester’s lexical conservatism, with his choice of
Webster actually had to borrow money to help a more refined pronunciation, and with his prefer-
pay the printer’s bill. A single-volume abridged ence for established (British) usage in spellings.
version was therefore proposed, and Joseph The war of the dictionaries lasted until the
Worcester (1784–1865), widely known as a 1860s, long after Webster’s death (1843), and is
textbook writer, was employed to edit it. The now remembered more for the antagonistic pam-
new edition appeared in 1829. phleteering and general unpleasantness of its rival
A year later, Worcester published a dictionary marketing campaigns than for its contribution to
of his own, A Comprehensive Pronouncing and lexicographical thought. The last engagement of
Explanatory Dictionary of the English Language – the war took place when Worcester’s major work,
Worcester’s centre entry, 1860.
a work which was more conservative in spelling A Dictionary of the English Language (1860)
than Webster’s, contained no etymologies, and appeared, with 104,000 entries, many illustra-
presented a more cultivated level of pronunciation. tive quotations, synonym essays, and traditional
Although Worcester had planned his dictionary spellings. The work was very well received, but it
before working for Webster, its appearance was overtaken by the 1864 edition of Webster,
brought criticisms of plagiarism, and antagonism which introduced some of Worcester’s innova-
grew after the publication of a larger edition in tory features, and contained a total revision of
1846 under the title of A Universal and Critical the etymologies by a German scholar, C. A. F.
Dictionary of the English Language, whose English Mahn. This revision, now called A Dictionary of
edition had on its title-page ‘Compiled from the English Language (and known in lexicogra-

E. Worcester’. As a new edition of Webster’s Government Printing Office adopted it the same
Dictionary had appeared in 1841, this fuelled the year, and Webster’s spellings were used in its first
opposition between the two lexicographers and
their supporters. It was not just a marketing battle (But there was to be a second dictionary war, a
Webster’s center entry, as published in an
between rival publishers; different lexicographical century later: see p. 499.)
1890/1920 revision.

A DECADE OF DICTIONARIES AND ENCYCLOPEDIAS THE AGE OF

A Dictionary 1842 John C. Loudon, 1844 Alexander Reid, A Diction- 1846 J. E. Worcester, A Universal DICTIONARIES
of Botanical Terms. Encyclopædia of Trees ary of the English Language. and Critical Dictionary of the The first half of the 19th
1840 William Humble, Dictionary and Shrubs. 1844 Thomas Webster, An English Language. century was remarkable for
of Geology and Mineralogy. 1842 Gibbons Merle, The Encyclopædia of Domestic 1847 H. Fox Talbot, English the number of dictionaries
Scientific Domestic Dictionary and Economy. Etymologies. which appeared on both
and Literary Treasury. Housekeeper’s Manual. 1845 William Bowles, An A Diction- sides of the Atlantic. Joseph
Smart’s Pro- Encyclopæ- Explanatory and Phonograph- ary of the English Language. Worcester provides a
nouncing Dictionary of the dia Britannica (7th edition). ic Pronouncing Dictionary of 1848 John R. Bartlett, Dictionary catalogue of English
English Language. 1843 John Bouvier, A Law the English Language. of Americanisms. dictionaries at the beginning
of his 1860 edition, and
1841 R. H. Dana, Jr, Dictionary Dictionary, adapted to the A Pentaglot 1848 John Boag, The Impe-
identifies 64 items published
of Sea Terms. Constitution and Laws of Dictionary of Anatomy, Physi- rial Lexicon of the English
in England since Johnson’s
1841 Walter F. Hook, Church the United States, and of the ology, Pathology, Practical Language.
Dictionary (1755) and a
Dictionary. several States. Medicine, Surgery, &c. 1848 Arthur B. Evans, Leices-
further 30 items in America
A 1843 William Goodhugh and 1845 John Platts, A Dictionary of tershire Words.
since the first Webster
Dictionary of Terms in Use in William C. Taylor, The Picto- English Synonymes. Treasury compilation (1806) – almost
the Arts and Sciences. rial Dictionary of the Holy A Diction- of Natural History, or Popular one a year. These were all
An Ameri- Bible. ary of the English Language Dictionary of Animated general dictionaries: in
can Dictionary of the English 1843 William Waterston, A (university abridged edition). Nature. addition there were over 200
Language (new edition). Cyclopædia of Commerce. 1846 William Bowles, A Phono- 1849 Anonymous, A Glossary specialized dictionaries and
A Glos- A graphic Pronouncing Diction- of Words used in Teesdale, glossaries, as well as over 30
sary of Provincial Words in Dictionary of Military Science. ary (abridged). Durham. encyclopedias, showing how
Use in Wiltshire. 1844 Joseph Gwilt, An Encylopæ- 1846 John T. Brockett, A Glos- 1849 J. R. Beard, The People’s compilers were under
1842 William Brande, A Diction- dia of Architecture. sary of North Country Words. Dictionary of the Bible. pressure to keep up with the
ary of Science, Literature, 1844 Richard D. Hoblyn, A Dic- 1846 Robert Eden, Churchman’s 1849 John Craig, A New, Uni- increases in knowledge and
and Art. tionary of the Terms used in Theological Dictionary (2nd versal, Etymological, Techno- terminology that stemmed
1842 William Carpenter, A Medicine and the Collateral edition). logical, and Pronouncing from the Industrial
Comprehensive Dictionary Sciences. 1846 B. F. Graham, English Dictionary of the English Revolution, progress in
of English Synonymes (3rd 1844 Cuthbert W. Johnson, The Synonymes. Language. science and medicine, and
edition). Farmer’s Encyclopædia and 1846 James O. Halliwell, A 1849 John Eadie, Biblical fresh philological
perspectives. The world was
1842 G. Francis, The Dictionary Dictionary of Rural Affairs. Dictionary of Archaic and Cyclopædia.
not to see such an explosion
of the Arts, Sciences, and 1844 John Kitto, A Cyclopædia Provincial Words. 1850 Alexander Burrill, A Law
of dictionaries and reference
Manufactures. of Biblical Literature. Dictionary and Glossary.
works again until the 1980s
(p. 502).

