James Merrick (1720–1769): Poet, scholar, linguist

Ingrid Tieken-Boon van Ostade
University of Leiden

At the end of the preface to his Short Introduction to English Grammar (1762) Robert Lowth (1710–1787) makes an appeal for comments on his work. This article analyses his correspon­dence with James Merrick (1720–1769), a friend and fellow scholar, written between December 1761 and October 1764, in which he receives such comments. The discussion is an illustration of the current debate at the time as to whether Custom or Propriety should be invoked in deciding on correct usage. It shows first and foremost that Lowth’s attitude to grammar was focussed on the level of usage rather than the structure of the language.

Quick links
Full-text access is restricted to subscribers. Log in to obtain additional credentials. For subscription information see Subscription & Price. Direct PDF access to this article can be purchased through our e-platform.

References

Alston, R[obin] C[arfrae]
. 1965. A Bibliography of the English Language from the Invention of Printing to the Year 1800. Vol. I: English Grammars Written in English. Leeds: Arnold & Son.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Baugh, Albert C. & Thomas Cable
. 2002. A History of the English Language. 5th ed. Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Prentice-Hall.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ferguson, Richard S.
1889. Diocesan Histories: Carlisle. London: S.P.C.K.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Fitzmaurice, Susan
. 1998. “The Commerce of Language in the Pursuit of Politeness in Eighteenth-Century England”. English Studies 79.309–328. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hepworth, Brian
. 1978. Robert Lowth. Boston: Twayne.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Leonard, S[terling] A[ndrus]
. 1929. The Doctrine of Correctness in English Usage, 1700−1800. Madison: University of Wisconsin. (Repr., New York: Russell & Russell, 1962.)Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Lowth, Robert
. 1762. A Short Introduction to English Grammar; with critical notes. London: J. Hughs for A. Millar, and R. & J. Dodsley. (2nd ed., 1763; a new ed. 1764.) (Facs.-reprint of first ed., Menston, Yorks.: Scolar Press, 1968.)Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Markham, Sarah
. 1984. John Loveday of Caversham 1711–1789: The life and tours of an eighteenth-century onlooker. Salisbury: Michael Russell.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Nagashima, Daisuke
. 1968. “Mutual Debt between Johnson and Lowth”. Studies in English Literature (Japan) 44.221–232.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Navest, Karlijn
. “The Unidentified Hands: Annotating Lowth’s Short Introduction to English Grammar ”. Unpublished manuscript.
OED: The Oxford English Dictionary, online edition, www​.oed​.com
Percy, Carol
. 1997a. “Eighteenth-Century Book Reviewers’ Attitudes towards Language: A database project”. Tracing the Trail of Time: Proceedings from the Second Diachronic Corpora Workshop ed. by Raymond Hickey, Merja Kytö, Ian Lancashire & Matti Rissanen, 215–231. Amsterdam: Rodopi.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Percy, Carol
. 1997b. “Paradigms Lost: Bishop Lowth and the ‘Poetic Dialect’ in his English Grammar”. Neophilologus 81.129–144.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Pullum, Geoffrey K.
1974. “Lowth’s Grammar: A re-evaluation”. Linguistics No. 13.63–78.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Tieken-Boon van Ostade, Ingrid
. 1997. “Lowth’s Corpus of Prescriptivism”. To Explain the Present ed. by Terttu Nevalainen & Leena Kahlas-Tarkka, 451–463. Helsinki: Société Néophilologique.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Tieken-Boon van Ostade, Ingrid
. 2000. “Robert Dodsley and the Genesis of Lowth’s Short Introduction to English Grammar ”. Historiographia Linguistica 27.21–36.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Tieken-Boon van Ostade, Ingrid
. 2001. “Lowth’s Short Introduction to English Grammar Reprinted”. Publishing History 49.5–17.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Tieken-Boon van Ostade, Ingrid
. 2003. “‘Tom’s Grammar’: The genesis of Lowth’s Short Introduction to English Grammar revisited”. The Teaching of English in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries: Essays for Ian Michael on his 88th birthday ed. by Frances Austen & Christopher Stray (= Special issue of Paradigm 2/7), 36–45.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Tieken-Boon van Ostade, Ingrid
. Forthcoming a. “English at the Onset of the Normative Tradition”. The Oxford History of the English Language ed. by Lynda Mugglestone, 240–273. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Tieken-Boon van Ostade, Ingrid
. Forthcoming b. “Correctness and its Origins”. Blackwell Handbook of the History of English ed. by Ans van Kemenade & Bettelou Los. Oxford: Blackwell.
Tierney, James E., ed. 1988. The Correspondence of Robert Dodsley 1733–1764. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Watts, Richard J.
2005. “Grammar Writers in Eighteenth-Century Britain: A community of practice or a discourse community?”. Paper presented at the first workshop within the project “The Codifiers and the English Language”, called “Grammars, Grammarians and Grammar Writing”, Leiden, 9 December 2005.
 
Mobile Menu Logo with link to supplementary files background Layer 1 prag Twitter_Logo_Blue