Proper English?: Readings in Language, History and Cultural Identity

Introduction: language, history and the formation of cultural identity
1. Extracts from An Essay concerning Human understanding (1690) /​ John Locke
2. Extracts from A Proposal for correcting, improving and ascertaining the English language (1712) /​ Jonathan Swift
3. Extract from The Plan of a dictionary of the English language (1747) /​ Samuel Johnson
4. Extracts from A Course of lectures on elocution (1762) /​ Thomas Sheridan
5. Extract from An Essay towards establishgin a standard for an elegant and uniform pronunciation of the English language (1764) /​ James Buchanan
6. Extract from Dissertations on the English language (1789) /​ Noah Webster
7. Extracts from A Critical Pronouncing dictionary and expositor of the English language (1791) /​ John Walker
8. Extract from A Vocabulary or collection of words and phrases (1816) /​ John Pickering
9. 'On the probable future position of the English language' (1850) /​ T. Watts
10. Extracts from On the study of words (1851) /​ Archbishop R. C. Trench
11. Proposal for the publication of a new English dictionary (1858)
12. Extracts from A Book about words (1869) /​ G. F. Graham
13. Extracts from The Queen's English (1864; 3rd edn 1870) /​ Henry Alford
14. Extract from 'The speech of American women' (1905) /​ Henry James
15. Extracts from The Teaching of English in England (1921) /​ Henry Newbolt
16. Extracts from 'The best English: A claim for the superiority of received standard English' (1934) /​ Henry Wyld
17. Extracts from "Linguistic class-indicators in present-day English' (1954) /​ A. S. C. Ross
18. Extracts from "Did man make language?' (1983) /​ Alison Assiter
19. Extracts from English our English: the new orthodoxy examined (1987) /​ John Marenbon