86
 FURTHER RESOURCES
Modern English CHAPTER 6

AMERICAN IDENTITIES been printed there by that time, and dozens of American AN INTERNATIONAL
towns were being given such names as Waverley and STANDARD
Around the turn of the 19th century in America there Ivanhoe (p. 154). The resonances of Abraham
was fierce intellectual debate about the direction the The lack of works by recognized literary figures is Lincoln’s speech at the
one reason for the limited lexical growth suggested by dedication of the Gettysburg
new country was taking. Of particular concern was Civil War cemetery (held on 19
the slow emergence of American literature compared Webster and others (p. 85). Thousands of new words
with what was seen to be happening in Europe (the age were being coined all over America, of course, but they far beyond its time and country.
of Wordsworth, Scott, and Goethe). Despite the well- were not reaching a wide public through large book Its sentiments are memorably
sales, and domestic sources of usage did not appeal to nationalistic, but there is nothing
established genres of sermons, journals, letters, histo- in its vocabulary, grammar, or
ries, practical manuals, descriptions of America, and those lexicographers who wished to emulate Johnson by rhetorical style to show that it is
political pamphlets, from a literary point of view the using prestigious literary quotations (p. 79). Times would American in origin. This is
post-revolutionary period was, as Ralph Waldo Emer- change, as the works of Washington Irving, James Feni- standard English, transcending
more Cooper, Edgar Allan Poe, and of Emerson himself national boundaries, and
son later described it, singularly ‘barren’. According evidently well established by
to one commentator, George Tucker, writing in 1813, would demonstrate. By the middle of the century, we mid-century. It is important not
Britain’s population of 18 million was producing up to have the first edition of Leaves of Grass (1855) by Walt to disregard the existence of this
a thousand new books a year, whereas America’s six Whitman, an author who calls for a literature free from genre, on both sides of the
European influence, and Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Atlantic, when paying attention
million could manage only 20. And in 1823, another to American and Victorian
public figure, Charles J. Ingersoll, drew attention to Tom’s Cabin, the best-selling novel of the 19th century. (p. 90) linguistic distinctiveness.
the continuing intellectual dependence of America on And in this later work would appear the results of the
Fourscore and seven years ago
Britain, citing the way American presses were print- vast tide of lexical innovation which was already, in those
our fathers brought forth on this
ing a flood of editions of British books and magazines. early decades, transforming the linguistic identity of the continent a new nation,
Perhaps as many as half a million of Scott’s novels had new nation. conceived in liberty and
dedicated to the proposition that
AMERICA TALKING
we are engaged in a great civil
The new American vocabulary of the 19th war, testing whether that nation,
century came from a mixture of sources. or any nation so conceived and so
dedicated, can long endure. We
especially influential, but also many older are met on a great battle field of
English words came to be used with new that war. We have come to
senses or in new phrases.The opening up dedicate a portion of that field as
of the West was one major factor in a final resting-place for those
lexical expansion; the arrival of waves who here gave their lives that that
of immigrants, towards the end of the nation might live. It is altogether
century, was another (p. 100). fitting and proper that we should
do this. But, in a larger sense, we
bronco (1850), cattle town (1881), chaps
cannot dedicate – we cannot
(1870), corral (1829), cowpoke (1880),
consecrate – we cannot hallow –
dogie (1888), dude (1883), lariat (1831),
this ground. The brave men,
lasso (1819), maverick (1867), ranch living and dead, who struggled
(1808), range (1835), roundup (1876), here, have consecrated it far
rustler (1882), six shooter (1844), stampede above our poor power to add or
(1843), tenderfoot (1849), trail boss (1890) detract. The world will little note,
nor long remember what we say
The Melting Pot
here, but it can never forget what
This phrase, the title of Israel Zangwill’s
they did here. It is for us the living,
1909 successful play, itself became part of rather, to be dedicated here to
the new lexicon, and well summarizes the the unfinished work which they
effect on American English of thousands of MYTH OR REALITY? In the later period, many of the
words put into the mouths of native who fought here have thus far so
new words and phrases from German, Ital- nobly advanced. It is rather for us
people were invented or popular-
(1790), Indian Agency (1822), medicine to be here dedicated to the great
ized by white authors who imagined
as well as the jargon of the immigration dance (1805), peace pipe (1860), reserva- task remaining before us – that
that this was how ‘Indians’ ought
tion (1789), smoke signal (1873) from these honored dead we
to talk. Examples include How! (as
particular, there was a marked increase in take increased devotion to that
These words represent a fairly late a greeting), heap big, and Great
the number of offensive racial labels. cause for which they gave the last
stage of development in the lexicon of White Father. Happy Hunting Ground
full measure of devotion; that we
delicatessen (1893), Hunk (1896), kike is known from Washington Irving here highly resolve that these
(1880s), kindergarten (1862), natu- words entered the language during the (1837); paleface, war path, and dead shall not have died in vain;
ralization papers (1856), Polack (1879), period of first encounter: for example, war paint are from James Fenimore that this nation, under God, shall
spaghetti (1880s), spiel (1894), tutti-frutti moccasin, papoose, powwow, Cooper (1820s). Myth or reality, they have a new birth of freedom, and
(1876), wop (1890s). wigwam, and tomahawk are all became part of the American lexicon that government of the people,
17th-century borrowings. nonetheless. by the people, for the people,
shall not perish from the earth.

87
 FURTHER RESOURCES
PART I The History of English

BREAKING THE RULES capitalizing on an important genre of dialect writing

which had emerged in American literature during
By the 1860s, the American spelling system had become the 1840s, seen at its most successful in Uncle Tom’s
so established that writers dared to play about with it, Cabin (1851–2), and on a trend in comic writing where
and several made nation-wide reputations from doing southern speakers, especially blacks, were portrayed as
so. Artemus Ward and Josh Billings were leading pro- uneducated or as figures of fun. Dialect vocabulary and
ponents of a comic-spelling genre which was extremely grammar (hain’t, saw for seen, etc.) were used as well as
popular in the later decades of the century. Its homespun mis-spelling, though it was the spelling which created
wit and down-to-earth sentiments were expressed in a the impact.
style which seemed to reflect the sounds and rhythms The British writer, John Camden Hotten, in an 1865
of local speech. Both writers used an intuitive semi- essay introducing the works of Artemus Ward, thought to
phonetic system. Neither of them bothered much about explain the man’s remarkable appeal as part of an Ameri-
consistency (e.g. to is spelled tew, tu, or 2; fun appears can tradition of ‘mixing of sacred with secular matters’:
as both fun and phun), but the simple combination of incongruity of ideas is carried to a much greater extent in
informal nonstandard forms with a subject-matter nor- American humour than it is in our own; and it is this mental
mally associated with formal Standard English was evi- exaggeration, this odd mixture of widely different thoughts,
dently enough to guarantee success. that distinguishes Yankee from English fun…
It is perhaps not surprising that people who had only It was the linguistic incongruity, however, which was the
recently come to recognize their own literary stan- key to the success of both Ward and Billings. Rewrite
dards should begin to laugh at those who had not. But their material into standard English, and – as Billings
these writers should not be seen in isolation. They were originally realized – much of its effect is lost.

