Dissertation
Joseph Priestley, Grammarian: Late Modern English normativism and usage in a sociohistorical context
This dissertation the role of the English dissenting minister Joseph Priestley (1733-1804) as a grammarian is studied.
- Author
- Robin Straaijer
- Date
- 01 March 2011
- Links
- Published by LOT
- Full text in Leiden University Repository
The English dissenting minister Joseph Priestley (1733-1804) is best known as a scientist, philosopher and theologian. However, his Rudiments of English Grammar (1761) is an important grammar in eighteenth-century England. In this dissertation, I argue that Priestley 's role as a grammarian should not be underestimated and that his grammar had a significant impact on the standardisation of the English language in the eighteenth century.
Usually seen as the sole descriptivist among the predominant prescriptive eighteenth-century grammarians, I have shown that this reputation requires qualification. In addition, by means of a corpus-linguistic approach I analysed Priestley's usage, as exemplified by a corpus of 433 of his surviving personal letters.