Nevile Martin Gwynne is a British writer who has gained recognition and some criticism for his book ''Gwynne's Grammar''. He has also written ''Gwynne's Latin''. In April 2013 a

grammar In linguistics, the grammar of a natural language is its set of structure, structural constraints on speakers' or writers' composition of clause (linguistics), clauses, phrases, and words. The term can also refer to the study of such constraint ...

test devised by Gwynne was published by ''

The Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a national British daily broadsheet newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed across the United Kingdom and internationally. It was fo ...

''. He spent his early days in

Gloucestershire Gloucestershire ( abbreviated Glos) is a county in South West England. The county comprises part of the Cotswold Hills, part of the flat fertile valley of the River Severn and the entire Forest of Dean. The county town is the city of Gl ...

before attending

Eton College Eton College () is a public school in Eton, Berkshire, England. It was founded in 1440 by Henry VI under the name ''Kynge's College of Our Ladye of Eton besyde Windesore'',Nevill, p. 3 ff. intended as a sister institution to King's College, C ...

and

Oxford University Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...

, graduating with a degree in

Modern language A modern language is any human language that is currently in use. The term is used in language education to distinguish between languages which are used for day-to-day communication (such as French and German) and dead classical languages such a ...

s. He later qualified as a Chartered Accountant at the British Institute of Chartered Accountants.

''Gwynne's Grammar''

''Gwynne's Grammar'' is an "introduction to Grammar and the writing of good English". Part One In "Part One" of ''Gwynne's Grammar'', Gwynne explains that "all thinking and communicating depend on grammar". In Chapter 5, "Parts of Speech", he criticises both

H. W. Fowler Henry Watson Fowler (10 March 1858 – 26 December 1933) was an English schoolmaster, lexicographer and commentator on the usage of the English language. He is notable for both ''A Dictionary of Modern English Usage'' and his work on the ''Con ...

and

Eric Partridge Eric Honeywood Partridge (6 February 1894 – 1 June 1979) was a New Zealand–British lexicographer of the English language, particularly of its slang. His writing career was interrupted only by his service in the Army Education Corps and ...

for their treatment of the word "firstly"– Fowler for his support of the word and Partridge for his rejection of it. His objection is that both Fowler and Partridge fail to produce any authoritative support for their opinions. Gwynne then goes on to support the use of the construction "First, secondly" (in preference to "Firstly, secondly"), using

Michael Dummett Sir Michael Anthony Eardley Dummett (27 June 1925 – 27 December 2011) was an English academic described as "among the most significant British philosophers of the last century and a leading campaigner for racial tolerance and equality." He wa ...

's ''Grammar & Style For Examination Candidates and Others'' as a supporting source. Continuing in the same vein he outlines his opposition to modern usage of the words "hopefully", "regretfully" and "thankfully". The remainder of "Part One" is a discourse on

parts of speech In grammar, a part of speech or part-of-speech (abbreviated as POS or PoS, also known as word class or grammatical category) is a category of words (or, more generally, of lexical items) that have similar grammatical properties. Words that are assi ...

syntax In linguistics, syntax () is the study of how words and morphemes combine to form larger units such as phrases and sentences. Central concerns of syntax include word order, grammatical relations, hierarchical sentence structure ( constituency) ...

and

punctuation Punctuation (or sometimes interpunction) is the use of spacing, conventional signs (called punctuation marks), and certain typographical devices as aids to the understanding and correct reading of written text, whether read silently or aloud. An ...

. Part Two "Part Two" is a reproduction of an earlier work: ''

The Elements of Style ''The Elements of Style'' is an American English writing style guide in numerous editions. The original was written by William Strunk Jr. in 1918, and published by Harcourt in 1920, comprising eight "elementary rules of usage", ten "elementary p ...

'', by Professor

William Strunk William Strunk Jr. (July 1, 1869 – September 26, 1946) was an American professor of English at Cornell University and author of ''The Elements of Style'' (1918). After revision and enlargement by his former student E. B. White, it became a highly ...

. Part Three "Part Three" comprises a number of appendices including a brief coverage of grammatical definitions,

irregular verbs A regular verb is any verb whose conjugation follows the typical pattern, or one of the typical patterns, of the language to which it belongs. A verb whose conjugation follows a different pattern is called an irregular verb. This is one instance ...

, "Special

Prepositions Prepositions and postpositions, together called adpositions (or broadly, in traditional grammar, simply prepositions), are a class of words used to express spatial or temporal relations (''in'', ''under'', ''towards'', ''before'') or mark various ...

" and "The Formation of

Plural The plural (sometimes abbreviated pl., pl, or ), in many languages, is one of the values of the grammatical category of number. The plural of a noun typically denotes a quantity greater than the default quantity represented by that noun. This de ...

s".

