Language-- Right or Wrong: Who Decides?

Perhaps we should defer to the professional judges of language. In the 17th century, English grammarians appeared. They did useful work in rationalizing the language and setting forth rules of usage. However, sometimes their precepts were based on faulty language or were overlogical. It has been said that John Wallis invented the shall/will, should/would rules and that John Lowth, in 1762, first decreed that two negatives are the equivalent of a positive. He also banned the use of the superlative to indicate one or two, which before had been acceptable. Note Jane Austen's "the youngest of the two daughters of a most affectionate, indulgent father."

There were critics of the view that the grammarians should shape proper language, however. Even Dr. Samuel Johnson, who shared many of the convictions of the grammarians, admitted that in the end, speech, not writing nor grammatical logic and rules, would command usage.

This is the view of language that has prevailed up to the present. Next week, we will discuss how common usage has assumed dominance at the expense of formal grammar.

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