The Bishop's Grammar

Robert Lowth and the Rise of Prescriptivism

Ingrid Tieken-Boon van Ostade

Definitevely dispels the myth of Lowth as the icon of prescriptivism
An in-depth account of the author of the most important eighteenth-century English grammar
Gives the publication history of Lowth's grammar and shows how it was plagiarized by later grammarians
The primary basis of the book is an unpublished collection of Lowth's correspondence
2010 is the three hundredth anniversary of the birth of Robert Lowth
Lowth was Professor of Poetry at the University of Oxford 1741-51 and Bishop of Oxford 1766-77 and London 1777-87
Lowth's doctoral dissertation, De Sacra Poesie Hebraeorum Praelectiones, was published in 1753 by the Clarendon Press

The Bishop's Grammar

Robert Lowth and the Rise of Prescriptivism

Ingrid Tieken-Boon van Ostade

Description

This spirited account of the life and times of one of the seminal figures in history of English grammar dispels the myth of Lowth as the icon of prescriptivism, and establishes him as the most important figure in eighteenth-century English grammar.

Ingrid Tiecken-Boon van Ostade reexamines the life and work of Robert Lowth (1710-1787), founder of the grammatical prescriptivism so deprecated by modern linguists and educational theorists. She considers Lowth and his grammar in the context of his times and from the perspective of his aims and readership. She shows that, once the grammar had been accepted for publication, it developed into a publishers' project similar to Samuel Johnson's Dictionary of the English Language to which it was intended as a complement. Professor Tiecken draws on contemporary sources, including Lowth's extensive correspondence and unpublished memoir, to explore the social networks, aspirations, beliefs, and reading habits that informed and shaped his grammar and ideas on language. (She notes that Lowth's own language often falls short of the norms and strictures advanced in his book.) By comparing the grammar - in particular the problems of usage dealt with in its sections on syntax - with guides from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, she redefines Lowth's seminal position in the history of handbooks for correct usage, as well as his role in the establishment of the canon of prescriptivism.

This book will appeal to all those interested in the history of English, the role of language in the Enlightenment, and the long-running debate on linguistic correctness and the merits or otherwise of prescriptive rules in the teaching and use of English.

The Bishop's Grammar

Robert Lowth and the Rise of Prescriptivism

Ingrid Tieken-Boon van Ostade

1. Prejudice and Misconceptions
2. Life and Career
3. The Grammar: Origin and Publication History
4. The Grammar: Contents and Approach
5. Reconstructing Lowth's Social Network
6. Communicative Competence and the Language of the Letters
7. Lowth's Own Usage and the Grammar's Norm of Correctness
8. The Grammar and the Rise of prescriptivism
9. Conclusion
References
Index

The Bishop's Grammar

Robert Lowth and the Rise of Prescriptivism

Ingrid Tieken-Boon van Ostade

Author Information

Ingrid Tieken-Boon van Ostade is Professor of English Sociohistorical Linguistics at the University of Leiden. She publishes the internet journal Historical Sociolinguistics and Sociohistorical linguistics. Her books include An Introduction to Late Modern English (EUP 2009), The Two Versions of Malory's Morte Darthur (Boydell and Brewer 1995), and The Auxiliary Do in Eighteenth-Century English (Foris 1987)

The Bishop's Grammar

Robert Lowth and the Rise of Prescriptivism

Ingrid Tieken-Boon van Ostade

Reviews and Awards

"This is a key book for any scholar working on grammatical norms of the English language, and/or the codification and standarisation of English."--Linguist List

"Tieken's great virtue is paying attention to what Lowth actually wrote, both for publication and for private circulation. rather than depending on the caricatures. She has discovered a writer on language who was uncommonly sensitive to different degrees of formality ... The Bishop's Grammar is not the last word on Lowth but, if we're lucky, it will reduce the amount of foolishness attributed to 'the eighteenth-century grammarians' by those who haven't bothered to read them. "--Jack Lynch, Times Literary Supplement

"Tieken-Boon van Ostade has presented a book which is remarkable in many ways." --Language and History