ABSTRACT
The beginning and middle of the European 18th century are often referred to as the Age of Enlightenment – an era when reason and radical thinking dominated, and when great political change was fermented. Change did occur in the 19th century, both in what ‘grammar’ was considered to include and the pedagogy that accompanied it. The grammar stressed the importance of the written language as a powerful instrument for those pressing their cause in public life, for example in the writing of political petitions. In 1737 James Greenwood published The Royal English Grammar, whose lengthy subtitle was ‘Containing what is Necessary to the Knowledge of the English Tongue Laid down in a Plain and Familiar Way’. Grammar and grammar pedagogy have always been subject to a series of innovations, but innovations that, in their wake, always leave unresolved challenges which, in turn, lead to further innovations, and so on through time.
