Readings on the English Language
Excerpts from influential studies of the English language--its history, grammar, and vocabulary.
In his preface to "The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the English Language," David Crystal offers six good reasons for studying the English language.
Here, in an essay published in 1888, poet Walt Whitman offers many examples of slang expressions and "luxuriant" place names--all representative of "the wholesome fermentation or eructation of those processes eternally active in language."
These excerpts from the opening and closing pages of Thomas R. Lounsbury's book "The Standard of Usage in English" (1908) demonstrate that concern about the decline of language has had a long history in English. But as Lounsbury points out, such efforts to "save" and "fix" the language have never succeeded--and doubtless never will.
In this excerpt from his textbook "The Practical Study of Languages" (1899), Henry Sweet identifies the different functions of grammars and dictionaries.
In a paper read before the Michigan Schoolmasters' Club in November 1896, Dr. Emerson spoke confidently of "a revival of the study of English grammar" in our schools. But he wasn't advocating any sort of "back-to-basics" approach. As you read his three-point plan for improving the teaching of grammar, consider what lessons might still be drawn from it today.
Among Mencken's most devoted readers are the selfsame "pedagogues" and schoolma'ms" he ridicules in this classic essay on style and the teaching of writing.
