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Romanticism and Linguistic Theory: William Hazlitt, Language and Literature P.Cm Facebook : La culture ne s'hérite pas elle se conquiert Romanticism and Linguistic Theory Facebook : La culture ne s'hérite pas elle se conquiert Also by Marcus Tomalin: LINGUISTICS AND THE FORMAL SCIENCES Facebook : La culture ne s'hérite pas elle se conquiert Romanticism and Linguistic Theory William Hazlitt, Language and Literature Marcus Tomalin Facebook : La culture ne s'hérite pas elle se conquiert © Marcus Tomalin 2009 All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publica- tion may be made without written permission. No portion of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, Saffron House, 6–10 Kirby Street, London, EC1N 8TS. Any person who does any unauthorized act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages. The author has asserted his right to be identified as the author of this work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. First published 2009 by PALGRAVE macmILLAN Palgrave Macmillan in the UK is an imprint of Macmillan Publishers Limited, registered in England, company number 785998, of Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS. Palgrave Macmillan in the US is a division of St Martin's Press LLC,175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010. Palgrave Macmillan is the global academic imprint of the above companies and has companies and representatives throughout the world. Palgrave® and Macmillan® are registered trademarks in the United States, the United Kingdom, Europe and other countries. ISBN-13: 978–0–230–21833–8 hardback ISBN-10: 0–230–21833–4 hardback This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from fully managed and sustained forest sources. Logging, pulping and manufacturing processes are expected to conform to the environmental regulations of the country of origin. A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Tomalin, Marcus. Romanticism and linguistic theory: William Hazlitt, language and literature p.cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN-13: 978–0–230–21833–8 (alk. paper) ISBN-10: 0–230–21833–4 (alk. paper) 1. Hazlitt, William, 1788-1830—Knowledge—Philology. 2. Grammar, Comparative and general—History—18th century. 3. Grammar, Comparative and general—History 19th century. 4. Language and languages—Philosophy—History—18th century. 5. Language and languages—Philosophy—History—19th century. 6. Romanticism—Great Britain. I. Title. PR4773.T66 2008 824.7—dc22 2008016327 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 11 10 09 Printed and bound in Great Britain by CPI Antony Rowe, Chippenham and Eastbourne Facebook : La culture ne s'hérite pas elle se conquiert ‘This is one of those subjects on which the human understanding has played the fool’. William Hazlitt, ‘English Grammar’, 1829. Facebook : La culture ne s'hérite pas elle se conquiert Many of the topics presented here were first considered in the con- text of lectures and classes that I gave for the Faculty of English at the University of Cambridge during the period 2003-2008. Therefore, I am indebted to several generations of undergraduates as well as to various members of the ‘Language’ SGC who provided me with the opportu- nity to refine my ideas. In particular, Eric Griffiths, Raphael Lyne, Dan Wakelin, and Laura Wright have been unfailingly supportive. I am also grateful for the chance to speak at the 2008 ‘Hazlitt Day-School’ which took place at Hertford College, Oxford. In particular, the discussions that I had there with Uttara Natarajan, Duncan Wu, Tom Paulin, and Simon Bainbridge (amongst others) were extremely helpful. In differ- ent ways, Nick Roe, Julia Simon, Will Poole, Rhodri Lewis, and Cathy Philips also provided valuable guidance when it was most required. Al- though I made use of various libraries while preparing this book, the Cambridge University Library deserves an especial mention, particularly the staff of the Munby Rare Books Room. Their careful assistance was always exemplary. Further thanks are due to Palgrave Macmillan, first for agreeing to support this venture, and then for overseeing the prepa- ration of this manuscript so carefully. Paula Kennedy and Steven Hall, especially, have been invariably helpful and encouraging, while Mary Payne has proved to be a meticulous proof reader. Over the years, numerous Tomalins, Trencs´enyis, and MacDonalds have endured conversations about some of the topics discussed in this book, and the chance to explain my ideas was always beneficial (for me at least). I am grateful to them for their patience and I thank them – especially my mother, who probably learnt more about Indian Jugglers than she ever expected. Finally, as usual, Sarah is implicated throughout. All quotations