A Hearty Second for Richard Grant White
Over the years I've collected a number of antique grammars of
English. I say this guardedly, because all grammars of English appear
to be antique these days, with the notable exception, of course, of
Huddleston and Pullum's Cambridge Grammar of the English Language
(note: we newly hired should always flatter the corporate high
mucky-mucks). These ancient books offer fascinating reflections
of the thoughts and biases of self-proclaimed experts. But they make
fascinating reading, as Arnold Zwicky reminds us in his recent Language
Log post. (See here.)
Apparently he and I share a deep appreciation for Richard
Grant White's 1870 book, Words and Their Uses. In his
post, Arnold referred us to White's chapter on the present progressive,
which is only one of the delightfully modern rants in the book. What's
really cool, though, is to read how White rails against the same sort
of language advice that we see in the current popular press. To whet
your appetite to read White, if you haven't already, here are a few
samples:
- From the Preface:
"It is from the man who knows just enough to be anxious to square his
sentences by the line and plummet of grammar and dictionary that his
mother tongue suffers most grievous injury."
- From Chapter IX, Grammar English and Latin, page 258:
"When, at last, it dawned on the pedagogues that English was a
language ... and they set themselves to giving rules for the art of writing
and speaking correctly, they attempted to form these rules upon the
models furnished by the Latin language. And what wonder? — for those were
the only rules they knew. From this heterogeneous union sprang that
hybrid monster known as English grammar, before whose fruitless loins
we have sacrificed, for nearly three hundred years, our children and
the strangers within our gates."
- From Chapter X, The Grammarless Tongue, page 274:
"But the truth of this matter is, that in the rules given in the books
called English Grammars, some are absurd, and the most are
superfluous."
- (Commenting on the Greek language), p.277:
"Its complication, so far from being an element of its power, is a sign
of rudeness, and a remnant of barbarism; that the Greek and Latin
authors were great, not by reason of the verbal forms and the
grammatical structure of their languages, but in spite of them. Our
mother tongue, in freeing itself from these, has only cast aside the
trammels of strength and disguises of beauty."
As Arnold says, the book is a delicious read and it does
indeed suggest that a new book should be written about his
work. As an antique myself, I second this idea.
Posted by Roger Shuy at March 8, 2006 10:51 AM