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Notes
Throughout this paper I shall make use of the following definition of double negation: a device by which a clause is negated through the use of two negative elements that do not necessarily serve to strengthen each other. This definition can easily be extended to cover multiple negation in general. It should then read: . . . a clause is negated through the use of two or more negative elements . . .
For most of these works I used the facsimiles inEnglish Linguistics 1500–1800, Scolar Press Reprints, London, 1972.
For the printing history of the grammars discussed in the paper, see R. C. Alston,A Bibliography of the English Language, from the Invention of Printing to the Year 1800, Vol. I, Leeds, 1965. The works that do not discuss double negation, are the following:
Anon.,The English Accidence, London, 1733.
J. Ash,Grammatical Institutes, Worcester, 1760.
Anselm Bayly,An Introduction to Languages, London, 1758.
Anselm Bayly,A Plain and Complete Grammar of the English Language, London, 1772.
John Brightland and Charles Gildon,A Grammar of the English Tongue, London, 1711.
Richard Browne,The English-School Reformed, London, 1700.
John Collyer,The General Principles of Grammar, Nottingham, 1735.
John Fell,An Essay towards an English Grammar, London, 1784.
P. W. Fogg,Elementa Anglicana, Stockport, 1792/96.
Ralph Harrison,Institutes of English Grammar, Manchester, 1777.
Samuel Johnson, Preface toA Dictionary of the English Language, London, 1755.
A. Lane,A Key to the Art of Letters, London, 1700.
Michael Maittaire,The English Grammar, London, 1712.
Joseph Priestley,The Rudiments of English Grammar, London, 1761.
Samuel Saxon,The English Schollar's Assistant, Reading, 1737.
John Sedger,The Structure of the English Language, London, 1798.
John Ward,Four Essays upon the English Language, London, 1758.
William Ward,An Essay on Grammar, London, 1765.
James Greenwood,An Essay towards a Practical English Grammar, London, 1711.
*John Upton,Critical Observations on Shakespeare, London, 1746.
Robert Lowth,A Short Introduction to English Grammar, London, 1762.
Samuel Johnson,A Dictionary of the English Language, London, 1755.
Robert Baker,Reflections on the English Language, London, 1770.
*John Clarke,The Rational Spelling-Book, Dublin, 16th ed., 1796.
George Campbell,The Philosophy of Rhetoric, London, 1776.
*J. Mennye,An English Grammar, New York, 1785.
*Philip Withers,Aristarchus, London, 1789. Those works marked with an asterisk I have been unable to include in the discussion as they were not available to me.
Hugh Jones,An Accidence to the English Tongue, London, 1724.
Daniel Duncan,A New English Grammar, London, 1731.
John Kirkby,A New English Grammar, London, 1746.
Benjamin Martin,Institutions of Language, London, 1748.
Ann Fisher,A New Grammar, Newcastle upon Tyne, 2nd ed., 1750.
Jame Gough,A Practical Grammar of the English Tongue, Dublin, 1754.
James Buchanan,The British Grammar, London, 1762.
Daniel Fenning,A New Grammar of the English Language, London, 1771.
Noah Webster,A Grammatical Institute of the English Language, Part II, Hartford, 1784.
George Neville Ussher,The Elements of English Grammar, Glocester (sic), 1785.
Lindley Murray,English Grammar, Adapted to the Different Classes of Learners, York, 1795.
Duncan Mackintosh,A Plain, Rational Essay on English Grammar, Boston, 1797.
Brightland and Gildon, op. cit.
From the works studied for the occurrence of double negation, only the following were found to contain any instances:
Prose: Defoe,Robinson Crusoe (1719; Penguin, 1977) andMoll Flanders (1722; London, 1972), Fielding,Joseph Andrews and Shamela (1742, 1741; London, 1975), Richardson,Clarissa (1748; San Francisco, 1971) and Swift, “A Compleat Collection of Genteel and Ingenious Conversation” (1738; Oxford, 1957).
Plays: Colman and Garrick,The Clandestine Marriage (1766; London, 1961), Congreve,The Way of the World (1700; London, 1970), Cumberland,The West Indian (1771; London, 1961) and Sheridan,The School for Scandal (1777; Wikor, 1969).Correspondence: Richardson,Selected Letters (1741–49; Oxford, 1964). The corpus was supplemented by theO.E.D. with instances from Burke,French Revolution (1790), Goldsmith,The Grecian History (1774), Richardson,The History of Sir Charles
Grandison (1781). Steele,Spectator no 423 (1712) and from Chesterfield.Letters to his Son (1739). The following works or passages did not contain any instances of double negation:
Prose: Addison,Tatler 108, 111, 116, 155, 158, 163, 165, 224, 229, and 249 (1709–10),Spectator 1 and 10 (1710–11) (New York, 1970), Burke,Reflections on the Revolution in France, pp. 85–150 (1790; Penguin, 1973), Fielding,Tom Jones, pp. 51–172 (1749; Penguin, 1973), Paine,Rights of Man, pp. 57–110 (1791/2; Penguin, 1971), Steele,Tatler 1, 21, 25, 107, 132, 164, 167, 181, and 271 (1709–11),Spectator 2, 6, and 11 (1710–11) (New York, 1970), Sterne,A Sentimental Journey (1768; Penguin, 1972), Swift, “A Proposal for Correcting, Improving and Ascertaining the English Tongue”, (1712; Oxford, 1957),Gulliver's Travels, part I (1726; Oxford, 1971). Johnson,Selected Writings, pp. 50–133 (1744; Penguin, 1968).
Plays: Gay,The Beggar's Opera (1728, London, 1969).
Correspondence: Defoe,Letters, pp. 1–100 (1703–15; Oxford, 1955), Johnson,Selected Writings, pp. 134–135, 481–499 (Penguin, 1968), Pope,Letters, pp. 1–102 (1704–17; London, 1960), Steele,Correspondence, pp. 3–97, 189–244 (1714–25, 1707–08; London, 1941) and Swift,Correspondence, pp. 32–84 (1700–1708; Oxford, 1963).
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Tieken-Boon van Ostade, I. Double negation and eighteenth-century English grammars. Neophilologus 66, 278–285 (1982). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02050617
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02050617