American Linguistic Prescriptivism: Its Decline and Revival in the 19th Century

Abstract

ABSTRACTAspects of nineteenth-century American life are crucial to the understanding of the history and nature of American prescriptivism. The story is not merely one of continuity from eighteenth-century Britain. An examination of linguistic thought of the nineteeth-century reveals that the prescriptive doctrine met with significant intellectual challenge from 1820 through the 40s. This reaction grew partly out of a specific revolt against rote learning, partly out of the development of national consciousness, and partly out of the ‘boundless’ intellectual tenor of the times.The thought of the period 1850 through the 70s was a significant source of the doctrine's subsequent vigor which was to exhibit a curious and remarkable continuity into and throughout the present century. During the latter half of the century the doctrine of correctness revived with new vehemence in a new drive for uniformity and conformity. This was facilitated and accommodated in general by the intellectual milieu of the time: national integration and consolidation. The single most important specific factor was the development of the genteel cultural apparatus, as manifested linguistically by an interest in language, especially in ‘linguistic etiquette’ in genteel publication; in the reaction against innovation; in the application of intellect and logic to language; in the high premium placed by the genteel on books and authority; in the anglophile tendency of the genteel; and in the desire for a responsible, stable community.