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Tim Kelley
Dr. Zeiger
ENGL 331.01
28 Nov. 2014
Grammarian Robert Lowth
The English language is frequently referred to as one of the most challenging languages
to learn because of the complicated rules, pronunciation, and grammar. The English language,
like any other language that has ever existed, is made up of numerous components that combine
together to make it a whole, or a complete language. All of the components fall under the
discipline of linguistics, which is the study of language. A few of the components include:
syntax, semantics, lexicon, spelling, morphology, and phonology. Over time, these fragments of
the language often change due to internal and external histories. This means that they either
change from within the area of the language or an outside influence. However, one portion of
linguistics that does not seem to change is syntax, referred to as grammar. The focus will be on
grammar and the influence of Robert Lowth. Lowth, although he was not the first person to
publish a work on English grammar, was a major influence on the English language and other
languages, as well. Within this essay, Lowth’s background, along with his credentials, will be
briefly discussed. The essay will also discuss his book, his influence as a codifier, his influence
with the Bible, a few grammar rules that people follow today, and his influence on the Spanish
and German languages. Robert Lowth was quite a brilliant man and his influence caused the
internal history change of the English language by his popular grammar book and prescriptive
rules.

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To begin, Robert Lowth is an eighteenth century grammarian, scholar, professor, bishop,
and a man that accomplished a lot in his life. He was born in 1710 and died in 1787 (Tieken-
Boon van Ostade, “Robert Lowth as a Codifier” 1). When Lowth was about twelve years old, he
became a scholar of Winchester College (Day and Foster 107) and soon after that he continued to
Oxford University (Tieken-Boon van Ostade, “Robert Lowth [1710-1787]” 2). Lowth became “a
scholar of Latin, Greek, Hebrew, and several modern languages” (Millward 244), which makes
him an extraordinary man; his ability to become a scholar at twelve and a scholar of many
difficult, Classical languages could only mean that he was quite an intelligent man. Throughout
his life, Lowth wrote a couple of books; he did have one major publication that is still known and
studied by grammarians today. Lowth’s major work is entitled A Short Introduction to English
Grammar, which was written in 1762 (Tieken-Boon van Ostade, “Robert Lowth as a Codifer”
1), and had numerous editions printed. Not only was Lowth a writer and grammarian, but he was
also a “privy councilor, [and a] professor of poetry at Oxford” (Millward 244).Another major
accomplishment that Lowth is known for was becoming the Bishop of London; four years after
publishing A Short Introduction, Lowth was appointed bishop (Tieken-Boon van Ostade,
“Robert Lowth as a Codifier” 1). In short, Lowth held a lot of positions in his life. Robert
Lowth’s entire life occurred during the prominence of the Early Modern English period; the
Early Modern English period actually started around the year 1500, but serious development did
not really start until around 1700 (McIntyre 16). Since his entire career as a grammarian occurred
during the Early Modern English period, that would mean that everything he did for grammar
should still be somewhat applicable today. Throughout his lifetime, Lowth was able to
accomplish a lot from writing books to holding a high position in the church.

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The content of Lowth’s book, A Short Introduction to English Grammar, was exactly as
the title states; the main focus of his publication was on English grammar and how people were
using English grammar incorrectly. In his book, he also shows how famous authors were using
English grammar wrong and how to mend their mistakes. One of the most prominent reasons that
A Short Introduction was so successful, according to Rodriguez-Gil, was because of the “critical
notes on ‘linguistic errors committed by what was then considered to be the best authors’, an
original approach while ‘was the cause of the grammar’s immediate popularity among the
general public’” (qtd. in Tieken-Boon van Ostade, The Bishop’s Grammar). According to Lowth,
the reason that the best authors made countless grammatical errors in their works was because
they lacked the practical grammar rules that he used (Tieken-Boon van Ostade, “Robert Lowth
[1710-1787]” 2). It was a courageous act to take the many popular authors of the time and
correct their grammar. Many people, particularly the avid readers, hold authors and stories close
to them. Lowth obviously knew what he was doing since no one, or at least a small number of
people, appear to have gone against him. Lowth was the first one to create a grammar book that
included critical notes on the best authors at the time (Tieken-Boon van Ostade, “Robert Lowth
[1710-1787]” 2), which would make him one of the pioneers in criticizing the grammar of
famous authors.
A Short Introduction to English Grammar is not only a work on grammar, but also
referred to as “marginalia.” Lowth’s footnotes in the booBiblek are referred to as “marginalia”;
“marginalia” was a term coined by poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge (qtd. in Jackson, Marginalia).
Coleridge defined the term as the notes that are written anywhere in a book instead of just the
notes written in the margins (Narvest, qtd. in Jackson, Marginalia). Lowth’s entire publication
includes many footnotes on how famous authors, and even the bible, are using English grammar

