The Standard of Usage in English |
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Author:
| Lounsbury, Thomas RaynesFord |
ISBN: | 978-0-217-39808-4 |
Publication Date: | Aug 2009 |
Publisher: | General Books LLC
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Book Format: | Paperback |
List Price: | USD $19.99 |
Book Description:
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Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: Ill THE LINGUISTIC AUTHORITY OF GREAT WRITERS THREE fundamental principles were laid down in the preceding essay. The first is that usage is the authoritative standard of speech. The second is that it must be good usage. The third is that it must be present good usage. When the two last concur?as in the...
More DescriptionPurchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: Ill THE LINGUISTIC AUTHORITY OF GREAT WRITERS THREE fundamental principles were laid down in the preceding essay. The first is that usage is the authoritative standard of speech. The second is that it must be good usage. The third is that it must be present good usage. When the two last concur?as in the large majority of instances they do?there is no further appeal possible in any given case. The question has been definitely settled. To this proposition we all unhesitatingly assent, when it comes to the consideration of disputed points in foreign tongues, especially the classical. In them the grammarian has been taught to know his place. Take, for example, Latin. If a word or construction occurs in Cicero, the question of its propriety is settled at once. No one thinks of disputing the authority of so great a master of the speech. The same principle applies to English. It follows, therefore, that when we find an expression of any sort employed by a writer of the first rank, the assumption must always be that this particular expression is proper. The burden of proof invariably falls upon him who maintains the contrary. Other things being equal, the chances are immensely in favor of the great author being right in his practice and of his critic being wrong in his censure. For while the great author is liable to commit error, he is far less liable to commit it than he who undertakes the office of corrector. It is idle to suppose that a man who has attained the highest eminence in literature will not, in the vast majority of instances, have been particular as to the proper treatment of the material with which he has been dealing. If the critic be solicitous in the matter of language, it is reasonable to believe that he whose success depends upon his use of it has paid more th...