Nelson, Gerald (ed.) and Justin Buckley (graphics and design), Landmarks in English Grammar: The Eighteenth Century.

(HSL/SHL 1)

Fully indexed electronic editions of five eighteenth-century English grammars. Survey of English Usage, University College London. £29.37 –117.50 (ranging from student licence to institutional network licence in Great Britain or other EU countries).

Landmarks in English Grammar. The Eighteenth Century is a CD-ROM published by the Survey of English Usage, University College London, edited by Gerald Nelson (with graphics and design by Justin Buckley). It contains five eighteenth-century grammars of English, those by Brightland and Gildon (1711), Priestley (1761), Lowth (1762), Ash (4^th ed., 1763) and Murray (1795). The grammars were selected, according to the editor in his very brief introduction, "for their importance in the history of English grammar, for their contemporary influence, and for their influence on later writers". The qualification of these grammars as "classic" works and hence as "landmarks" is not, however, self-evident in all five cases. Lowth and Murray were an obvious choice, Lowth because he is often regarded as the epitome of normative grammar writing in the eighteenth century and Murray because of the enormous popularity he enjoyed for much of a century after the grammar was first published. The selection of Priestley is interesting because of the opposite views he often took compared to his contemporary Lowth with regard to the importance of actual usage as a guide to propriety in matters of language. The grammar by Brightland and Gildon was included because of the controversy surrounding its authorship – it has at times been attributed to Sir Richard Steele – and to illustrate "the continuing influence of the Port-Royal Grammaire Générale" (Introduction). Greenwood, however, whose grammar was also published in 1711, would have been an equally likely choice, because it owes much to the seventeenth-century truly "classic" Wallis (1653) and consequently shows the continuing influence of Wallis on eighteenth-century grammar writing, down to the middle of the century. By that time, Johnson has taken over from Greenwood in this respect, in that Wallis was the major source for the grammar which he published in 1755 prefixed to the Dictionary.

The choice of Ash is interesting, not because he was a "classic", but because of how he adapted his grammar, which had first come out in 1760 under the title Grammatical Institutes: or grammar, adapted to the genius of the English tongue, to being "an easy introduction to Dr. Lowth’s English Grammar", as its new subtitle runs. The CD-ROM reproduces the fourth edition of the grammar because according to R.C. Alston’s Bibliography of the English Language (Vol. 1, English Grammars written in English, Leeds: E.J. Arnold & Son, 1965) no copy of the first adapted edition of 1763 has been located. The fourth edition has only tentatively been dated 1763(?), though this has not been indicated on the CD-ROM. The publication of Ash alongside with Lowth enables the user of the CD-ROM to study in detail to what extent the revised grammar was indeed any easier than Lowth’s, though it is unfortunate in this respect that the first edition of Lowth’s grammar has been reproduced here instead of the second, also of 1763. There are reasons to believe that Lowth had intended his first edition as a kind of pilot version, which would be improved on the basis of comments from his readers. Suggestions for improvement are, indeed, what he asks for on p. xv of his Preface, and it is for this reason that Reibel reprinted the second edition in Lowth’s Major Works (1995).

The grammars on the CD-ROM are represented in the form of digitised images; it is unfortunate that, as in the case of the CD-ROM version of Dr Johnson’s Dictionary (ed. Ann McDermott, CUP, 1996), no electronic version of the text has been provided as well, as this would have allowed for more precise as well as for different search facilities. As it is, the indexes, which are the main feature of the CD-ROM, only take one to the page in question, not to the item one is looking for. It must be said in favour of the decision not to digitise the text of the grammars that the price of the CD-ROM has been kept at only about one-tenth of that of Johnson’s Dictionary: this brings it into the buying range of a much wider public than libraries alone. Consequently, the CD-ROM may easily be introduced as a teaching tool, as a result of which the study of eighteenth-century grammar writing may well receive a great stimulus.

The CD-ROM also contains a select bibliography, with, however, no more than 25 items. Among these there are indeed the standard general works such as Alston’s bibliography, but what is missing is a reference to Alston’s series of microfiche reprints, English Linguistics 1500–1800 (The Scolar Press, 1974), where other eighteenth-century grammars might be found and consulted. More serious is the absence in the bibliography of studies dealing with the grammars and grammarians themselves. Especially Lowth and Murray have been the subject of a lot of recent study, and the value of the CD-ROM would be greatly increased if the user were able to view a particular grammar in the context of research already carried out. What is more, there are also somewhat older studies which anyone interested in a particular grammar would benefit from reading, such as G.K. Pullum ("Lowth’s Grammar: A Re-evaluation", Linguistics 137, 1974, 63–78) and Emma Vorlat ("The Sources of Lindley Murray’s ‘The English Grammar’", Leuvense Bijdragen 48, 1959, 108–125). A complete bibliography would also have shown that an index of Lowth has already been in existence for some time: S.W. Reid, "An Index to Robert Lowth’s Short Introduction to English Grammar", Studia Neophilologica 49, 1977, 135–137). Reid’s index differs in a number of respects from the one on the CD-ROM, for one thing because it also contains references to individual prepositions and verbs. The publication of the CD-ROM index therefore does not replace the earlier one, which remains of value because of the wider possibilities it offers.

Some recommendations might therefore be made: to publish a revised version of the CD-ROM with a fuller, up-to-date bibliography containing studies relating to the individual grammars. To do so would show, for example, that Ash has not yet been the subject of much scholarly research; that he deserves to be has already been indicated above. Alternatively, an interactive CD-ROM might be published which would offer the possibility of obtaining access to an on-line bibliography of studies on the five grammars. A second recommendation would be not to leave it at this single CD-ROM for the eighteenth century as a whole: a second Volume of Landmarks might, indeed, contain Greenwood’s grammar of 1711, and in addition Webster (1784) because of its rivalry with Murray’s grammar in the United States, Fisher (2^nd ed. 1750) as the first grammar by a female author (Alston lists over thirty editions and reprints of the book), Kirkby (1746) because parts of it were copied straight from the first edition of Fisher without acknowledgement, and Buchanan (1762) because, like Lowth’s grammar, its publication represents an effort on the part of the London booksellers to make a bid for the new market in practical grammars of English. To what extent these grammars had any chance of success can only be assessed after a detailed comparison, which would be greatly facilitated by their publication on CD-ROM.

Publications like the Landmarks CD-ROM suggest all kinds of other possibilities for further research. To conclude with one example: Ash, Lowth and Murray were all translated into German, Ash and Lowth possibly by the same man, Christian Heinrich Reichel. A CD-ROM with the three grammars alongside their German translations (none of which are as easily available as their originals) would enable us to study the beginnings of the development of English as a world language. As a new medium, the CD-ROM offers invaluable opportunities for the study of the historiography of the English language.

Ingrid Tieken-Boon van Ostade, University of Leiden

For another review of the Landmarks CD-ROM, by Masataka Miyawaki, click here.

Contact the reviewer.