Introduction: language, history and the formation of cultural identity -- Extracts from An Essay concerning Human understanding (1690) / John Locke -- Extracts from A Proposal for correcting, improving and ascertaining the English language (1712) / Jonathan Swift -- Extract from The Plan of a dictionary of the English language (1747) / Samuel Johnson -- Extracts from A Course of lectures on elocution (1762) / Thomas Sheridan -- Extract from An Essay towards establishgin a standard for an elegant and uniform pronunciation of the English language (1764) / James Buchanan -- Extract from Dissertations on the English language (1789) / Noah Webster -- Extracts from A Critical Pronouncing dictionary and expositor of the English language (1791) / John Walker -- Extract from A Vocabulary or collection of words and phrases (1816) / John Pickering -- 'On the probable future position of the English language' (1850) / T. Watts -- Extracts from On the study of words (1851) / Archbishop R.C. Trench -- Proposal for the publication of a new English dictionary (1858) -- Extracts from A Book about words (1869) / G.F. Graham -- Extracts from The Queen's English (1864; 3rd edn 1870) / Henry Alford -- Extract from 'The speech of American women' (1905) / Henry James -- Extracts from The Teaching of English in England (1921) / Henry Newbolt -- Extracts from 'The best English: A claim for the superiority of received standard English' (1934) / Henry Wyld -- Extracts from "Linguistic class-indicators in present-day English' (1954) / A.S.C. Ross -- Extracts from "Did man make language?' (1983) / Alison Assiter -- Extracts from English our English: the new orthodoxy examined (1987) / John Marenbon
Summary
First published in 1991. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company
