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Inanimate Whose
The inanimate ''whose'' refers to the use in English of the relative pronoun ''whose'' with non-personal antecedents, as in: "That's the car ''whose'' alarm keeps waking us up at night." The construction is also known as the ''whose'' inanimate, non-personal ''whose'', and neuter ''whose''. The use of the inanimate ''whose'' dates from the 15th century, but since the 18th century has drawn criticism from those who consider ''whose'' to be the genitive (possessive) only of the relative pronoun ''who'' and therefore believe it should be restricted to personal antecedents. Critics of inanimate ''whose'' prefer constructions such as those using ''of which the'', which others find clumsy or overly formal. Usage Users of the inanimate ''whose'' employ it as a relative pronoun with non-personal antecedents, as in: :: "That's the car ''whose'' alarm keeps waking us up at night." Those who avoid using ''whose'' with non-personal antecedents assert that it is the genitive (poss ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Philology
Philology () is the study of language in oral and written historical sources; it is the intersection of textual criticism, literary criticism, history, and linguistics (with especially strong ties to etymology). Philology is also defined as the study of literary texts as well as oral and written records, the establishment of their authenticity and their original form, and the determination of their meaning. A person who pursues this kind of study is known as a philologist. In older usage, especially British, philology is more general, covering comparative and historical linguistics. Classical philology studies classical languages. Classical philology principally originated from the Library of Pergamum and the Library of Alexandria around the fourth century BC, continued by Greeks and Romans throughout the Roman/Byzantine Empire. It was eventually resumed by European scholars of the Renaissance, where it was soon joined by philologies of other European ( Germanic, Celtic ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Noah Webster
Noah ''Nukh''; am, ኖህ, ''Noḥ''; ar, نُوح '; grc, Νῶε ''Nôe'' () is the tenth and last of the pre-Flood patriarchs in the traditions of Abrahamic religions. His story appears in the Hebrew Bible ( Book of Genesis, chapters 5–9), the Quran and Baha'i writings. Noah is referenced in various other books of the Bible, including the New Testament, and in associated deuterocanonical books. The Genesis flood narrative is among the best-known stories of the Bible. In this account, Noah labored faithfully to build the Ark at God's command, ultimately saving not only his own family, but mankind itself and all land animals, from extinction during the Flood. Afterwards, God made a covenant with Noah and promised never again to destroy all the Earth's creatures with a flood. Noah is also portrayed as a "tiller of the soil" and as a drinker of wine. Biblical narrative Tenth and final of the pre-Flood (antediluvian) Patriarchs, son to Lamech and an unnamed mo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lindley Murray
Lindley Murray (7 June 1745 – 16 February 1826) was an American Quaker lawyer, writer and grammarian, best known for his English-language grammar books used in schools in England and the United States. Early life Lindley Murray was born at Harper Tavern, Pennsylvania, on 7 June 1745. His father, Robert Murray, a member of an old Quaker family, was one of the leading New York merchants. Murray was the eldest of twelve children, all of whom he survived, although he was puny and delicate in childhood. When six years old, he was sent to school in Philadelphia, but soon left to accompany his parents to North Carolina, where they lived until 1753. They then moved to New York, where Murray was sent to a good school, but proved a 'heedless boy'. Contrary to his inclinations, he was placed when only fourteen in his father's counting house. In spite of endeavors to foster in him the commercial spirit, the lad's interests were mainly concentrated in science and literature. Collec ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Samuel Johnson
Samuel Johnson (18 September 1709 – 13 December 1784), often called Dr Johnson, was an English writer who made lasting contributions as a poet, playwright, essayist, moralist, critic, biographer, editor and lexicographer. The ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'' calls him "arguably the most distinguished man of letters in English history". Born in Lichfield, Staffordshire, he attended Pembroke College, Oxford until lack of funds forced him to leave. After working as a teacher, he moved to London and began writing for ''The Gentleman's Magazine''. Early works include '' Life of Mr Richard Savage'', the poems ''London'' and ''The Vanity of Human Wishes'' and the play ''Irene''. After nine years' effort, Johnson's '' A Dictionary of the English Language'' appeared in 1755, and was acclaimed as "one of the greatest single achievements of scholarship". Later work included essays, an annotated '' The Plays of William Shakespeare'', and the apologue '' The History of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
A Dictionary Of The English Language
''A Dictionary of the English Language'', sometimes published as ''Johnson's Dictionary'', was published on 15 April 1755 and written by Samuel Johnson. It is among the most influential dictionaries in the history of the English language. There was dissatisfaction with the dictionaries of the period, so in June 1746 a group of London booksellers contracted Johnson to write a dictionary for the sum of 1,500 guineas (£1,575), equivalent to about £ in . Johnson took seven years to complete the work, although he had claimed he could finish it in three. He did so single-handedly, with only clerical assistance to copy the illustrative quotations that he had marked in books. Johnson produced several revised editions during his life. Until the completion of the ''Oxford English Dictionary'' 173 years later, Johnson's was viewed as the pre-eminent English dictionary. According to Walter Jackson Bate, the Dictionary "easily ranks as one of the greatest single achievements of s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Rudiments Of English Grammar
