Lindley Murray (1745–1826), Quaker and Grammarian

Fens-De Zeeuw, A. (2011)

Doctoral Thesis

The American-born Quaker Lindley Murray (1745–1826) arguably was the most influential English language grammarian; undeniably he was the best-selling one. Murray was the author of the English Grammar (1795), and between 1795 and the middle of the nineteenth century millions of copies were sold of this grammar alone, while several of his other textbooks were no less popular. In my dissertation, I paint a comprehensive portrait of this prolific writer, and I investigate how Murray’s Quakerism influenced his language use, by analysing a corpus of 262 of his unpublished private letters. In addition, I compared his own usage to the rules that he compiled for his English Grammar, to see whether Murray practiced what he preached.

• Quaker
• Letter-writing practices
• Late Modern English
• Historical sociolinguistics
• Grammarian
• Grammar

• All authors: Fens-De Zeeuw, A.
• Supervisor: Tieken-Boon van Ostade, I.M.
• Qualification: Doctor (dr.)
• Awarding Institution: Faculty of Humanities, Leiden University
• Date: 2011-09-14
• Title of host publication: LOT dissertation series
• ISBN (print): 9789460930669
• Name: 283
• Court: LEI Universiteit Leiden
• Sponsorship: NWO