Methodology
The term 'English Grammar' in ECEG
The use of the term 'English grammar' in ECEG refers to a work which fulfils the following criteria:
- It deals with morphology and syntax.
- It is written in English, including those which appear in bilingual/polyglot grammars.
- It is written by native speakers, save a small number of naturalized English speakers (Sundby et al. 1991: 14).
- It is printed in the British Isles (England, Scotland, Wales, Ireland) and, to a lesser extent, North America.
Crucially for the understanding of the eighteenth-century grammatical tradition and grammar-writing practices, ECEG widens the scope of the term 'English grammar' beyond the traditional view of 'distinctness'. Not only does ECEG consider grammar books but also grammars prefixed to (i) dictionaries or encyclopaedias; (ii) works primarily concerned with general notions of language such as universal language, logic or philosophy of language; (iii) rhetoric and elocutionary treatises; (iv) letter writing manuals; (v) polyglot grammars (written for foreigners or Latin grammars); (vi) spelling-books; and (vii) books of exercises. There is, inevitably, a miscellany category, and we have been lucky to be able to consult some manuscripts too.
Compilation
The process of compiling the ECEG-database consisted of three main phases:
- Firstly, our starting point was to revisit Alston's Bibliography but not only his volume on 'distinct' English grammars (1965), as previous scholars have mostly - if not exclusively - done; we also aimed to revise later volumes, supplements, addenda and corrigenda up to the present day (see 1966-1970, 1974, 2008).
- With a view to assessing to what extent scholars have relied on Alston's work, and also which scholars have (not) done so, the second phase consisted of extensive reading and selection of the literature in the field. This has allowed us to collect and collate a large number and variety of primary sources cited in the literature hitherto.
- The third phase involved a thorough process of thematic classification of each and every English grammar cited in the literature. In order to do so, the primary sources are personally being examined either by consulting materials available online (e.g. ECCO) or by following the traditionally laborious, yet pleasant and rewarding task of visiting libraries (e.g. the British Library, the National Library of Scotland).
The current version of ECEG (May 2011) consists of 323 grammars of the English language written in the time-span 1700-1800 by 275 different authors. The works have been drawn from:
- scholarly works: Leonard (1929), Poldauf (1948), Michael (1970, 1987), Vorlat (1975), Sundby et al. (1991) and Mitchell (2001);
- bibliographies: Kennedy (1927), Alston (1965-2008, vols. I-VIII, Supplement, Addenda), and Evans's American bibliography (1903-1959), along with the supplement volume by Bristol (1971).
- collections, facsimiles or reprints: Eighteenth-Century Collections Online, Evans Digital Collection of American Imprints, and Alston's (1967-73) facsimile reprint series English Linguistics 1500-1800.
Information about the authors has been drawn, in addition to some of the above, from the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography online (ODNB 2004), the Lexicon Grammaticorum (Stammerjohann et al. 1996), the recently published Universal Index of Biographical Names (Koerner 2008), and occasionally from historiographic surveys by colleagues (e.g. Tieken-Boon van Ostade 1996, Rodríguez-Gil 2002, Cajka 2003, Percy 2003, Sturiale 2006, Navest 2008).
The comparative analysis across the reference sources allows us to filter the data in terms of (a) which works are more popular among contemporary scholars and (b) which works are mentioned only once.
Although ECEG contains a large number of fully coded records, a database like this can only be a reflection of what has survived mainly in the academic and research libraries, occasionally in smaller or specialised collections and, at times, in private hands. Notwithstanding these inescapable limitations, it is hoped that ECEG will provide comprehensive knowledge of English grammars, grammar-writers and grammar-writing practices in the eighteenth century.
Fields
The information gathered for each grammar has been thoroughly examined and broken down into sub fields, twenty-one altogether, in order to allow for specific searches, whether individual or combined. These are described in the table below, thematically grouped in three major categories: Grammars (13), Authors (5) and Sources (3).
| Field | Description | |
|---|---|---|
| Grammars | ||
| 1 | Title | Full title including printing details. |
| 2 | Year | Of the first edition or the earliest edition containing a grammar of English. |
| 3 | Edition | First edition or earliest edition containing a grammar of English. |
| 4 | Editions | All editions cited in the literature (including editions of copies not located). |
| 5 | Place of Printing | Country, County, City |
| 6 | Printers | As in the imprint |
| 7 | Booksellers | As in the imprint |
| 8 | Price | As in the imprint |
| 9 | Physical Descritpion | As in the imprint |
| 10 | Type of Work | English ('distinct') grammar, Dictionary, Book of exercises, Language, Rhetoric/Elocution treatises, Letter-writing manual, Polyglot grammars, Spelling Book, Miscellaneous. |
| 11 | Divisions of Grammar | Primary contents: Orthography, Orthoepy, Etymology, Syntax, Prosody. |
| 12 | Subsidiary Contents | Punctuation, Rhetoric material, Examples of bad English, Examples of handwriting, Snatches of history/geography, Logic, etc. |
| 13 | Target Audience | Categories: Age, Gender, Instruction, Specific Purpose. |
| Authors | ||
| 14 | Name | Surname, Forename |
| 15 | Gender | Male, Female, Anonymous |
| 16 | Place of Birth | Country, County, City |
| 17 | Occupation | Books, Education, Politics, Religion, Science, Writing, Other. (Each of these categories comprises a range of jobs.) |
| 18 | Biographical Details | e.g. Age, Place of Residence, Acquaintances, Other writings |
| Sources | ||
| 19 | Holding libraries | At the present day. First extant edition consulted only. |
| 20 | References | Literature from which the primary sources have been drawn |
| 21 | Comments | Observations/Corrections from the literature and from our own research |