JOSH BILLINGS
Josh Billings was the pseu- Twain thought the bad
JOSH BILLINGS: HIS ennyboddy who wants
donym of Henry Wheeler spelling got in the way of
SAYINGS tew be poor jist for the
the wisdom, which had
purpiss ov being good.
Lanesboro, Massachusetts, real value in its own right. Chastity iz like an isikel. if it
he settled in Poughkeepsie, Humin natur is the same all
onse melts that’s the last ov it.
to have had some reserva- After awl ced and dun the
and began to write in his tions about it. In ‘Answers England, and thar its akor-
gran sekret of winning is din tu sarcumstances.
40s. His famous ‘Essay to Personal Letters’ tew win.
on the Mule’, when first (1873), he remarked: Akordin tu skripter thar will
It iz tru that welth won’t KOLIDING
published in The Pough- be just about as many Kam-
I adopted it in a moment maik a man vartuous, mills in heavin as rich men. The word ‘kolide,’ used bi
keepsian, attracted little
ov karlassness … There but i notis thare ain’t ralerode men, haz an indefinit
interest. He then saw a
piece by Artemus Ward, is just az mutch joke in meaning tew menny folks. Thru
and ‘translated’ his Essay bad spelling az thare iz in the kindness of a nere and dear
into the same kind of gro- looking kross-eyed, and no frend, i am able tew translate the
tesque spelling, as ‘An Essa more … like other sinners wurd so that enny man ken
who ask for forgiveness understand it at onst. The term
on the Muel’. It was an
and keep rite on sinning, ‘kolide’ is used tew explain the
immediate success, and he
i now ask the world tew sarkumstanse ov 2 trains ov cars
became a national figure
forgiv me and I will promis triing tew pass each uther on a
in the years after the Civil
not tew reform. single trak. It is ced that it never
War, known especially for
yet haz bin did suckcessfully,
his rustic philosophizing: hence a ‘kolide.’
It is better to know less didn’t. In 1873 he was
than to know so much that hardly half way through a THE MULE
ain’t so. 10-year series of burlesque
The mule is haf hoss, and haf
Abraham Lincoln com- pieces, Josh Billings’ Jackass, and then kums to a full
Farmer’s Allminax. An 1868 stop, natur diskovering her
aphorism best sums up his mistake. Tha weigh more,
was the greatest judge of approach (from ‘Josh Bill- akordin tu their heft, than enny
human nature the world ings on Ice’): other kreetur, except a crowbar.
has ever seen’ – and Tha kant hear enny quicker, not
I hold that a man has just as
read his aphorisms to the further than the hoss, yet their
mutch rite tew spel a word ears are big enuff for snow
Cabinet.
as it is pronounced, as he
Billings’s style did not
has tew pronounce it the enny one whose life aint worth
escape criticism. Mark
way it ain’t spelt. enny more than the mules.

88
 FURTHER RESOURCES
Modern English CHAPTER 6

ARTEMUS WARD
Artemus Ward was the pseudonym of Charles Farrar
Browne (1834–67) – a printer’s apprentice
who became a journalist, then a profes-
sional humorist. The character he created
was presented as the manager of an
itinerant sideshow who ‘sounds off’
in articles and letters on all kinds of
topics, using a style which is full of
puns and bad spellings. His lectures,
full of word-play and throw-away
remarks, always delivered in a grave,
melancholy manner, brought him

abroad. He was in poor health for many

years, and his early death was mourned
throughout the country.

ARTEMUS WARD TO THE PRINCE OF WALES

FRIEND WALES In my country, we’ve & it may as well be the
remember me. I saw got a war, while your war as any body else.
you in Canady a few country, in conjunktion When I git a goakin
years ago. I remember
you too. I seldim forgit Alobarmy, manetanes a no use to try ter stop me.
a person. nootrol position!…
I hearn of your marrige draft, friend Wales, no
to the Printcis Alexandry, war, and the troo Patrit doubt. It caus’d sum
& ment ter writ you a has to make sacrifisses, squirmin’, but it was
congratoolatory letter you bet. fairly conducted, I think,
at the time, but I’ve bin I have alreddy given for it hit all classes…
bildin a barn this sum- two cousins to the war, We hain’t got any
mer, & hain’t had no & I stand reddy to sac- daily paper in our
time to write letters to rifiss my wife’s brother town, but we’ve got
folks. Excoos me. ruther’n not see the a female sewin circle,
rebelyin krusht. And if which ansers the same
tooken place since we wuss cums to wuss I’ll purpuss, and we wasn’t
met in the body politic. shed ev’ry drop of blud long in suspents as to
The body politic, in my able-bodid relations who was drafted…
fack, is sick. I sumtimes has got to prosekoot the
think it has got biles, war. I think sumbody
friend Wales. oughter be prosekooted,

TWO DIALECT GIANTS

The American comic writers were writing for an audience who by the 1860s were well
used to seeing a written representation of nonstandard speech. In particular, most of ‘I ‘m glad Mas’r did n’t go off this morning, as he looked to,’ said Tom;
Uncle ‘that ar hurt me more than sellin’, it did. Mebbe it might have been
Tom’s Cabin, published in 1851–2 as a series of instalments in the abolitionist journal, natural for him, but ‘t would have come desp’t hard on me, as has
National Era. In 1852 it appeared in book form, and sold 300,000 copies in America known him from a baby; but I ‘ve seen Mas’r, and I begin ter feel sort o’
during its first year, with huge (though heavily pirated) sales in Britain. reconciled to the Lord’s will now.
(Uncle Tom’s Cabin, 1851–2, Ch. 7.)
and Ward, and these in turn anticipate the style of dialect writing which reached its peak
Looky here – didn’t de line pull loose en de raf’ go a hummin’ down de
in the novels of Mark Twain (who knew Billings’s work well). Twain’s use of orthography is
river, en leave you en de canoe behine in de fog? … En didn’t you
all these literary representations there is an inevitable shaping, selectivity, and simplification,
(Huckleberry Finn, 1884, Ch. 15.)
resulting in a stereotype which, for many, has replaced reality (pp. 102, 366).

