The Politics of Language, 1791-1819The period covered by this book is one of considerable repression and class division in England, and ideas about language justified and maintained these social conditions. Concepts of vulgar and refined language reinforced class distinctions and informed people's attitudes to one another. At moments of political conflict, such as trials for sedition or the discussion of repressive legislation, these concepts were used to justify the denial of political and social rights to the vulgar. However, this period also saw the rise of the radical movement to challenge these ideas in the recognition that they must be reformulated if society were to become more democratic. |
Contents
Rights of Man and its Aftermath | 35 |
The Association the Swinish Multitude | 68 |
Language and Liberty in John Horne Tookes | 110 |
Copyright | |
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2nd edn according Address argued argument audience Ballads Biographia Burke Burke's century chap-books civilization Coleridge's concept conservative considered criticism Daniel Isaac Eaton defend defined describes discussion Diversions of Purley E. P. Thompson eighteenth-century England English Language Essay express Hannah Hazlitt Hone's Horne Tooke's ideas about language intellectual James John Horne Tooke John Thelwall Johnson learned letter Liberty and Property Lilburne linguistic literary literature London Corresponding Society Lord Lord Monboddo Lowth Lyrical Ballads meaning mind Monboddo moral nouns Paine's pamphlet parodies philosophical phrase Pilgrim's Progress portray Preface preposition Property series prose prosecution published readers refined language refute relation rhetoric Richard Carlile Rights sentence social society speech Spence's style Swinish Multitude syntax Thelwall theories of language Thomas Paine Thomas Spence thought tradition trial verbs vernacular language vocabulary vols vulgar language William Cobbett William Hone words writing written wrote