1. Baugh and Cable,Chapter 9
The Appeal to Authority,
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2. 9-186 The impact of the 17th century
The social, commercial, technological, and intellectual forces that were released in the Renaissance had profound effects on the English language.
In contrast, the 17 c. was marked by different crises and reaction to them.
Political turbulence: the English Civil War of the 1640s and the Restoration of Charles II in 1660.

3. 9-186 The impact of the 17th century
The English Civil War itself involved the king, Parliament, the aristocracy, the middle classes, the commoners, and the army.
The War tested the prerogative of the king and challenged the theory of the divine right.
War raged between Parliamentarians and Royalists, and every religious sect in England.

4. Political turbulence - Oliver Cromwell, 1599-1658
The Civil War clashes between the king and the parliament, represented by Cromwell, resulted in Charles’ execution.

5. Political turbulence - the Restoration of Charles II
Charles II ( , r ) returned to the throne without bloodshed.
Thus ended the Civil War and began the era of Restoration.

6. 9-186 The intellectual turbulence
The intellectual turbulence, which involved matters of language and language use, among many other concerns, is somewhat harder to trace than the political turbulence, and it has often been misread.
While it is natural for us to take the rationality of scientific discourse as a kind of norm,

7. 9-186 The intellectual turbulence
the new scientists and philosophers of the 17 c. saw their world view challenged by an outpouring of fervent expression that was often driven by religious zeal and occult science,
and which incorporated large measures of irrationality and obscurity, often accompanied by belief in astrology, alchemy, and witchcraft.

8. 9-186 The intellectual turbulence
The representatives of these movements were labelled by the pejorative “Enthusiasts” by writers and scientists connected with the
Royal Society (of London for the Improvement of Natural Knowledge, founded in 1660).

9. 9-186 The intellectual turbulence
Learned discourse was no longer confined to elite circles;
it was now extensively published, in English, not Latin.
The practitioners of natural science regarded science as a cooperative enterprise.

10. 9-186 The impact of the 17th century
Supporters of rational science were disturbed by the “ranting” (pompastiškas) language of the Enthusiasts.
Thus there arose during the 17 c. a highly focused public consciousness as regards language.

11. 9-186 The impact of the 17th century
In the 1660s the Royal Society, which served as coordinator for English scientific endeavours, proposed a solution in which the English language would play a crucial role.
They argued that the English prose of scientists should be stripped of ornamentation and emotive language.
It should be plain, precise, and clear.

12. 9-186 The impact of the 17th century
Moreover, language should be geared for dispassionate, rational discourse.
It was also recommended that “Liberal Arts” should be brought in closer contact with the baser “Mechanick Arts”.
In this way English prose could facilitate a national unity built around scientific honesty and social utility.

13. 9-186 The impact of the 17th century
This proposal became a credo of the Royal Society, and its principles to design universal languages.
All this shows an intensive awareness of the importance of language in almost every sphere of politics, society, and culture.

14. 9-186 The impact of the 17th century
But the Royal Society could not impose its scheme; it could only hope that its members would set an example.
The Royal Society did not create the “plain style”, though it may have accomplished something equally important – that is, to give elite sanction to the idea that a plain style was best.

15. 9-187 The temper of the 18th century
In the light of the 17th c. background, we may more readily understand the temper of the 18th c.
The principle characteristics of this age which affected the course of the English language emerged early and maintained their influence throughout the century.

16. 9-187 The temper of the 18th century
The 18th c. sought to retain from the 17th cent. the best features of rational discourse while rejecting the uncontrolled proliferation (paplitimas) of what sober minds regarded as dangerous tendencies in English prose.
In England the age was characterized by a search for stability.

17. A search for stability (1)
One of the first characteristics to be mentioned is a strong sense of order and the value of regulation.
Adventurous individualism and the spirit of independence characteristic of the previous era gave way to a desire of system and regularity.
This involves conformity to a standard that the consensus recognizes as good.

18. A search for stability (2)
It sets up correctness as an ideal and attempts to formulate rules or principles by which correctness may be defined and achieved.
The most important consideration in the foundation of this standard is reason.

19. A search for stability (3)
Another source of inspiration for a model to follow was Latin.
However, the 18th c. English people were increasingly conscious of ways in which their own achievements could be judged as surpassing those of the ancient world.

20. 9-188 The attitude towards the language (1)
The intellectual tendencies that were noted are seen quite clearly in the 18th c. efforts to standardize, refine and fix the English language.
Previously, interest had been shown chiefly in such questions as
whether English was worthy of being used for writings in which Latin had long been traditional,

21. 9-188 The attitude towards the language (2)
whether the large additions made to the vocabulary were justified,
and whether a more adequate system of spelling could be introduced.
Now for the first time attention was turned to the grammar, and it was discovered that English had no grammar.
At any rate, its grammar was largely uncodified, unsystematized.

