The Implications of Style

Abstract

Having explored various aspects of Hazlitt’s complex response to the eighteenth-century philosophical grammar tradition, it is important now to focus specifically upon his knowledge of grammar textbooks, since, although there were close associations between the two genres, it was often the case that the textbook writers had distinctive concerns. For instance, they frequently associated grammar with morality and they attempted to identify and classify different stylistic registers, and topics such as these rarely provided the main focus for philosophical grammars.