About the history of grammar teaching, my book _Revising the Rules:
Traditional Grammar and Modern LInguistics_ (Kendall/Hunt) has a long
opening chapter on the grammar handbook tradition from the Greeks up through
the modern period, as well as historical background on each of the major
grammar rules discussed in the other chapters. The history of the rules, as
well as the history of the teaching of grammar, is, to me, an eye-opening
perspective.
Brock Haussamen
-----Original Message-----
From: Robert Einarsson
To: [log in to unmask]
Sent: 2/21/01 5:36 PM
Subject: Re: grammar in Shakespeare's day
David's post below has some really interesting detail about the
historical progress of grammar teaching.
David, any chance we can have a few titles/references on the
changing situation of grammar in the schools in these early
periods?
From: David D Mulroy <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Re: Deep thoughts
To: [log in to unmask]
> I think that you are mistaken about Shakespeare. He and the other
> authors of the English Renaissance benefited from a return
> to basic grammar that had been decreed by Henry VIII. In the fifteenth
> century, grammatical instruction in the schools had suffered because
> scholars were preoccupied with theoretical or speculative grammars
that
> raised some of the same philosophical issues as contemporary linguists
> address.
>
> Shakespeare's basic textbook was Lily's grammar. It is true that
this is
> aimed at Latin but it is based on grammatical concepts that are easily
> transferred to English and have to be if they are to be understood. As
a
> Latinist, I can assure you that English speakers do not and cannot
learn
> about sentence subjects, prepositional phrases, participles, the
passive
> voice, or appositives in Latin without understanding what they they
refer
> to in English. Shakespeare seems to me to be the clearest imaginable
> example of author who benefits from a deep, conscious understanding of
> grammar. I suppose you could say that you he and the other masters of
the
> 17th century show that you don't need to STUDY ENGLISH grammar, but
that's
> only if you start Latin in the first grade, approach it with a
grammatical
> syllabus, and make it the main subject studied.
>
-----------------------------------------------------
Sincerely, Robert Einarsson
please visit me at
www.artsci.gmcc.ab.ca/people/einarssonb
To join or leave this LISTSERV list, please visit the list's web
interface at:
http://listserv.muohio.edu/archives/ateg.html
and select "Join or leave the list"
Visit ATEG's web site at http://ateg.org/
To join or leave this LISTSERV list, please visit the list's web interface at:
http://listserv.muohio.edu/archives/ateg.html
and select "Join or leave the list"
Visit ATEG's web site at http://ateg.org/
|
