Session 4: double negation and Old Bailey's

Data for Late Modern English Period?

• No spoken data available before late 19th century

• Fictional data (novels, plays, libretto)

• Non-fictional data:

• Court proceedings/transcripts of spoken language

Old Bailey: Criminal court in London (1674-1913)v

double negation

-       The disappearance of double negation is usually attributed to the normative grammarians, particularly associated with Lowth

-       Multiple negation has already been on its way ut since the end of the 16^th century

-       18^th century: uncommon amongst educated writers ->  question: was multiple negation a characteristic of the spoken language and of the language of non-standard speakers (lower social class or people from provinces)?

-       Double negation interpreted as a possible social shibboleth -> reason why its avoidance is featured so largely in normative grammars of the period

-       Tieken argues that Lowth’s stricture itself was not proscriptive but had the effect as a result of the use hat was made of it by grammarians coming after him

double negation as spoken language feature

-       First discussed by James Greenwood in 1711

-       An explanation given by Benjamin Martin in 1748, he distinguishes between two types, one that is still in use among us (not generally acceptable -> likely informal usage or in spoken language) and one that represents more current usage, i.e. that in which two negatives cancel each other out

-       Instances can be found in 18^th century novels, but evidence based on speech as represented in literature, novels or drama has to be interpreted with great care

multiple negation in normative grammars

-       Lowth’s grammar: two negatives in English destroy one another, or are equivalent to an affirmative, adds that multiple negation once used to be quite common (no indication of disapproval! Descriptive comment)

-       Priestley’s discussion: Negative particles often occasion embarrassment to a writer -> proscriptive comment

-       Murray: But it is better to express an affirmation by a regular affirmative than by two negatives (turned Lowth’s descriptive statement into a strongly prescriptive one)

-       Whilst Lowth’s name has been associated with the disappearance of multiple negation, it is evident that he owes much of this status to the ways in which Murray adopted parts of his grammar

  A social shibboleth

-       Throughout the 18^th century, the stricture against multiple negation is an important grammatical issue that occurred in many influential grammars of the period

-       In the course of time, the stricture was made increasingly prescriptive

-       The reason stricture played an important role was that it was a common feature of everyday speech, particularly of the lower classes, and is linked with the language of servants

-       Aim of the normative grammars was to provide a model of speech for those who were socially ambitious and who consequently wished to adapt their language to the linguistic norm of the social class to which they aspired

-       If people from the servant class wanted to rise above their original status, they had to unlearn features such as multiple negation

social climbers and language of servants

-       Anxiety that the language of servants might have on their employers’ children and the wives

conclusion

-       18^th century English grammarians were so obsessed with multiple negation and included a stricture against this features because it continued to be used among lower social classes -> anyone who wished to rise had to be made aware of the social stigma attached to its usage and those who employed servants had to be on their guard against possible contamination from their language -> linguistic risk of living children to the care of servants

-       Today: multiple negation is used socially rather than regionally distributed and used by working-class speakers throughout and beyond Britain