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incorrectly; he made many notes throughout the publication where errors can be found in
authors’ famous works. Lowth took passages that had grammar errors straight from other texts
and corrected them within his own work, and even took passages from the Bible where the
grammar was incorrect.
Lowth neither discovered the idea of grammar, nor wrote the first grammar book, but he
had a major part in English grammar history. Since he wrote his own book criticizing others and
made the statement that people lack grammar knowledge, Lowth also decided that he had his
own definition of grammar. Lowth defined grammar as “the art of rightly expressing our
thoughts by words” (Millward 244). In reality, his definition from the 1700’s is still somewhat
similar to the definition of grammar today. As previously mentioned, grammar is sentence
structure. Lowth defines it as communicating thoughts by words and his prescriptivist rules want
it done in a correct manner. By his definition, it can be said that Lowth was passionate about the
English language and the mechanics of the language; he thought that English was more of an art
than just a language we use to communicate, which might explain why he was looked up to by
countless people. One could assume from his credentials, how he studied the content extensively,
and that he was so passionate about it that he must have known a great deal about English
grammar.
It was amazing how popular his A Short Introduction was to the people; he sold
thousands of copies and made numerous editions. Robert Dodsley, the publisher of Lowth’s
work, saw the potential of the book and created a second edition after only a year of the first
(“Robert Lowth [1710-1787]” 3). Dodsley must have been certain that Lowth’s book would be a
hit for him to invest the time and money into a second edition. Fortunately for Dodsley, he was
correct in what he had done. According to Tieken-Boon van Ostade, “The grammar was

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immediately successful, and continued to sell well throughout Lowth’s lifetime, so much that he
was able to note in his Memoirs that by the early 1780s as many as 34,000 copies of the Short
Introduction had been sold; this made [it]…the most popular of all his published books”
(“Robert Lowth [1710-1787]” 3), which means that his book sold 34,000 copies and was quite
popular with the public. This is another piece of evidence that people thought Lowth was right
on the topic of grammar.
Robert Lowth had a great influence on the English language as a codifier. According to
Tieken-Boon van Ostade, Lowth’s “grammar…represents a landmark in the English codification
process in a number of ways (“Robert Lowth as a Codifier” 1), which means that he made the
rules of the language in grammar books (Rutten 44). He was creating the rules on how people
should speak and write properly, and people were actually following the rules he made. With
Lowth being a scholar of many different languages and writing his own publication, no wonder
the people at the time followed the codification rules that he established in A Short Introduction.
If a person becomes a codifier of the language, he or she would ideally know a lot about the
mechanics of the language and understand them. Most people seemed to look at Lowth as a
credible figure and highly regarded as a brilliant man.
Another achievement was that Lowth had an influence on the Bible. Carol Percy states
that, “Lowth has been identified as ‘a major figure in the progress of English attitudes’ to the
King James translations and its now ‘positive literary reputation’”; for Lowth to take the Bible
and state that improper grammar was used throughout it was quite a courageous move. Even in
today’s more flexible, laid back society, people would not take too well to their Bible’s grammar
being criticized. The majority of Christians see the Bible as the rules of life set by God.
Somehow Lowth was able to pull it off and corrections were made, without him being chastised;