89
 FURTHER RESOURCES
PART I The History of English

VARIETY AWARENESS the study of language, especially in relation to questions of LANGUAGE ATTITUDES
etymology (§10) and the role of classical models. It stimu- -
One of the most interesting features of the 19th century is the lated arguments about the nature of language change, cor- ally spoke the dialect; her
way consciousness was raised about the nature and use of rectness in usage, and methods of teaching. Innumerable daughter, who had passed
language. The compilation of dictionaries, grammars, spell- societies and journals were founded to study such subjects
ing books, and pronunciation manuals in the second half of as local dialects, the history of language, vocabulary reform
London-trained mistress,
the 18th century had focused attention on standard forms (p. 135), spelling reform (p. 288), and shorthand, or to debate
spoke two languages; the
in an unprecedented manner (pp. 76, 82). With widespread the future of English. The Romantic movement in particular dialect at home, more or
standardization came an increased sensitivity on the part promoted a special interest in the way ordinary people spoke, less; ordinary English abroad
of ‘ordinary’ users of the language to the range of varieties and there was a growing sense of the distance between lin- and to persons of quality.
guistic scholarship and language reality. The American poet (Thomas Hardy,
which existed, and to the social nuances attached to different
Tess of the Durbervilles,
usages. There was also an increased readiness on the part Walt Whitman, in an essay on American slang for The North
1891, Ch. 3.)
of authors to experiment with the language (p. 88), and in American Review (1885), summed it up like this: -
particular to find new techniques of expression for the range tilious in his pronunciation
Language, be it remembered, is not an abstract construction of English, though his son
of diverse ‘voices’ which the emerging genre of the novel
of the learned, or of dictionary-makers, but is something talked a Lancashire patois.
permitted. As Charles Dickens put it, in an essay on ‘Saxon
arising out of the work, needs, ties, joys, affections, tastes, Lord Derby would insolently
English’ in Household Words (1858): ‘if a man wishes to correct Lord Granville across
of long generations of humanity, and has its bases broad
write for all, he must know how to use the speech of all’. and low, close to the ground. Its final decisions are made the House of Lords. Lord
Also important were the discoveries at the end of the 18th by the masses, people nearest the concrete, having most to Granville always said
century about the historical relationship between Sanskrit, ‘wropped up’ – ‘wrapped’
do with actual land and sea. It impermeates all, the past
Lord Derby would say in a
Greek, and Latin, which ushered in the age of compara- as well as the present, and is the grandest triumph of the
tone clear to the reporters.
tive philology. This subject brought fresh perspectives to human intellect. (Benjamin Disraeli,
Reminiscences.)
-
THE LATEST THING IN CRIME
some note four or five days
(A Dialogue of the Present Day) Ida. Well, it appears he splits ago. I do so thank you for
his infinitives. your kindness. There! there
Mrs. Featherston’s language issues in the 19th century comes from the way
Flossie (horrified ). Oh, not are 2 sentences with ‘so’
Drawing-room. writers and cartoonists begin to satirize them. This dialogue
really? But how cruel of him! in them not followed by
Mrs. Thistledown discovered was reprinted in a late Victorian anthology called Mr. Punch
Why, I met him at the Drag- ‘as’, as Mr Gaskell says they
calling. in Society
netts’ only last week, and he ought to be. I will make
Mrs. Thistledown (taking up a them one grammatical sen-
didn’t look at all that kind of
novel on a side-table). “The tence, & have done. I am so
person!
Romance of a Plumber,” by much obliged to you as to
Ida. I’m afraid there’s no
Paul Poshley. My dear Flossie, be incapable of expressing
doubt about it. It’s perfectly
you don’t mean to tell me my obligation but by saying
notorious. And of course
you read that man?
any one who once takes
Mrs. Featherston. I haven’t most truly,
to that –
had time to do more than dip E. C. Gaskell
Flossie Quite
into it as yet. But why, Ida? (Letters, 1854.)
hopeless. At least, I suppose
Oughtn’t I to read him?
so. Isn’t it?
Ida. Well, from something Mr. remembered. We must
Ida. Mr Pinceney seemed to
Pinceney told me the other distinguish between the
think so.
day – but really it’s too bad English which we speak, and
Flossie. How sad! But can’t any-
to repeat such things. One that which we write. Many
thing be done, Ida? Isn’t there
never knows, there may be expressions are not only
any law to punish him? By the
nothing in it. tolerated but required in
bye, how do you split – what
Flossie. conversation, which are not
is it? – infinitudes?
well tell me, Ida! Of course I usually put on paper. Thus,
Ida. My dear, I thought you
should never dream – for instance, everyone says
knew. I really didn’t like to
Ida. After all, I don’t suppose ‘can’t’ for cannot, ‘won’t’
ask any questions.
there’s any secret about it. for will not, ‘isn’t’ for is not,
Flossie. Well, whatever it is, I
It seems, from what Mr. in conversation; but we
shall tell Mudies not to send
Pinceney says, that this Mr. seldom see these contrac-
me anything more of his.
Poshley – you must promise tions in books, except where
I don’t think one ought to
not to say I told you – Visitor. “I’ve just been to make my first call on Mrs. a conversation is related.
encourage such persons.
Flossie. Of course – of course. Johnson. ” (Henry Alford,
But do go on, Ida. What does (From Mr. Punch in Society, c.
Lady of the House. The Queen’s English, 1869,
Mr. Poshley do? 1870.)
to know anyone!” Point 94.)

90
 FURTHER RESOURCES
Modern English CHAPTER 6

The Language of Science publicity, and introduced new nomenclatures and styles
English scientific and technical vocabulary had been of expression to an ever-curious public. By the end of
growing steadily since the Renaissance (p. 60), but the century, there was a recognizable variety of scien-
the 19th century saw an unprecedented growth in this tific English (p. 396), shaped by the observations of
domain, while the lexicon incorporated the conse- grammarians, the expectations of the burgeoning scien-
quences of the Industrial Revolution and the accom- tific societies, and the style guides of the new academic
panying period of scientific exploration. Significant journals. Both ‘scientific’ and ‘technical’ are recognized
discoveries and theories, such as Faraday’s on elec- as major lexical dimensions in the 1888 Preface to the
tricity, or Darwin’s on evolution, achieved widespread New English Dictionary (p. 500).

NOMENCLATURE
Any examination of the growth Physics
of scientific vocabulary in the centigrade 1799
19th century would find that sonometer 1802
some sciences are conspicuous- colorimeter 1844
ly under-represented, for the ohm 1861
simple reason that their foun- ampère 1863
dations had been laid much joule 1882
earlier. Most of the basic terms voltmeter 1882
of anatomy, for example, had watt 1882
been introduced by the end of electron 1891
the 17th century, as had a great
deal of mathematical terminol- Biology
ogy. On the other hand, from flagellum 1807
the end of the 18th century chlorophyll 1819
rapid progress in chemistry, spermatozoon 1836
physics, and biology led to such diatom 1845
major lexical developments as bacterium 1847
the nomenclature of chemical leucocyte 1870
elements and compounds, symbiosis 1882
The most pr and the Linnaean system of mitosis 1887
ominent requ
to a lecturer isite classification in natural history chromosome 1889
, though pe
not really th rhaps (p. 396). The dates given below photosynthesis 1893
e most impo
is a good de rtant, are those of the first recorded
SCIENTIFIC DISCOURSE Britain with the formation of livery; for th
to all true ph ough usage, as given in the Oxford Geology
ilosophers sc
Michael Faraday (1791– and nature ience English Dictionary. apatite 1803
London (1830), the British will have ch
1867) giving a Friday Evening innumerable arms cretaceous 1831
Association for the in every dres
Discourse at the Royal Institu- yet I am sorry s, Science names Jurassic 1831
to say that
generality of the biology 1802 pliocene 1831
(1831), and the Provincial mankind ca
London (founded in 1799 by accompany nnot petrology 1807 mesozoic 1840
- us one shor
Benjamin Thompson, Count unless the pa t hour taxonomy 1828 triassic 1841
ation (1832, later called the th is strewed
Rumford). The Prince Con- flowers … W with morphology 1830 Cambrian 1842
British Medical Association). ith respect to
sort is in the audience. action of th the palaeontology 1838 oligocene 1856
e lecturer, it
These discourses, along site that he is requi- ethnology 1842 bauxite 1861
decade saw the American have some,
with a series of Christmas lec- it does not though gynaecology 1847 Ordovician 1879
here bear th
tures for children, were begun importance e histology 1847
(1839), the American that it does
in 1826 as part of a concern branches of in other carcinology 1852 Medicine
Medical Association oratory; for
to make science accessible. I know of no though embryology 1859 gastritis 1806
(1847), and the American other specie
In the 2000s the Institution delivery that s of laryngitis 1822
Association for the requires less
continues to provide a forum tion, yet I w mo- Chemistry kleptomania 1830
ould by no
where, as its annual Proceed- have a lectur means tellurium 1800 cirrhosis 1840
(1848). By the end of er glued to
ings state, ‘non-specialists table or scre the sodium 1807 neuritis 1840
the century, in America wed to the
may meet the leading scien- He must by floor. strontium 1808 diphtheria 1842
alone, over 50 national all means ap
tists of our time and hear their as a body di pear platinum 1812 haemophilia 1854
councils, societies, or stinct and se
latest discoveries explained in from the th parate silicon 1817 aphasia 1867
associations had been in gs around hi
everyday language’. and must ha m, caffeine 1830 claustrophobia 1879
founded, dealing with ve some mot
Keeping pace with the apart from ion chloroform 1848
scientific subjects as th at which they
growth in scientific societies possess. (Let sucrose 1862 -
diverse as entomol- ter from Fara
must have been difficult, in to Benjamin day cocaine 1874 porating 2017 OED revisions.)
ogy, dentistry, and Abbott, 11
Faraday’s time. The 1830s, June argon 1895
engineering.
for example, began in

