Normalisation of the English Language

Normalisationis the fixing of the norms and standards of a language to protect it from corruption and change.

The normalisation of the English language started in the 17^th – 18^th c. In 1710 Jonathan Swiftpublished in his journal “The Tatler” an article titled “A Proposal for Correcting, Improving and Ascertaining the English Tongue”. J. Swift was a purist (struggled for the purity of the language) and suggested that a body of scholars should gather to fix the rules of the language usage. The Normalisation of the English language consisted in publishing:

Grammar’s of English:

John Wallis, “Grammatica Lingæ Anglicanæ” (prescriptive/normative grammar);

Robert Lowth, “A Short Introduction to English Grammar” (Lowth distinguished 9 parts of speech; made consistent description of letters, syllables, words and sentences; rules of no-double negation (I don’t want no dinner – incorrect!) and no-double comparison (more better – incorrect!) appeared, etc.).

Dictionaries(18^th c.):

E. Coles, “Dictionary of Hard Words” (gave explanations of hard words and phrases);

Samuel Johnson– one of the best-known English lexicographers. As well as J. Swift, he was a purist and believed that the English language should be purified and corrected. He was the first to compile a dictionary that resembles the present-day dictionaries.