Cover not available
Part of
English Historical Linguistics: Change in structure and meaning
Edited by Bettelou Los, Claire Cowie, Patrick Honeybone and Graeme Trousdale
[Current Issues in Linguistic Theory 358] 2022
► pp. 263–286

Chapter 11
Theatrical practices and grammatical standardization in eighteenth-century Britain

you was and you were

ORCID logo | University of Toronto
ORCID logo | University of Toronto

This chapter extends the discussion of second-person pronouns and of eighteenth-century language norms by examining three playwrights’ use of you was in the period before its proscription by grammarians like Robert Lowth (1762). Our analysis corroborates historical sociolinguistic surveys by Tieken-Boon van Ostade (2002) and Laitinen (2009) that identify you was as informal/familiar before 1762. We also show that you was was salient and associated with social lowness in comedies well before it was stigmatized by prescriptivists. Finally, while acknowledging the distinctness of theatrical language, we have identified one useful general property of comedy and especially romantic comedy. The stylized opposition between comic characters (particularly lovers) can signal sociolinguistic salience, here of you was/were by 1747.

Keywords: eighteenth-century British English, second-person pronoun, prescriptivism, normative linguistics, historical sociolinguistics, qualitative methods, dramatic literature, comedy, style-shifting, gender
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Context
  • 3.Methods
  • 4.1752–1773: A broadly quantitative overview
  • 5.Before 1762: Qualitative analysis of you was in context
    • 5.1Social status and you was
    • 5.2you was and you were in explicit contrast
    • 5.3you were in formal contexts
    • 5.4you was from condescension to emotion
    • 5.5Unaffected you was used by lead female characters
  • 6.Conclusion
  • Acknowledgements
  • References
Published online: 2 February 2022
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/cilt.358.11hye
References
Adamson, Sylvia
2001 Understanding Shakespeare’s grammar: Studies in small words. In Sylvia Adamson, Lynette Hunter, Lynne Magnusson, Ann Thompson & Katie Wales (eds.), Reading Shakespeare’s dramatic language: A guide, 210–236. London: Arden Shakespeare.Google Scholar
Anderson, Misty G.
2014 Genealogies of comedy. In Julia Swindells & David Francis Taylor (eds.), The Oxford handbook of the Georgian theatre, 1737–1832 (Oxford Handbooks Online), 347–367. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Bevis, Richard
1980 The laughing tradition: Stage comedy in Garrick’s day. Athens: The University of Georgia Press.Google Scholar
Breen, Jennifer
2004, September 23. Celesia [née Mallet], Dorothea (bap. 1738, d. 1790), playwright and poet. Oxford dictionary of national biography. [URL] (27 March, 2019.)
Eighteenth Century Collections Online = ECCO
2021 Gale Cengage Learning. [URL]
Fitzmaurice, Susan
2012 Social factors and language change in eighteenth-century England: The case of multiple negation. Neuphilologische Mitteilungen 113(3). 293–321.Google Scholar
Garrick, David
1980 The plays of David Garrick. 2 volumes. Harry William Pedicord & Fredrick Louis Bergmann (eds.). Edwardsville: Southern Illinois University Press.Google Scholar
[Griffiths, Ralph
] 1757 Review of The Epigoniad, by William Wilkie. Monthly Review 17. 228–238.Google Scholar
Hegele, Arden
2008 Bad grammar in the eighteenth century: Mid-century dramatists and public opinion. [URL]
Hodson, Jane
2014 Dialect in film and literature. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Laitinen, Mikko
2009 Singular YOU WAS/WERE variation and English normative grammars in the eighteenth century. In Arja Nurmi, Minna Nevala & Minna Palander-Collin (eds.), The language of daily life in England (1400–1809), 199–217. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Leggatt, Alexander
1998 English stage comedy, 1490–1990: Five centuries of a genre. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Literature Online = LION
1996–2021 Search Texts. [URL]
Lowth, Robert
1762 A short introduction to English grammar, with critical notes. London: A. Millar, R. & J. Dodsley. ECCO.Google Scholar
Nonomiya, Ayumi
2014 Thou and you in eighteenth-century English plays. Token: A journal of English linguistics 3. 211–234.Google Scholar
Nussbaum, Felicity
2010 Rival queens: Actresses, performance, and the eighteenth-century British theater. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Oxford Dictionary of National Biography [ODNB]
[URL]
Priestley, Joseph
1761 The rudiments of English grammar, adapted to the use of schools. With observations on style. London: R. Griffiths. ECCO.Google Scholar
Sundby, Bertil, Anne Kari Bjørge & Kari E. Haugland
(eds.) 1991 The dictionary of English normative grammar, 1700–1800 [= DENG]. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Tieken-Boon van Ostade, Ingrid
2002 You was and eighteenth-century normative grammar. In Katja Lenz & Ruth Mohlig (eds.), Of dyuersitie & chaunge of langage, 88–102. Heidelberg: Universitätsverlag C. Winter.Google Scholar
2011 The bishop’s grammar: Robert Lowth and the rise of prescriptivism in English. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Cited by

Cited by 2 other publications

Caon, Luisella, Moragh S. Gordon & Thijs Porck
2024. Introduction. In Unlocking the History of English [Current Issues in Linguistic Theory, 364], ► pp. 1 ff. DOI logo
Hyett, James & Carol Percy
2024. Chapter 3. Gender, genre, and prescriptivism. In Unlocking the History of English [Current Issues in Linguistic Theory, 364], ► pp. 60 ff. DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 28 april 2024. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.