Summary

Mythical strands in the ideology of prescriptivism

In this chapter that started with a description of Mythical strands in the ideology of
prescriptivism. This language myths in Sheridans Course of Lectures on Elocution that in 1762
Thomas Sheridan delivered a series of lectures on elocution in London and other large cities in
Britain in his efforts to establish a standard form of oral English to complement the written
standard variety. At every lecture he opened subscribes list which is printed in full in the Course
of Lectures on Elocution and contains more than 800 names, the vast majority of which clearly
indicate the middle class.
In the eighteenth century the myth of language and ethnicity no longer needs to be retold
in Britain, since the relationship between territory and ethnic identity has already been firmly
established by emphasising the importance of a standard form of English. The two grammars
which appeared in 1711, Greenwoods and Gildon and Brightlands, were among the last to give
this myth any real attention. The variety of dialects and pronunciation is presented by Sheridan
as being divisive and as maintaining differences between the citizens of Great Britain. However,
it is not social differences that a uniform pronunciation may help to root out, but rather the
linguistics signs of geographical provenance.
The language and nationality myth is invoked throughout the Course of Lectures on
Elocution, although it is generally kept implicit. The myth of the prefect language and the myth
of the undesirability of change are less obviously in evidence in Sheridans text, but they
appeared from to time. The grammar of English published in 1724 by Hugh Jones is certainly
one of the least known grammars of the eighteenth century, but it is an interesting mixture of
traditional normative grammar, presented almost too briefly and to be of any real use to English
learner. All the language myths that can be identified in Sheridan can be found in Jones
grammar. As in Sheridan, the language variety myth is presented negatively and the language
and ethnicity myth is not represented at all.
Although the myth of the golden age does not appear clearly in Jones or Sheridan, it is
certainly present in other writers in the eighteenth century. In effect whereas the language and
ethnicity myth gave way to the language superiority the language perfection myth was in
competition with the language variety myth. The myth of the undesirability of change is
therefore the inverse of the language variety myth. The myth of golden age simply added
substance to the myth of the undesirability of change and the language perfection myth. Harrison
talks of three languages spoken in England in the sixteenth century, English, Cornish and British,
and suggests that if Scotland were included there would be even more. He makes an interesting
link between the quality of the soil and the number of Languages, as if languages grew like
plants, and expresses his surprise that the poor quality of the soil in Scotland still gives rise to
three languages.
As a final point I shall suggest briefly that there was at least one alternative language
ideology in evidence in the sixteenth century, which also deserves to be researched in a little
more detail, since such research might throw an interesting light on what we might call the
mainstream development of Standard English. All of these developments and many more
which I do not have space to develop here, had to do with unprecedented rapid expansion in
international trade and struggle for colonial power which necessary to establish of a strong
national identity as British, rather than English, Scots or Irish.

Question
1. How was presented the differences of the variety dialects and pronunciation by Sheridan?
2. Describe the relationship between the language and ethnicity myth in the eighteenth
century!
3. Explain the way how Horrison talks for languages in the sixteenth century, and what he
makes?