Punctuation marks had to be acquired and properly applied in writing as long as the writer is acquainted with their rules. On the basis that treatises on punctuation were scarce and grammars used to deal with this “art” briefly, punctuation … Continue reading
Frances Austin (1985) points out in her paper named Relative Which in Late 18th Century Usage: The Clift Family Correspondence that the relative pronoun which in the eighteenth century was not predominantly used for inanimate objects (pp.15-29). Instead this relative … Continue reading
After having finished an essay on gender variation, I started reading through the Browning Letters again (taking it a couple of letters at a time). Their letters are filled with humorous phrases: “to dramatic impersonations, gruff with nature, “gr-r- you … Continue reading
While browsing through my bookmarks looking for letter corpora, I re-encountered a great resource: The Carlyle Letters Online. This digital archive contains over 10,000 of the collected letters of the important Victorian couple Thomas and Jane Welsh Carlyle. The content … Continue reading
Recently, I stumbled upon a family photo album. While browsing through it, I found several letters from the early twentieth and late nineteenth century, all written in Dutch. Despite this, I noticed that the use of language, even the use … Continue reading
While I was searching for an interesting topic for my paper, I came across a book named Letter Writing as a Social Practice. I am interested in the Clift family letters and I explicitly want to focus on William Clift’s written interaction (and … Continue reading
When reading the ‘Browning Love Letters” I noticed that a “Penny Black” postage stamp was adhered to its envelope. The Penny Black was the first stick on -postage stamp ever used. I knew of its existence, but not when it … Continue reading
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In the course Letters as Sociohistorical-Linguistic Documents, we have learned that social status was of great importance in the late modern English society. Therefore, it comes as no surprise that especially experienced writers applied a variety of different styles to … Continue reading
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I am not talking about Romeo and Juliet, Lancelot and Guinevere or Paris and Helena. These two are not as widely known, but their story “is surely one of the most fascinating love-stories in the world” (Kenmare 1957:7). This is … Continue reading
Late Modern English letters 