Culture | Johnson
The original sins of grammarians still plague the rulebooks
You may not have heard of Robert Lowth. But his prejudices still hold sway
WHERE DO THE rules of grammar come from? Even those who care about the subject rarely, if ever, ask that question. The rules are simply the rules, passed down in good grammar books. But who wrote the first one, and how?
This article appeared in the Culture section of the print edition under the headline “Original sins”
From the February 15th 2020 edition
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