Robert Lowth

[Andrew Patterson]

This forum regularly bemoans prescriptive grammar. While surfing, I came across the name of Robert Lowth who several sources seem to think is the guy who started the trend of trying to squeeze the grammar of English into formulations intended for Latin when he published a book in 1762 called "A Short Introduction to English Grammar.".

Also, if you ever wondered who came up with the bright idea that you can't end a sentence with a preposition pp127–128 he wrote:

This is an Idiom which our language is strongly inclined to; it prevails in common conversation, and suits very well with the familiar style in writing; but the placing of the Preposition before the Relative is more graceful, as well as more perspicuous; and agrees much better with the solemn and elevated Style.

What jumps out at you here is that he is presumably writing in "the familiar style" because he does not write "...to which our language is strongly inclined."

Anyway, one thing that I haven't been able to find is the text of the book on-line. Its long out of copyright so I would have expected it to be up there. Does anyone know where I can find it?

Anyone know anything about him apart from the fact that he nearly became Arch-bishop of Cantebury?

[Anuradha Chepur]

What jumps out at you here is that he is presumably writing in "the familiar style" because he does not write "...to which our language is strongly inclined."

Interesting! Or is he writing it that way as an example of what he is writing about?

[metal56]

Love this:

the solemn and elevated Style

[Andrew Patterson]

What jumps out at you here is that he is presumably writing in "the familiar style" because he does not write "...to which our language is strongly inclined."

Interesting! Or is he writing it that way as an example of what he is writing about?

"This is an idiom... ." What is? I got that quote from wikipedia. It looks like he wrote the actual rule just before this but like I said, I can't find this book on-line. One can only speculate without the book.

[Metamorfose]

I have been looking for this book for a long time too, haven´t been luck so far.

José

[Andrew Patterson]

Apparantly you can get it on CD rom along with 4 other 18c Grammars.
http://users.ox.ac.uk/~cram/iss30/miyawaki.htm

Discusses "Gerald Nelson (ed.) Graphics and Design by Justin Buckley.
Landmarks in English Grammar The Eighteenth Century: Fully indexed electronic editions of five eighteenth-century English grammars.
Survey of English Usage, University College London, 1998."

It includes:
1. Charles Gildon and John Brightland,
A Grammar of the English Tongue, 1711.
2. Joseph Priestley, The Rudiments of English Grammar, 1761.
3. Robert Lowth, A Short Introduction to English Grammar, 1762.
4. John Ash, Grammatical Institutes, 4th edition, 1763.
5. Lindley Murray, English Grammar, 1795.

But why don't they put them on-line?

[JuanTwoThree]

Project Gutenberg hasn't got round to Lowth but if you stick the word grammar in "title"

http://www.gutenberg.org/catalog/world/search

you get 20 results including Goold Brown, which rings a bell, and S Johnson, who is vaguely familiar too

[Andrew Patterson]

Apparantly you can get the CD ROM from
http://www.ucl.ac.uk/english-usage/reso ... /order.htm
for £52.50 outside the EU. Presumably the copyright is on the wonderful indexing and notes cos these books are well out of copyright.

[Andrew Patterson]

Project Gutenberg's A Grammar of the English Tongue, by Samuel Johnson
http://www.gutenberg.org/files/15097/15 ... 5097-h.htm
None of those five on the CD are in Project Gutenberg yet, I just checked.