91
 PART I The History of English

LITERARY VOICES

WILLIAM WORDSWORTH (1770–1850) WALTER SCOTT (1771–1832)

The principal object, then, proposed
in these Poems, was to choose and the wise & witty & the accomplished and which had not a
incidents and situations from trace of vulgarity in it but on the contrary sounded rather grace-
common life, and to relate or
describe them throughout, as late Lady Dumfries – my poor mother & other ladies of that day
far as was possible, in a selec- spoke their native language – it was different from the English as
tion of language really used by the Venetian is from the Tuscan dialect of Italy but it never occurd
men, and, at the same time,
to throw over them a certain vulgar than those who spoke the purer and more classical – But that
colouring of the imagination, is all gone and the remembrance will be drownd with us the elders of
whereby ordinary things should be this existing generation. (Letters, VII.83)
presented to the mind in an unusual
aspect … Humble and rustic life was generally chosen … because ‘It would have cost him sae little fash,’ she said to herself; ‘for I hae seen his pen gang as fast
such men hourly communicate with the best objects from which ower the paper, as ever it did ower the water when it was in the grey goose’s wing. Wae’s me!
the best part of language is originally derived; and because, maybe he may be badly – but then my father wad likely hae said something about it – Or may-
from their rank in society and the sameness and narrow circle of be he may hae taen the rue, and kensna how to let me wot of his change of mind. He needna
their intercourse, being less under the influence of social vanity, be at muckle fash about it’… (Jeanie, thinking about Butler, in The Heart of Midlothian, 1818,
they convey their feelings and notions in simple and unelabo- Border edition, pp. 592–3.)
rated expressions. Accordingly, such a language, arising out of
repeated experience and regular feelings, is a more permanent,
and a far more philosophical language, than that which is WILLIAM MAKEPEACE THACKERAY (1811–63)
frequently substituted for it by Poets, who think that they are
conferring honour upon themselves and their art in propor- I think Mr Dickens has in many things quite a divine genius so to
tion as they separate speak, and certain notes in his song are so delightful and admirable
themselves from the that I should never think of trying to imitate him, only hold my
Glad sight wherever new with old
sympathies of men, tongue and admire him. I quarrel with his Art in many respects:
Is joined through some dear
and indulge in arbitrary homeborn tie;
and capricious habits appears to me an exaggeration of a man, as his name is of a name.
The life of all that we behold
of expression, in order It is delightful and makes me laugh: but it is no more a real man
Depends upon that mystery.
to furnish food for than my friend Punch is: and in so far I protest against him …
Vain is the glory of the sky,
fickle tastes and fickle is
The beauty vain of field and grove,
appetites of their own as strongly as possible the sentiment of reality – in a tragedy or a
Unless, while with admiring eye
creation. (Preface to the poem or a lofty drama you aim at producing different emotions;
We gaze, we also learn to love.
second edition of the the figures moving, and their words sounding, heroically: but in
(Poem, 1845)
Lyrical Ballads, 1800.) a drawing-room drama a coat is a coat and a poker a poker; and
must be nothing
Whenever he spoke (which he did almost always), he took care to else according
produce the very finest and longest words of which the vocabulary to my ethics, not
THOMAS HARDY (1840–1928) an embroidered
gave him the use; rightly judging, that it was as cheap to employ a
An author may be said to fairly con- handsome, large, and sonorous epithet, as to use a little stingy one. tunic, not a great
vey the spirit of intelligent peasant Thus he would say to George in school, ‘I observed on my return red-hot instrument
talk if he retains the idiom, home from taking the indulgence of an evening’s scientific conversa- like the Pantomine
compass, and characteristic tion with my excellent friend Dr Bulders – a true archaeologian … weapon. (Letters,
expressions, although he may that the windows of your venerated grandfather’s almost princely Vol. II, p. 772.)
not encumber the page with
obsolete pronunciations of the festivity. Am I right in my conjecture, that Mr Osborne entertained a
purely English words, and with society of chosen spirits round his sumpt-uous board last night?’ (Rev.
mispronunciations of those de- Veal, in Vanity Fair, 1847–8, ed. Tillotson, p. 545.)
rived from Latin and Greek. In
the printing of standard speech
hardly any phonetic principle
‘O, they never look at anything that folks like we can understand,’ the carter continued, by way
at all is observed; and if a writer
of passing the time. ‘On’y foreign tongues used in the days of the Tower of Babel, when no
attempts to exhibit on paper the
two families spoke alike. They read that sort of thing as fast as a night-hawk will whir. ‘Tis all
precise accents of a rustic speaker he
learning there – nothing but learning, except religion. And that’s learning too, for I never could
disturbs the proper balance of a true repre-
sentation by unduly insisting upon the grotesque element; thus
directing attention to a point of inferior interest, and diverting
take – how many years, Bob? – five years to turn a lirriping hobble-de-hoy chap into a solemn
it from the speaker’s meaning, which is by far the chief concern
preaching man with no corrupt passions, they’ll do it, if it can be done, and polish un off like the
where the aim is to depict the men and their natures rather
workmen they be, and turn un out wi’ a long face, and a long black coat and waistcoat, and a reli-
than their dialect forms.
(The Athenaeum
know un sometimes.’ (Description of the people of Christminster, in Jude the Obscure, 1895, Ch. 3.)

92
 FURTHER RESOURCES
Modern English CHAPTER 6

THE LANGUAGES OF DICKENS

Nowhere is the range of 19th-century social, regional, occu-

pational, and personal variation in the use of language more
fully illustrated than in the novels and sketches of Charles
Dickens (1812–70). His characters not only speak for
themselves: Dickens often explicitly draws our attention to
their speech, identifying the stylistic basis of the comic effect.
(For further examples, see p. 266.)

THE LAW
‘Did he say, for instance,’ added Brass, in a kind of comfortable,
cosy tone – ‘I don’t assert that he did say so, mind; I only ask you, to
refresh your memory – did he say, for instance, that he was a stranger
in London – that it was not his humour or within his ability to give any
references – that he felt we had a right to require them – and that,
in case anything should happen to him, at any time, he particularly
desired that whatever property he had upon the premises should be
considered mine, as some slight recompense for the trouble and
annoyance I should sustain – and were you, in short,’ added Brass,
still more comfortably and cosily than before, ‘were you induced to
accept him on my behalf, as a tenant, upon those conditions?’
‘Certainly not,’ replied Dick. (The Old Curiosity Shop, 1840–1, Ch. 35.)
A detail of ‘Dickens’s Dream’, by Robert William Buss.

