Language Between Description and Prescription: Verbs and Verb Categories in Nineteenth-Century Grammars of English [Hardcover]

Based on 258 English grammar books, Language Between Description and Prescription investigates nineteenth-century grammar writing relating to actual language change, especially in the verb phrase. Lieselotte Andewald proposes that not all changes were noticed in the first place, and those that were noticed were not necessarily criticized. The book also demonstrates that though grammars were prescriptivist, their effect was at best minimal.Language Between Description and Prescriptionis an empirical, quantitative and qualitative study of nineteenth-century English grammar writing, and of nineteenth-century language change. Based on 258 grammar books from Britain and North America, the book investigates whether grammar writers of the time noticed the language changing around them, and how they reacted. In particular, Lieselotte Anderwald demonstrates that not all features undergoing change were noticed in the first place, those that were noticed were not necessarily criticized, and some recessive features were not upheld as correct. The features investigated come from the verb phrase and include in particular variable past tense forms, which -although noticed-often went uncommented, and where variation was acknowledged; the decline of the be-perfect, where the older form (the be-perfect) was criticized emphatically, and corrected; the rise of the progressive, which was embraced enthusiastically, and which was even upheld as a symbol of national superiority, at least in Britain; the rise of the progressive passive, which was one of the most violently hated constructions of the time, and the rise of the get-passive, which was only rarely commented on, and even more rarely in negative terms. Throughout the book, nineteenth-century grammarians are given a voice, and the discussions in grammar books of the time are portrayed. The book's quantitative approach makes it possible to examine majority and minority positions in the discourse community of nineteenth-centulSÉ