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what is even more incredible is that Lowth went on to become a bishop of London. Not only did
he criticize the Bible’s grammar, but he went on to a position of authority in the church.
According to Percy’s quote, he actually helped give the Bible a more positive ambiance. An
accomplishment such as this should not be overlooked; Lowth took something sacred to people,
stated it was written poorly and corrected it.
Throughout A Short Introduction, Lowth lists rules that every person should follow when
speaking and writing. One rule that Lowth truly created was the idea that a person cannot have
two negatives in a sentence, which he states that it creates a positive (Millward 244). In today’s
English world, this rule is still applied and adhered to many. Not only is this rule a part of
English, but it is actually a common, well-known rule in mathematics. Since Lowth was living in
the Industrial Revolution, math and science were quite popular. This would most likely be the
reason Lowth decided to apply it to English. Before Lowth, it did not matter how many negatives
a person had in a sentence because it still ended up being a negative statement; readers can find
examples in the works of Shakespeare, Chaucer, and many others. Most people probably do not
even realize his ‘two negatives make a positive’ grammar theory was a rule based on math and
science and Lowth seemed to believe in it. Even though it is still practiced, it does not seem to
hold any logic behind it, besides the connection with math and science. However, since language
changes all the time, this may be one of the first rules to change from external history because of
the outside influence. Although many practice this rule and it is taught in schools, there are many
people who use double negatives without realizing it.
Further, Lowth changed the rule for “present perfect” tense in his book and created two
terms of time tense; he was a pioneer in using the term “present perfect” in its modern-day
definition. Lowth was the first grammarian to use “present perfect” as an English verb form

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without having a direct comparison to the Latin language (Walker 79). Present perfect, a term
many people may not be familiar with, is a tense used in the English language; the main idea of
the present perfect tense is that the speaker or writer has done an action in the past, but the action
was done at an unspecified time. Also, present perfect uses the auxiliary verbs “have” or “has”
along with the verb. Although Lowth was not the creator of the term, his use of it without the
connection to Latin was a step towards the modern sense of the term (Walker 79). From his new
use of “present perfect” tense, this was another way Lowth influenced the English language.
In addition to Lowth’s pioneer use of the modern-day term present perfect, Walker also
mentions that Lowth created two terms for time tense. Lowth created these terms himself in his A
Short Introduction to English Grammar. According to Walker, Lowth coined the term
“definitiveness”, which is still used to this day in analyses, yet Lowth did not provide a
satisfactory definition for the term (85). In A Short Introduction, Lowth created two columns of
time for tense. The one column was labeled “Indefinite, or Undetermined Time”, and the other
column was labeled “Definite, or Determined Time” (Walker 85). These columns appear to be
self-explanatory; one can make the guess that “indefinite” would be “no specified time” and
“definite” would be “specified time”. Based on the information from Lowth’s grammar book and
the knowledge that present perfect does not have a specified time, it can be concluded that
anything present perfect would fall under Lowth’s “Indefinite” column. However, that is only an
educated guess and since he did not provide an adequate definition, as Walker explained, one
cannot be entirely sure.
Also in A Short Introduction, Lowth was using different styles of speech and writing.
According to Rutten, “Lowth distinguished between different styles of speech and writing as
being characterized by different linguistic requirements” (183-184), this means that he was

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noting the differences between styles of speech and writing. In his book, Lowth used two styles,
which he referred to as “the familiar style” and “the solemn and elevated Style” (Rutten 48).
Rutten provided an example of the styles using the words “you” and “thou”. The “familiar style”
is the more informal style of speech and writing, which is where the word “thou” would belong
(Rutten 48-49). In the “solemn and elevated Style”, the word “you” would belong because it
would be considered more formal (Rutten 48-49). The way in which Lowth named the styles
made them quite self-explanatory. When one hears “familiar”, he or she may think, “It would be
the informal style”, and think the opposite for “solemn and elevated Style”. A lot of foreign
languages, such as French and Spanish, usually have two forms of speech and writing similar to
these. These languages often have their own pronouns to use for people of similar class status
and the upper class; the formal form is usually used for elderly, authority figures, or the upper
class society. Due to constant changing in the language, it is really no surprise that English lost
the formal/informal usage; although an exact cause would be difficult to find, some rules fade
away with time.
Lowth had such a major influence on the English language and people that it carried over
to other languages. Grammarians of the Spanish and German languages used Lowth as a
reference in their grammar books. Thomas Connelly, another grammarian, wrote his own
grammar book for the Spanish language, but it was not unique (Rodriguez-Gil 28). Connelly was
influenced by a few other grammarians, but his largest influence was Robert Lowth (Rodriguez-
Gil 32). Rodriguez-Gil also states, “Only the quotations and references to Lowth are found in all
the sections of the grammar book, except for the first part discussing pronunciation” (32), which
does show that Connelly really looked up to Lowth as a knowledgeable person of grammar.
Rodriguez-Gil mentions that “Connelly’s grammar was ‘[t]he earliest grammar of Spanish