RELIGION
‘I say, my friends,’ pursues Mr Chadband … ‘why can we not fly? Is it because IDIOSYNCRASIES
we are calculated to walk? It is. Could we walk, my friends, without strength?
We could not. What should we do without strength, my friends? Our legs
Why, Mrs Piper has a good deal to say, chiefly in parentheses and without
would refuse to bear us, our knees would double up, our ankles would turn
punctuation, but not much to tell. Mrs Piper lives in the court (which her husband
over, and we should come to the ground. Then from whence, my friends,
is a cabinet-maker), and it has long been well be known among the neighbours
in a human point of view, do we derive the strength that is necessary to our
(counting from the day next but one before the half-baptizing of Alexander
limbs? Is it,’ says Chadband, glancing over the table, ‘from bread in various
James Piper aged eighteen months and four days old on accounts of not being
forms, from butter which is churned from the milk which is yielded unto us by
expected to live such was the sufferings gentlemen of that child in his gums)
the cow, from the eggs which are laid by the fowl, from ham, from tongue,
as the Plaintive – so Mrs Piper insists on calling the deceased – was reported to
from sausage, and from such like? It is. Then let us partake of the good things
have sold himself. Thinks it was the Plaintive’s air in which that report originatin
which are set before us!’
The persecutors denied that there was any particular gift in Mr Chadband’s
be allowed to go about some children being timid (and if doubted hoping Mrs
piling verbose flights of stairs, one upon another, after this fashion. But this
Perkins may be brought forard for she is here and will do credit to her husband
can only be received as proof of their determination to persecute, since it
and herself and family). (Bleak House, Ch. 11.)
must be within everybody’s experience, that the Chadband style of oratory is
widely received and much admired. (Bleak House, 1852–3, Ch. 19.)

MRS GAMP, AUTHOR

The idiosyncratic speech of Mrs Gamp in Martin Chuzzlewit (1843–4) was evidently one of
Dickens’s own favourite creations, if we may judge by the frequency with which she appears
in the novel – and also outside it. In his biography (Book VI, Ch. 1), Dickens’s confidant John
Forster tells the story of how, to help raise money for a benefit fund for Leigh Hunt, Dickens
proposed to turn his character into an author, in ‘an Account of a late Expedition into the

story was abandoned after a few pages, but Forster includes what Dickens wrote, commenting,
‘There are so many friends of Mrs Gamp who will rejoice at this unexpected visit from her’.
The piece, a pastiche in its own right, makes much of Mrs Gamp’s erratic syntax and distinc-
ʤ g
(sometimes dg or j).
Mrs Harris, wen I see that little willain bodily before me, it give me such a turn that I was
all in a tremble. If I hadn’t lost my umbreller in the cab, I must have done him a injury with it!
Oh the bragian little traitor! … Oh the aggrawation of that Dougladge! Mrs Harris, if I hadn’t
apologiged to Mr Wilson, and put a little bottle to my lips which was in my pocket for the
journay, and which it is very rare indeed I have about me, I could not have abared the sight of
him – there, Mrs Harris! I could not! – I must have tore him, or have give way and fainted.

‘Mrs Gamp has her eye on the future’ by Phiz (Hablot Knight Browne).
93
 FURTHER RESOURCES
PART I The History of English

IN LIVING MEMORY Ongoing Change LEXICALYSED

At the same time, we should not underestimate the linguis- Any area of the lexicon will
Thomas Hardy died in 1928. George Bernard Shaw, who tic differences between grandchild and grandparent – and demonstrate the routine and
ongoing nature of lexical change.
was 14 when Dickens died, lived until 1950 (pp. 92–3). At indeed, many a domestic argument between the genera-
‘Getting drunk’ is a notion which
the beginning of the 21st century, there is a sense in which tions must have been fuelled by changes which have taken seems to have been particularly
the ‘history of English’ ceases to be a helpful notion, and place in the language during the past 75 years. fruitful in the 20th century. The
the boundary blurs between the present section and later dates given are of the earliest
recorded instance in historical
parts of this book. It hardly seems to be ‘history’ when dictionaries, supplemented by
we can make direct contact with the pronunciation, gram- change. Apart from the rapid growth in standard English personal observation.
mar, vocabulary, and attitudes to language of the early vocabulary, associated with such areas as technologi- pifflicated 1900s
decades of the 20th century, simply by talking to people cal development and the emergence of the ‘permissive ginned 1900
lit 1900
whose language was shaped then. Moreover, it is difficult society’, there are many differences between the slang
ossified 1901
to think of a period as constituting a part of the history of previous decades and that of today (p. 194), and the pot-eyed 1901
of the language when its speech and writing seem to be dialect surveys have drawn our attention to the speed at saturated 1902
petrified 1903
almost identical with what we find today. which the regional vocabulary known to older genera-
pie-eyed 1904
The overwhelming impression is certainly one of tions has disappeared (p. 338). blotto 1905
continuity. Any differences we may notice in pronuncia- rosey 1905
tion, grammar, or vocabulary seem to be occasional and regional accents of many older people, or the more open shellacked 1905
tanked 1905
superficial, and tend to be described as ‘old-fashioned’ vowel qualities of the early BBC presenters, several spifflicated 1906
rather than (somewhat more distantly) as ‘archaic’ of whom are accessible through archive recordings. slopped 1907
(p. 197). There is even an uncomfortable sense of déjà An example of change in the educated standard can be bunned 1908
jingled 1908
vu about the issues which were being discussed two or deduced from Daniel Jones’s The Pronunciation of Eng- orie-eyed 1910
three generations ago. A glance at newspapers or gov- lish (1919), where he describes the British pronunciation piped 1912
ernment reports after the turn of the century shows that of the vowel in such words as lord /ɔ: / as ‘intermediate plastered 1912
polluted 1912
the same concerns about language were being expressed between open back rounded and half-open back rounded’ organized 1914
then as now: standards of English had evidently reached (p. 252). This is rather different from the present-day aped 1915
an unprecedented low point in schools, and adult usage quality of this vowel, which is articulated higher in the gassed 1915
hooted 1915
was deteriorating so rapidly that there was little hope for mouth. According to Jones’s description, lord must have jugged 1919
the future of the language. sounded similar to the way lard is pronounced now. buried 1920s
canned 1920s
fried 1920s
VOICES FROM THE PAST juiced 1920s
paralytic 1921
Thomas Edison’s phonograph, patented in 1877, has enabled us to hear tiny extracts of English from speakers born in the age of
potted 1922
illuminated 1926
Museum in London, and now available via the 'Voices of history' website of the British Library. The picture shows a public demon- crocked 1927
stration of the phonograph at the Paris International Exposition of 1889. lubricated 1927
stinko 1927
wall-eyed 1927
busted 1928
pissed 1929
flooey 1930
rum-dum 1931
bombed 1940s
looped 1940s
shit-faced 1940s
swacked 1941
boxed 1950s
crashed 1950s
sloshed 1950s
zonked 1950s
clobbered 1951
bevvied 1960
smashed 1962
wrecked 1968
legless 1976
And a few from the 2000s