from Duncan Wu’s The Selected Writings of William Hazlitt 9 vols. (1998) are reproduced with the kind permission of Pick- ering & Chatto Publishers. Despite my vigilence, I assume that there are lingering errors in this text. If so, then they are due entirely to my own ignorance, carelessness, and stupidity. I wish the mistakes well, though, and I trust that they will bring joy to all attentive readers. This book is dedicated to my father: Malcolm (Raymond) Roy Tomalin 1935-2007 Facebook : La culture ne s'hérite pas elle se conquiert Contents 1 Introduction page 1 1.1 Romanticism and Language 1 1.2 Hazlitt on Language and Linguistic Theory 7 1.3 Reception and Analysis 14 1.4 The Way Ahead 22 2 Linguistic Theory in the Eighteenth Century 25 2.1 Theories and Theorists 25 2.2 Philosophy of Language 25 2.3 Philosophical Grammars 30 2.4 Grammar Textbooks 38 2.5 Lexicography 44 2.6 Language and Style 51 2.7 Tories and Radicals 57 3 Philology and Philosophical Grammar 60 3.1 Hazlitt and Philosophical Grammar 60 3.2 Nonsense and Redemption 63 3.3 Horne Tooke’s Theory of Language 65 3.4 Indeclinable Words 72 3.5 Winged Words 79 3.6 Rejecting Metaphysics 84 3.7 A Light in the Darkness 91 4 The Implications of Style 93 4.1 The Influence of Pedagogy 93 4.2 Vulgarisms and Broken English 94 4.3 The Grammars of English 98 4.4 Perspicuity: Purity, Propriety, and Precision 102 4.5 Familiarising the Perspicuous 108 ix Facebook : La culture ne s'hérite pas elle se conquiert x Contents 5 The Languages of Literature 122 5.1 Grammar and Literature 122 5.2 Verbal Criticism 129 5.3 Common Language 141 6 Victorian Perspectives 148 6.1 Hazlitt’s Influence? 148 6.2 Journalism and Urbanism 150 6.3 The Progress of Philology 154 Notes 165 Bibliography 181 Index 188 Facebook : La culture ne s'hérite pas elle se conquiert 1 Introduction 1.1 Romanticism and Language The epigraph to this book is taken from an essay that Hazlitt wrote towards the end of his life. It was published in The Atlas in 1829, and it contains his final thoughts concerning the nature of the difficulties that perhaps inevitably bedevil the study of English grammar. It is a topic that had fascinated him for many years and which had prompted him to publish his own grammar textbook, A New and Improved Grammar of the English Tongue (henceforth Grammar) in 1809. Although twenty years had intervened between the publication of the Grammar and the appearance of the Atlas essay, Hazlitt adopts the same basic position in both texts: he repeatedly implores his audience not to allow themselves to be ‘hoodwinked and led blindfold by mere precedent and authority’, and he speaks disparagingly of those who unquestioningly accept the linguistic precepts with which they had been indoctrinated as children.1 As these remarks suggest, the system of grammatical analysis that was standardly taught in British schools was, for Hazlitt, a detestable ab- surdity: If a system were made in burlesque and purposely to call into question and expose its own nakedness, it could not go beyond this, which is gravely taught in all seminaries, and patiently learnt by all school-boys as an exercise and discipline of the intellectual faculties.2 The conventional pedagogical practices seem farcical: diligent children are required to master an analytical system which is so profoundly flawed as to be inherently self-parodic. Ever attentive to the fallibility of appar- ent authorities (be they political, intellectual, linguistic, or otherwise), Hazlitt maintains that dire consequences inevitably follow from an overly servile adherence to tradition, especially when the particular customs in- 1 Facebook : La culture ne s'hérite pas elle se conquiert 2 Introduction volved are fundamentally misguided. Despite his dissatisfaction with the grammar-based pedagogy of the day, he is pessimistic about the possi- bility of reform, offering an amusing sketch of the sufferings that would have to be endured by a zealous pedagogue who took a novel approach: A schoolmaster who should go so far out of his way as to take the Diversions of Purley for a textbook, would be regarded by his brethren of the rod as ‘a man of Ind,’ and would soon have the dogs of the village bark at him.3 This passage is characterised by a distinctly Hazlittian density. The ‘Di- versions of Purley’ is a text that will be discussed at length in this book. It is, essentially, a treatise concerning the analysis of natural language, the first volume of which was published in 1786 by the noted radical John Horne Tooke. Appropriately enough given his subversive politi- cal views, Horne Tooke rejected conventional grammatical systems, and argued that etymological analyses were essential if the structure of nat- ural language were ever to be correctly understood.
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