A New English Grammar
Logical and Historical
A New English Grammar 2 Volume Set Series

The respected phonetician and philologist Henry Sweet (1845?1912) has had a lasting influence on the study and teaching of linguistics, particularly phonetics and Old English. Sweet is also known for being, in part, the inspiration for Henry Higgins in Shaw's Pygmalion. This two-volume work, first published in 1892?8, marks the start of a new tradition in the study of English, although it received little attention in Britain upon its publication. Building on developments in European linguistics, this was the first grammar of English to adopt a scientific approach to the description of language, in particular of phonology. Volume 1 (1892) contains one of the first studies of English phonology, which applies the same rigorous analysis to the spoken language as to the written, as well as detailed descriptions of the parts of speech, accidence, and the history of English.

Preface; Part I. Introduction: Grammar and language; Parts of speech in detail; Word-groups; History of language; Divisions and methods of grammar; History of English; Part II. Phonology: Phonetics; Laws of sound-change; Old English sounds; Middle English sounds; Modern English sound-changes; Present English; Part III. Accidence: Nouns; Adjectives; Pronouns; Numerals; Verbs; Particles; Composition; Derivation.