Crystal, who has moved on

since the ‘Three Little Pigs’
(p. 478) – and her colleagues):
bladdered, blootered, boxed,
lagered, rat-arsed, ratted,
treed, trollied, wankered.
94
 FURTHER RESOURCES
Modern English CHAPTER 6

during the 20th century. It continued to change, in TIMES CHANGE

attitude. A century of prescriptive grammar, rigorously numerous small ways, sometimes attracting attention, I can only just remember the
taught in schools (p. 82), inevitably left its mark on lin- sometimes not. Many of these points are identified at time, in the very early twenties,
guistic sensibilities then in a way that is not found now. relevant places in Part III. when a typical boy-and-girl
conversation might have run:
Indeed, prescriptivism left its mark in other ways too, as - ‘He: May I call you by your first
one senior citizen emphatically pointed out, reacting in ics of the language (p. 300) – in particular, in what name? She: If you like. He: Er –
1983 to a BBC language programme devoted to the split counts as acceptable public linguistic behaviour.
infinitive (p. 207) and other usage topics: The norms of interaction have altered, as shown by that time the use of first names
by U-speakers has been
The reason why the older generation feel so strongly about differences in such diverse areas as the use of first continually increasing. In the
English grammar is that we were severely punished if we names, personal titles, taboo words, greeting formu- thirties, it was quite customary
didn’t obey the rules! One split infinitive, one whack; two lae, and the conventions of letter-writing. A vast gulf for a member of a partie carée
split infinitives, two whacks; and so on. separates the generations in their expectations about
Another correspondent, his junior by 50 years or more, conversational etiquette. dance who was unknown to
contented himself with a four-word letter, and thereby the other three to be
identified a linguistic generation gap whose conse- during the 20th century were the emergence of new introduced by the first name
varieties, both national and international. Some, such as alone (or, often, just as John
quences are still being sorted out (p. 202): Smith or Jane Smith, without
computing and broadcasting, were completely novel; prefix). In the War the use of
What’s a split infinitive?
others, such as religious English and journalese, were first names increased still
further; it was often the custom
were the new regional varieties of English which came for a man at the head of a large
from the prescriptive tradition have to do with making
section of girls to call them all
a choice between alternative usages already in the lan- into prominence throughout the world. Their place in by their first names, while they
guage, and do not reflect any real issues of language any future history of the language is assured, and only a called him Mr. X
change. However, English grammar did not stand still, separate section can do justice to them now (§7). Ross, 1956, apart from
changing 'christian name' to
'first name' – a necessary
semantic widening in a
21st-century multicultural
PRONUNCIATION world. For U and non-U, see p.
PREFERENCES 386.)

Longman Pronunciation SOME THINGS

Dictionary survey, carried out DON’T CHANGE
in 1988–9 at University College
London. It took the form of a
following, notwithstanding its
postal questionnaire covering
date of origin, are timeless. This
90 words with controversial
one is dated 1921, but
pronunciation. People from a
it could be 2018 – or 1818
variety of educated
(p. 389).
backgrounds were asked to
choose which of two Come into a London
pronunciations they preferred. elementary school and see
The analysis showed that in what it is that the children need
many cases their choice was
significantly affected by age. all, that, in the human sense,
(For other examples of our boys and girls are almost
alternative pronunciations, see inarticulate. They can make
p. 267.) (After J. C. Wells, 1989.) noises, but they cannot speak.
Linger in the playground and
Key: listen to the talk and shouts of
1 Age over 66 the boys; listen to the girls
(born before 1923) screaming at their play – listen
2 Age 41–65 especially to them as they ‘play
(born 1923–47) at schools’; you can barely
3 Age 26–40 recognise your native
(born 1948–62) language … Ask a boy to tell
4 Age under 25 you something – anything,
(born since 1962) about a book, or a game, or a
place, and he will struggle
convulsively among words like

English for the English, 1921.)

95
 FURTHER RESOURCES
PART I The History of English

CURRENT TRENDS that hundreds of new expressions appear each blog from Cambridge University Press at the
year. For example, the Oxford University Press beginning of 2016 included such items as kicks
- publication, Twentieth Century Words, contains (trainers), wavy (stylish), manel (an exclusively
ifestation of language change, simply because a selection of about 5,000 items, such as: male panel), and slashkini (a one-piece swim-
there is so much of it; but it is difficult to arrive suit with lots of cut-outs), but these were far
at any accurate quantification of the loss of old outnumbered by the phrases, such as:
cool Britannia, Dianamania, docusoap
words and senses and the arrival of new ones. dude food – food that is said to be favoured by
Whether a period has been a particularly sig- standard, BSE, cellphone, designer drug men, often including meat
nificant one for lexical change only becomes Skype family – a family in which one parent is
apparent after it has happened. We never know biotechnology, cashpoint, club class, detox living overseas and contact is maintained
which of the new words we hear around us are through Skype
going to be permanent features of English, and The average is 500 items a decade - roughly
grey gapper – a person of retirement age who
which are transient – the slang and fashionable one a week – and this is only from the written
takes a year out of normal life to go travelling
usage of the moment. Studies of the new items language (p. 129).
pocket dial – to call someone by accident with
which were being used in English during the That there should be so many new words and
a phone that is in your pocket
1970s suggest that as many as 75 per cent of phrases should come as no surprise when we
them are no longer in use. consider the many walks of life which moti- When we talk about ‘new words’ entering the
Collections of ‘new words’ made by the vate them. But it is important to note: words and language, we mean multi-word expressions as
dictionary-providers, based on print, indicate phrases. A listing of neologisms on a dictionary well as single words.

NEW PROGRESS
The progressive (or continu- (p. 237) have begun to be used is more likely to be found with I’m intending to apply such as India,
ous) aspect (p. 216) is on the dynamically. People seem to the examples in group A than I’m hating this weather and corpus
increase, continuing a trend that be thinking of the time frame with those in group B. There B studies are
can be traced back to the expressed by these verbs as part is also a great deal of variation I’m needing a new coat showing its
19th century. The McDonald’s of a wider, ongoing situation: among genres – the progres- It’s concerning me a lot increased
slogan is probably the most one is 'lovin' it' not just at the sive is more frequent in speech It’s mattering to me greatly presence. It
frequently quoted example: in moment of eating, but always. than in writing, and in fiction I’m knowing the answer seems likely
the 1960s, this would much The change hasn't affected than in journalism, and uncom- that all
Know is an example of a verb
more likely have been I love it. all stative verbs at the same mon in academic prose. stative verbs will develop
that has largely resisted the
Verbs expressing states of mind rate. Each of the cases below A dynamic uses in due course.
change so far, though knowing
that once would only have been will today be encountered in I’m loving my new job (After B. Aarts, J. Close &
is normal usage in some parts
heard or seen in simple form the progressive, but the usage I’m wanting a new fridge
of the English-speaking world,