22. 9-188 The attitude towards the language (3)
The ancient languages had been reduced to rule, one knew what was right and what was wrong.
But in English, everything was uncertain.
One learned to speak and write as one learned to walk, and in many matters of grammar and usage there was much variation even among educated people.

23. 9-188 The attitude towards the language (4)
The spontaneous creativeness of Shakespeare had given place to hesitation and uncertainty, so that a man like Dryden confessed that at times he had to translate an idea into Latin in order to decide on the correct way to express it in English.
The rationalistic spirit of the 18th c. attempted to settle disputed points logically, i.e. by simply reasoning about them, often arriving at entirely false conclusions.

24. 9-188 The attitude towards the language (5)
The respect for authoritative (classical) example takes the form of appeals to the analogy of Latin.
The popular idea that individuals have power to legislate matters of language accounts for the repeated demand for an English Academy.
Finally, an idea was often expressed that English has been and is being daily corrupted, that it needs correction and refinement.

25. 9-188 The attitude towards the language (6)
So, when the necessary reforms have been introduced it should be fixed permanently and protected from change.
In other words, it was desired in the 18th cent. to give the English language a polished, rational, and permanent form.

26. 9-189 “Ascertainment” (1)
In the 18th c. the need for standardization and regulation was summed up in the word “Ascertainment” (Dr. Johnson: a settled rule; an established standard).
18th c. attempts to codify English are seen in three main aspects:
1) to reduce the language to rule and set up a standard of correct usage;
2) to refine it – that is, to remove supposed defects and to introduce certain improvements;
3) to fix it permanently in the desired form.

27. 9-189 “Ascertainment” (2)
It was in this sense that J.Swift used the verb in his proposal for correcting, improving, and ascertaining the english tongue (1712).
When reduced to its simplest form, the need was for a dictionary which should record the proper use of words and a grammar that should settle the correct usages in matters of construction.

28. 9-190 The problem of “refining” the language
The observations that the language was steadily going down were accompanied by a regretful backward glance at the good old days.
Various periods in the past were supposed to represent the highest perfection of English.
It was Dryden’s opinion that “from Chaucer the purity of the English tongue began”;
For Swift the golden age was that of the great Elizabethans.

29. 9-190 The problem of “refining” the language
In the matters of language Swift was a conservative.The things that specifically troubled him were chiefly innovations.
One of these was the tendency to clip and shorten words that should have retained their full polysyllabic dignity, e.g. rep, mob, penult.
A second innovation that Swift opposed was the tendency to contract verbs like drudg’d, disturb’d, rebuk’d.

30. 9-190 The problem of “refining” the language
A third innovation that aroused Swift’s anger had to do with certain words that were enjoying a considerable vogue. They had even invaded the pulpit (pamokslų sakymas).
Swift says that young preachers “use all the modern terms of art, sham, banter, mob, bubble, bully, cutting, shuffling, and palming...”
Swift was by no means alone in his criticism of new words. Each censor of the language had his own list of objectionable expressions.

31. 9-191 The desire to fix the language (1)
One of the most ambitious hopes of the 18th c. was to establish the language in a form that would be permanent.
Swift talked about ‘fixing’ the language and the word was echoed for 50 years by lesser writers who believed in the possibility of realizing it.

32. 9-191 The desire to fix the language (2)
It is curious that a number of people notable in various intellectual spheres in the late 17th and early 18th cent. should have believed that it would be possible to suspend the processes of growth and decay that characterize a living language.

33. 9-192 The example of Italy and France (1)
It was perhaps inevitable that those who gave thought to the threefold problem which seemed to confront English – of standardizing, refining, and fixing it – should consider what had been done in this direction by other countries.
Italy and France were the countries to which the English had long turned for inspiration and example, and in both these countries the destiny of the language had been confined to an academy.

34. 9-192 The example of Italy and France (2)
In Italy the Accademia della Crusca founded in 1582 worked on the purification of the Italian language.
The academy published a dictionary in 1612;
here then was the impressive example of the results attained in at least one country from an effort to improve its language.

35. 9-192 The example of Italy and France (3)
Perhaps an even more effective precedent was shown by France.
In 1635 Cardinal Richelieu offered a royal charter to a small group of men (40) known as the French Academy (Académie française).
Its purpose was to ‘give definite rules to our language, and to render it pure, eloquent, and capable of treating the arts and sciences’.

36. 9-192 The example of Italy and France (4)
The most important project was the dictionary. Work on it proceded slowly but in 1694 it appeared.
Thus while England continued to lament the lack of an adequate dictionary, Italy and France achieved this through academies.