Samuel Johnson in 1775 Dictionary of the English Language claimed that:
‘Tongues… have a natural tendency to degeneration’
In The Language Wars: A History of Proper English’ Henry Hitchings
‘rather than thinking of this as degeneration, we can see the diversity of languages in a different way: as permitting through its richness greater possibilities for creativity and adaptability.’
The Inkhorn controversy
During the 16th-17th centuries, there was a growing pride in the mother tongue. A return to English
following many years of French rule led to an increased sense of national pride. Writers of the Renaissance began to expand the vocabulary by
coining new words, using compounding or affixation,
or borrowing extensively from the classical languages Latin and Greek and from the romance languages
French, Spanish, Italian and Portuguese.
Who referred to
‘strange ynkehorne
termes’
Thomas Wilson in The Arte of Rhetorique
approx. 1553
Who used these inkhorn terms
These so-called inkhorn terms were considered pretentious and artificial, but they enabled creativity
and many writers made use of these terms, including Shakespeare, who is said to have introduced over 1700 ‘new’ words.
What did those who opposed Inkhorn terms argue
these terms believed that they would ‘corrupt’ the English language as they were seen as merely
fashionable, likely to fall as quickly out of use as they
had come into use.
Inkhorn terms meaning
inkhorn terms: foreign borrowing into English considered unnecessary or overly pretentious
In 1599, Samuel Daniel spoke of English as
the treasure of our tongue’, ‘the greatness of our stile’ and
‘our best glorie’.
Thomas Nashe 1593
‘Our English tongue, of all languages, most swarmeth
with the single money of monasillables, whare are the
onely scandell of it. Bookes written in them, and no
other, seeme like shop-keepers boxes, that containe
nothing else save halfe-pence, three-farthings and
two-pences’
In France, the Academie de Francaise is an official body, charged
with…
trying to preserve the integrity of the French language by, for example, preventing the anglicising of
the French language.
Towards the second half of the 17th century, there were attempts to similarly ‘fix’ the English language. The
most notable protester against lexical development
was
Jonathan Swift. In 1712 he published A Proposal for Correcting, Improving and Ascertaining The
English Tongue
Swift’s main concerns were a dislike of:
vagueness in language;
shortened words
unnecessary contractions (e.g., disturb’d) - poets
were to blame ‘invented by some pretty fellow (e.g., banter, shuffling), which he claimed had unknown
etymologies or that had undergone semantic shift;
he claimed that these were mere ‘fashion’ and
therefore likely to fall out of use.
What happened in 1755 that aimed to fix the language
Samuel Johnson published his dictionary in one of the first major attempts to fix and therefore
stabilise the language.
Limitation of Johnson
even Johnson, in the Preface to his dictionary, acknowledged that ‘no
dictionary of a living tongue can ever be perfect since
while it is hastening to publication, some words are
budding, and some falling away.
Robert Lowth book and date
Short Introduction to English Grammar 1762
What did he say in response to Swift (Lowth)
No more thou, no multiple negation or comparison, infinitive verb should not be split
Limits of Robert Lowth
In Latin, infinite verb is single word e.g. ‘laudre’ to praise so unsplitable.. Steven Pinker says it makes no sense to enforce Latin rules on Eng speakers. Also Lowth even saw as continuum- idioms rules break
Lindley Murray book and date
English Grammar 1795
Lindley Murray built on whose work
Lowth
What did her book do
Standardised grammar in Britain and America and it was prolific- 22 editions over 50 years
What did Lowth and Murray do?
Standardised grammatical conventions
Who is against Lowth and Murray
Joseph Priestley- The Rudiments of English Grammar 1795
What did Priestley say
‘Unsuitable to the genius of a free nation’, ‘the best forms of speech will, in time, establish themselves by their own superior excellence.’
Why is standardisation needed?
Eng is hybrid language made up of lots of different dialects- highly inconsistent. Need to be taken seriously as a national lang