NEW RELATIVE VALUES

There has been variation in the diminishing. (The zero form, towards the use of which by On the whole it makes for the contracted forms of verbs)
use of the relative pronouns as in the book I bought, which the prescriptive grammatical smoothness of writing not to are now often seen. The associa-
since late Middle English, but is very frequent in informal tradition. Many 20th-century use the relative which where tion of which with more formal
since the 1960s we have seen a speech, shows much less style guides recommend that that would do as well. styles of expression, accordingly,
striking trend in formal written change, especially in American it should be avoided, and the has been another factor promot-
English in such constructions as: English.) In one study of trend has been reinforced by But the change has also been ing its demise, and replacement
American academic texts, the online grammar checkers, espe- influenced by what has been by the less formal that. It is an
the book which I bought
use of that jumped from 32.75 cially those reflecting American called the increasing ‘colloquiali- unusual outcome, to find pre-
the book that I bought
per cent in the Brown corpus of English, where the change from zation’ of written English in scriptive editorial practice rein-
That has come to be used much recent decades. Constructions
1961 to 80.34 per cent in the which to that appeared earlier. forcing a general trend towards
more than which, in these that a generation ago would
Frown corpus of 1992 (p. 490). A typical example is Ernest informality in language use.
restrictive relative clauses, and have been thought inappropri-
Why is the change taking Gowers in The Complete Plain
the use of which is noticeably ate in a formal setting (such as
place? One factor is antagonism Words (1954, 11.16): & A. Bohmann, 2015.)

NEW MOODS
semi-modal constructions, such as have I have to say you’re wrong
changing thir pattern of use. Shall, must, to, be going to, and want to – in collo-
and may have all shown major declines quial speech hafta, gonna, and wanna. Expressing confidence in an event: In each case what we see is a lessening
in recent decades, especially in American Intuitively, we feel the changes, once The calculation must be right of the strength of a commitment. There
English, in both speech and writing. In they have been pointed out. Here are seems to be a social and psychological
one study, using the Diachronic Corpus three examples of the replacement of The calculation has to be right change taking place towards equality
must by have to. and seeing the other point of view – a
1960 and 1990 the use of must reduced Expressing an obligation: less egocentric view of the world.
by 51 per cent, shall by 45 per cent, and You must be more careful Expressing an affirmation: (After J. Close & B. Aarts, 2010.)
may by 36 per cent in all text categories I must say you’re wrong
represented. They have been replaced by You have to be more careful

96
 Modern English CHAPTER 6

LINGUISTIC MEMES The notion has achieved great prominence No language domain is sacrosanct, and
as a result of the Internet, which promotes political correctness is conspicuous by its
The word meme was introduced in 1976 by the rapid spread of images and text, while at absence. Y U No uses upper-case textese
evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins in the same time allowing a potentially infinite (p. 455) to parody the simplified speech of
Chapter 11 of The Selfish Gene as a shortened number of variations. Most are photos with foreign learners, using a sketch of a character
form of mimeme, from a Greek word mean- superimposed captions (similar to speech bub- from a Japanese manga series: its memic origin
ing ‘that which is imitated’. As Dawkins put bles) that have humorous or satirical intent, began with I TXT U / Y U NO TXT BAK!?
it: ‘I want a monosyllable that sounds a bit though many convey messages of political or Ermahgerd shows a young woman holding
like “gene”. I hope my classicist friends will social seriousness, and some try to express several books from the children’s horror fic-
forgive me if I abbreviate mimeme to meme.’ notions of philosophical import. tion series Goosebumps; the name is a version
The word echoes the -eme suffix used in For a meme to work, it has to be unique, of ‘Oh my God’, as spoken by someone with a
linguistics (phoneme, morpheme, etc), but distinctive, and consistent – something that is speech impediment; it is also known as Gers-
lacks its notion of minimal contrastivity. easily achievable using language. The chief berms and Berks (books).
A meme is a unit of cultural transmission linguistic feature is the use of nonstandard There are hundreds of meme wannabes on
which spreads throughout a population and forms – in early chat developments such as text- the Internet now, all hoping (but few achieving)
which can persist for a considerable time. messaging, chiefly deviant spelling; in more a permanent place in language history. Some
Dawkins illustrated from tunes, ideas, fash- recent varieties, deviant grammar. Among the sites provide instruction in ‘how to create
ions in clothing, ways of making pots or of most successful inventions are Leetspeak, your own meme’. We must expect a significant
building arches, and – of relevance to this LOLcats, Doge, and Doggolingo (pp. 458–9). increase in the amount of linguistic idiosyn-
book – catch phrases. But standard English can also be a fruitful crasy both on and off the web now, srsly.
memic source, as the examples below illustrate.

YES WE CAN KEEP CALM AND –

The ‘Keep Calm’ template has had an extraordinary growth since it first came to
public notice in 2008. In its original form, ‘Keep Calm and Carry On’, it appeared
on a poster in a sans-serif typeface,
with a red background and a Tudor
crown above. It was designed in 1939
by the British Ministry of Information,
as a way of bolstering public fortitude
in the event of a German invasion, but
it never came to be adopted, and only a
few test posters have survived.
One of these was discovered in a
secondhand book bought at auction by
-
land. The owners framed it and hung it
up by the cash register; it attracted so
much interest that they began to produce
and sell copies. Today it can be seen not
only on posters but on tank tops, T-shirts,
sweatshorts, mugs, keyrings, mousemats,
magnets, wall decals, tea towels, stickers,
Barack Obama’s political slogan achieved public prominence when he used
baby grows, aprons, coasters, iphone and
it repeatedly in his presidential campaign, and it was chanted by audiences
ipad cases ... the list is limited only by the
Si, se puede),
imagination of the provider.
used by American labor leader Cesar Chavez, co-founder of the United
The expression’s appeal was probably
Farm Workers Association, during his 25-day Fast for Love in 1972; but it
was Obama’s repeated use of it in his victory speech in 2008 that brought reinforced by its relevance to the UK
it to worldwide attention. Its memic status was confirmed when it came to banking crash in the following year.
be used by other English-speaking politicians, and then moved outside of But it continued to grow in popularity
politics into any domain where achievement was a target. It has especially long after that crisis subsided, providing
been used in settings where personal achievement is key, such as education an ironic sense of reassurance to an
and sport. infinitely wide range of situations.
For British people, the use was reinforced by its prior existence as the The success of an expression in the
professional slogan of the TV character Bob the Builder – a coincidence that public domain (the copyright on the
several observers of the time were quick to exploit. original expired after 50 years) can be judged by the number of imitations and
parodies it generates. ‘Keep Calm’ has been replaced by such items as ‘Don’t
Panic’, ‘Get Excited’, and ‘ ’, and the second by a diverse set of subject-
matter ranging from the political (‘Keep Calm and Vote —’) to the activist (‘Keep
’) and the obscene (‘Keep Calm and —’ – use your imagination).
A two-word phrase is not substantial enough to be subject to copyright, but the
design of individual products of course is.

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