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speakers’” (qtd. in Howatt, A History, 66) and that, “Lowth’s work became a guide that Connelly
followed closely in his discussion of the grammatical categories and syntax” (Rodriguez-Gil 39).
Since Connelly’s book was the earliest grammar book for the Spanish language and his major
influence was Lowth, it can be said that Lowth influenced the grammar of Spanish.
Finally, not only did he have an influence on the Spanish language, but Lowth also had
an influence on the grammar of German. According to Wolf, “Lowth was…also passed on
directly to a German audience” (95). Wolf also mentions Heinrich Christoph Albrecht’s Versuch
einer critishen englishcehn Sprachlehre and Christian Heinrich Reichel’s D. Lowth’s Englishche
Sprachlehre can both be identified with the work of Robert Lowth (95). The ethos that Lowth
built when writing A Short Introduction was carried over into two other languages. Also keep in
mind that he was a scholar of many contemporary languages which would also build his
credibility. This would probably be one of the reasons that his grammar rules influenced other
grammarians and carried over into the Spanish and German language.
In summary, Robert Lowth was an eighteenth century grammarian and scholar. He was
quite an extraordinary man who held many authoritative positions in his life. He greatly
influenced the English language, specifically grammar, by his book A Short Introduction to
English Grammar. With his book, he created a few new rules and explicated older rules for the
language, such as: not having two negatives in a sentence, creating a new definition for the tense
of “present perfect”, and using different styles of speech and writing characterized by linguistic
criteria. In addition to his influence on English grammar, he also influenced the Spanish and
German languages. He was a major influence on grammarian Thomas Connelly, along with a
few German grammarians who were all writing their own grammar books.

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Works Cited
Day, Geoffrey, and Suzanne Foster. "Lowth Holdings In Winchester College." Historiographia
Linguistica: International Journal For The History Of The Language Sciences/Revue
Internationale Pour L'histoire Des Sciences Du Langage/Internationale Zeitschrift Für
Die Geschichte Der Sprachwissenschaften 39.1 (2012): 107-114. MLA International
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McIntyre, Dan. History of English. London: Routledge, 2009. Print.
Millward, C. M. "Early Modern English." A Biography of the English Language. 2nd ed. New
York: Harcourt Brage College, 1996. 224-48.EReserves. Web. 3 Nov. 2014.
Narvest, Karlijn. "Marginalia As Evidence: The Unidentified Hands In Lowth's Short
Introduction To English Grammar (1762)." Historiographia Linguistica: International
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Des Sciences Du Langage/Internationale Zeitschrift Für Die Geschichte Der
Sprachwissenschaften 34.1 (2007): 1-18. MLA International Bibliography. Web. 1 Nov.
2014.
Percy, Carol. "Robert Lowth And The Critics: Literary Contexts For The “Critical Notes” In His
Short Introduction To English Grammar (1762)." Historiographia Linguistica 39.1
(2012): 9-26.Communication & Mass Media Complete. Web. 27 Oct. 2014.
Rodríguez-Gil, María E. "Lowth's Legacy In Teaching English To Foreigners: The Case Of
Thomas Connelly's English Grammar In Spain." Historiographia Linguistica:
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Pour L'histoire Des Sciences Du Langage/Internationale Zeitschrift Für Die Geschichte

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Der Sprachwissenschaften 39.1 (2012): 27-42. MLA International Bibliography. Web. 30
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And Its Influence [Special Issue]." Historiographia Linguistica: International Journal
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Sprachwissenschaften 39.1 (2012): 1-183. MLA International Bibliography. Web. 10
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---. "Robert Lowth As A Codifier Of The English Language: An Introduction." Historiographia
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Walker, Jim. "Lowth And 'Perfect Time': The Periphrastic Have-Perfect In 18Th-Century
English Grammars." Historiographia Linguistica: International Journal For The History
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Wolf, Göran. "Heinrich Christoph Albrecht's Versuch Einer Critischen Englischen Sprachlehre:
Tracing Robert Lowth In An 18Th-Century Textbook For The Teaching And Learning

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Of English." Historiographia Linguistica: International Journal For The History Of The
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