Talk:History of English grammars

Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment

This article was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment, between 27 August 2019 and 10 December 2019. Further details are available on the course page. Student editor(s): RelientKatie94.

Above undated message substituted from Template:Dashboard.wikiedu.org assignment by PrimeBOT (talk) 23:32, 16 January 2022 (UTC)

Cobbett

The sentence: "Similarly, William Cobbett's popular mid-century book was titled, A Grammar of the English Language, In a Series of Letters: Intended for the Use of Schools and of Young Persons in General, but more especially for the use of Soldiers, Sailors, Apprentices, and Plough-Boys" concludes the section covering the fifteenth to eighteenth centuries. The context suggests that "mid-century" means mid seventeenth century or perhaps eighteenth century (since it is the last book discussed in this section). Cobbett's grammar, however, as far as I can determine, was published in 1818. See [1] This is not mid seventeenth, eighteenth or nineteenth century. Mention of this book should be integrated into the section following, with the correct date of publication. I don't know this subject well enough to feel that I could do this properly myself. --Alan W (talk) 03:12, 26 October 2009 (UTC)

Good point! I had written this version. Someone then wikified the text, but in the process put that sentence in the wrong time period. Thanks for noticing! Hopefully your helpful input will motivate me to work on the article again and expand it. Regards, Fowler&fowler«Talk» 06:39, 26 October 2009 (UTC)

Glad I reawakened your interest in this article. It seems a worthwhile project. I don't know if you'll consider them worth including, but I might mention two other books about grammar. One is Horne Tooke's The Diversions of Purley (1786, 1805). The other I discovered in reading William Hazlitt, in whose work I've been deeply immersed for some time and on whom I've contributed a considerable amount to the English Wikipedia. One of his least known works is A New and Improved Grammar of the English Tongue (1809), influenced to a degree by Horne Tooke's work and published together with A New Guide to the English Tongue by William Godwin, who had encouraged Hazlitt to write his grammar. Hazlitt was severely critical of Lindley Murray's popular grammar. One of Hazlitt's biographers quotes Hazlitt thus: "He confounds the genius of the English language, making it periphrastic and literal, instead of elliptical and idiomatic. According to Mr Murray, hardly any of our best writers ever wrote a word of English." Just thought you'd be interested in and perhaps amused by this. I myself have no special expertise in the field of English grammars, so I have no clear idea about how justifiable inclusion of Horne Tooke or Hazlitt would be here. I look forward to reading anything more you might add to this article if you get the chance. Regards, Alan W (talk) 01:27, 27 October 2009 (UTC)

Pamphlet for Grammar

There is a description of this text here: [2]. There should be an article about this first English grammar text. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 108.41.98.105 (talk) 17:06, 5 June 2023 (UTC)

Here's an article about this text: [3].