Reception

''Gwynne's Grammar'' has received mixed reviews: *The book gained approval from Education Secretary

Michael Gove Michael Andrew Gove (; born Graeme Andrew Logan, 26 August 1967) is a British politician serving as Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities and Minister for Intergovernmental Relations since 2021. He has been Member of Parli ...

who "told his department to stop writing pompous, illiterate letters". *According to

Michael Rosen Michael Wayne Rosen (born 7 May 1946) is a British children's author, poet, presenter, political columnist, broadcaster and activist who has written 140 books. He served as Children's Laureate from 2007 to 2009. Early life Michael Wayne Ros ...

"Martin Gwynne may have fun telling people the rules of grammar, but language is owned and controlled by everybody". * Linguist

Geoffrey Pullum Geoffrey Keith Pullum (; born 8 March 1945) is a British and American linguist specialising in the study of English. He is Professor Emeritus of General Linguistics at the University of Edinburgh. Pullum is a co-author of ''The Cambridge Gram ...

called Gwynne a "preposterous old fraud" with a "lack of any grasp of the subject" and was quoted in the ''New Zealand Herald'' saying, "I've never seen a book so bad on my subject". *

Oliver Kamm Oliver Kamm (born 1963) is a British journalist and writer who is a leader writer and columnist for ''The Times''. Early life and career Kamm is the son of translator Anthea Bell and publisher Antony Kamm. Kamm is the grandson of Adrian Bell ...

, a leader writer for ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper ''The Sunday Times'' (fou ...

'' newspaper, in ''Accidence Will Happen: The Non-Pedantic Guide to English Usage'', described ''Gwynne’s Grammar'' as "a work of titanic silliness" and in ''The Times'' in January 2017 as "the worst book I have read on language and perhaps on anything".

''Gwynne's Latin''

''Gwynne's Latin'' is an "introduction to

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

including the Latin in everyday English". According to Britt Peterson of ''The Boston Globe'', Gwynne believes "students should start memorising Latin verbs at age 3". Part One In Chapter 1, "About Latin", Gwynne explains his love of the subject in some detail and in Chapter 3, "The Importance of Learning Latin, Examined in Detail", describes how Jean Paul Getty employed

classicists Classics or classical studies is the study of classical antiquity. In the Western world, classics traditionally refers to the study of Classical Greek and Roman literature and their related original languages, Ancient Greek and Latin. Classics ...

because "They sell more oil". In Chapter 4, "Is ''This'' How to Learn Latin?", he criticises both the ''

Cambridge Latin Course The Cambridge Latin Course (CLC) is a series of textbooks published by Cambridge University Press, used to teach Latin to secondary school pupils. It provides a grounding in vocabulary, grammar and sense which allows progression through Common ...

'' and the ''

Oxford Latin Course James Henry Weldon Morwood (25 November 1943 – 10 September 2017) was an English classicist and author. He taught at Harrow School, where he was Head of Classics,Harrow School Register 2002 8th edition edited by S W Bellringer & published by T ...

'' for being "impossible to learn Latin from". Part Two Chapter 6 defines accidence (morphology), parts of speech, syntax and

grammatical case A grammatical case is a category of nouns and noun modifiers (determiners, adjectives, participles, and Numeral (linguistics), numerals), which corresponds to one or more potential grammatical functions for a nominal group in a wording. In vari ...

s and in Chapter 8, pronunciation is covered. Part Three "Part Three" contains the main subject matter including

declension In linguistics, declension (verb: ''to decline'') is the changing of the form of a word, generally to express its syntactic function in the sentence, by way of some inflection. Declensions may apply to nouns, pronouns, adjectives, adverbs, and ar ...

s. Everything that is covered in "Part Two" is discussed in more detail.

Reception

''Gwynne's Latin'' has received less recognition than has ''Gwynne's Grammar''. *

Harry Mount Henry Francis Mount (born 1971) is a British author and journalist who is editor of ''The Oldie'' magazine and a frequent contributor to the ''Daily Mail'' and ''The Daily Telegraph''. Early life Harry Mount was born in 1971. His father, Ferdin ...

, in ''The Spectator'' writes; "It would be a precocious child who had the determination to teach himself Latin, but he certainly could from this book. As Molesworth says, he’d have to work hard, and, as Gwynne says, he’d have to do a lot of learning by heart." *Daniel Hahn wrote; "This little book makes a great case for learning Latin, not least because of the countless Latin words and phrases in our daily English." *Ross McGuinness in the ''Metro'' took a neutral line, supporting the teaching of Latin without expressing an opinion of the merits of Gwynne's book.

''Gwynne's Kings and Queens of England''

''Gwynne's Kings and Queens of England'' was published by Ebury Press on 10 May 2018.

References

Sources

*''Gwynne's Grammar'' (2013), Ebury Press, *''Gwynne's Latin'' (2014), Ebury Press,

External links

Gwynne Teaching

Nevile Gwynne on YouTube
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gwynne, Nevile Year of birth missing (living people) Living people Grammarians from the United Kingdom Alumni of the University of Oxford People educated at Eton College