''The Rudiments of English Grammar'' (1761) was a popular English grammar textbook written by the 18th-century British polymath Joseph Priestley. While a minister for a congregation in Nantwich, Cheshire, Priestley established a local school; it was his first successful educational venture. Believing that all students should have a good grasp of English and its grammar before learning any other language, and dismayed at the quality of the instruction manuals available, Priestley wrote his own textbook: ''The Rudiments of English Grammar'' (1761). The book was very successful—it was reprinted for over fifty years. Its humor may have contributed to its popularity; for example, Priestley illustrated the ''couplet'' with this rhyme: ::Beneath this stone my wife doth lie: ::She's now at rest, and so am I. Priestley also quoted from the most famous English authors, encouraging the middle-class association between reading and pleasure, a reading that would also, Priestley hoped, fost ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Joseph Priestley
Joseph Priestley (; 24 March 1733 – 6 February 1804) was an English chemist, natural philosopher, separatist theologian, grammarian, multi-subject educator, and liberal political theorist. He published over 150 works, and conducted experiments in electricity and other areas of science. He was a close friend of, and worked in close association with Benjamin Franklin involving electricity experiments. Priestley is credited with his independent discovery of oxygen by the thermal decomposition of mercuric oxide, having isolated it in 1774. During his lifetime, Priestley's considerable scientific reputation rested on his invention of carbonated water, his writings on electricity, and his discovery of several "airs" (gases), the most famous being what Priestley dubbed "dephlogisticated air" (oxygen). Priestley's determination to defend phlogiston theory and to reject what would become the chemical revolution eventually left him isolated within the scientific community. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Anselm Bayly
Rev. Anselm Bayly (1719 – 14 October 1794) was an English churchman and author of various works, chiefly of a theological and critical nature. He was also a singer and musical theorist, associated with the performance of works by George Frideric Handel. Biography Bayly was educated at Christ Church, Oxford, where he took the degree of B.C.L. on 12 June 1749, at age 21. He entered the church and rose to some distinction in that profession, becoming minor canon of St Paul's Cathedral and also of Westminster, and sub-dean of the Chapel Royal. On 15 January 1750–51 he was presented by the chapter of St Paul's to the vicarage of Tottenham, Middlesex. On 10 July 1764, he took the degree of D.C.L. In 1787 he patented an elastic girdle, designed to prevent and relieve ruptures, fractures, and swellings. He died in 1794. Works *''The Antiquity, Evidence, and Certainty of Christianity'', London, 1751. *''An Introduction to Languages Literary and Philosophical, especially to the English ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Personification
Personification occurs when a thing or abstraction is represented as a person, in literature or art, as a type of anthropomorphic metaphor. The type of personification discussed here excludes passing literary effects such as "Shadows hold their breath", and covers cases where a personification appears as a character in literature, or a human figure in art. The technical term for this, since ancient Greece, is prosopopoeia. In the arts many things are commonly personified. These include numerous types of places, especially cities, countries and the four continents, elements of the natural world such as the months or Four Seasons, Four Elements, Four Winds, Five Senses, and abstractions such as virtues, especially the four cardinal virtues and seven deadly sins, the nine Muses, or death. In many polytheistic early religions, deities had a strong element of personification, suggested by descriptions such as "god of". In ancient Greek religion, and the related ancient ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Robert Lowth
Robert Lowth ( ; 27 November 1710 – 3 November 1787) was a Bishop of the Church of England, Oxford Professor of Poetry and the author of one of the most influential textbooks of English grammar. Life Lowth was born in Hampshire, England, Great Britain, the son of Dr William Lowth, a clergyman and Biblical commentator. He was educated at Winchester College and became a scholar of New College, Oxford in 1729. Lowth obtained his BA in 1733 and his Master of Arts degree in 1737. In 1735, while still at Oxford, Lowth took orders in the Anglican Church and was appointed vicar of Ovington, Hampshire, a position he retained until 1741, when he was appointed Oxford Professor of Poetry. Bishop Lowth made a translation of the Book of Isaiah, first published in 1778. The Seventh-day Adventist theologian E. J. Waggoner said in 1899 that Lowth's translation of Isaiah was "without doubt, as a whole, the best English translation of the prophecy of Isaiah". In 1750 he was appointed A ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Prescriptive Grammar
Linguistic prescription, or prescriptive grammar, is the establishment of rules defining preferred usage of language. These rules may address such linguistic aspects as spelling, pronunciation, vocabulary, syntax, and semantics. Sometimes informed by linguistic purism, such normative practices often suggest that some usages are incorrect, inconsistent, illogical, lack communicative effect, or are of low aesthetic value, even in cases where such usage is more common than the prescribed usage. They may also include judgments on socially proper and politically correct language use. Linguistic prescriptivism may aim to establish a standard language, teach what a particular society or sector of a society perceives as a correct or proper form, or advise on effective and stylistically felicitous communication. If usage preferences are conservative, prescription might appear resistant to language change; if radical, it may produce neologisms. Prescriptive approaches to language are ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
