Authority in Lowth’s and Priestley’s prefaces to their English grammars

dc.contributor.authorFernández Martínez, Dolores
dc.date.accessioned2017-08-25T08:46:55Z
dc.date.available2017-08-25T08:46:55Z
dc.date.issued2012
dc.description.abstractThe eighteenth century was a crucial period in the process of codification of the English language and in the history of English grammar writing (Tieken-Boon van Ostade 2008b). The need for grammars to provide linguistic guidance to the upper social classes, and to those who aspired to belong to them, led to an important increase in the output of English grammars. Since most of the grammar writers were clearly in competition with one another for a share of the market, they turned the prefaces to their grammars into highly persuasive instruments that tried to justify the need for that specific grammar. Priestley’s and Lowth’s grammars epitomized, respectively, the two main trends of grammatical tradition, namely descriptivism and prescriptivism. Taking a critical discourse analysis approach, this paper aims to examine how both writers claimed their authority through the presentation of the different individuals involved in the text, specifically, the author and any potential readers. We will examine how individuals are depicted both as a centre of structure and action through Martin’s (1992) identification systems and Halliday’s (2004 [1985]) transitivity structures. Such an approach fits in with Wicker’s (2006: 79) assessment of prefaces as textual networks of authority in which it is essential to interrogate how the readers who support and influence the texts are represented and addressed.pl_PL
dc.description.sponsorshipThis paper is a contribution to the research project “El paratexto en las gramáticas inglesas del siglo XVIII: lengua y sociedad”, sponsored by the Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación, Gobierno de España.pl_PL
dc.identifier.citationStudia Anglica Posnaniensia, vol. 47.4 (2012), pp. 97-111pl_PL
dc.identifier.issn0081-6272
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/10593/19168
dc.language.isoengpl_PL
dc.publisherAdam Mickiewicz Universitypl_PL
dc.rightsinfo:eu-repo/semantics/openAccesspl_PL
dc.titleAuthority in Lowth’s and Priestley’s prefaces to their English grammarspl_PL
dc.typeArtykułpl_PL

Files

Original bundle
Now showing 1 - 1 of 1
Loading...
Thumbnail Image
Name:
[Studia Anglica Posnaniensia] Authority in LowthS and PriestleyS Prefaces to Their English Grammars.pdf
Size:
144.28 KB
Format:
Adobe Portable Document Format
License bundle
Now showing 1 - 1 of 1
No Thumbnail Available
Name:
license.txt
Size:
1.47 KB
Format:
Item-specific license agreed upon to submission
Description:
Uniwersytet im. Adama Mickiewicza w Poznaniu
Biblioteka Uniwersytetu im. Adama Mickiewicza w Poznaniu
Ministerstwo Nauki i Szkolnictwa Wyższego