Carol Percy
Associate Professor
Department of English
University of Toronto

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My research focusses on the social history of the Early Modern English language in the eighteenth century, a critical time in the standardization of English and its dissemination around the world. The social impact of standardization is revealed by recurring patterns and hidden assumptions in sources like newspaper advertisements, book reviews, and grammar books. I'm particularly interested in how the rising status and standardization of English both marginalized and was manipulated by educationally disadvantaged authors like women and sea captains.

How did I end up doing this? As an undergraduate, I studied English (specialist) and Anthropology (Archaeology/major) at University College at the University of Toronto. Only in fourth year did I realize that there was a way of combining the two subjects, when I took George Rigg's undergraduate course in the history of the English language (ENG367Y). After graduation I took my M.A. from our Graduate Department of English, before going to the University of Oxford (Faculty of English Language and Literature, and Lady Margaret Hall). This isn't a route that I'd necessarily recommend, but it's how I got here.

My doctoral dissertation on editorial changes to the language of James Cook's first voyage journal (1990) identified some interesting inconsistencies between the editor's practice and the linguistic precepts that were multiplying in grammar books and book reviews. I subsequently published articles on Cook's language and style, the most recent one charting some conflicts between his activities as a scientist and as a literary author.

My study of linguistic prescriptivism continued with "Paradigms Lost", an article on Bishop Lowth's influential grammar of 1762 and "Paradigms for their Sex", an article on women's grammars. "The Art of Grammar in the Age of Sensibility" describes the first grammar of modern English written solely for a female audience, in 1775.

Now I am writing a book about popular attitudes to and assumptions about the English language in the second half of the eighteenth century. To this end, SSHRC (and the Mentorship and Work-Study programs at U of T) supported the research for a database of linguistic criticism in eighteenth-century book reviews (the Monthly Review and the Critical Review). Student research assistants systematically recorded book reviewers' comments about language, and entered these in a very large database. Long-haulers on this project included Jessica Bowslaugh, Mary Catherine Davidson, Emma Gorst, Eliza Marciniak, Karin Marley, Jen Marston, Bill Moreau, Noreen O'Rinn, Kelly Quinn, Rebecca Schwarz, Michelle Syba, Robert Winkler, and other students from the Mentorship Program (Amy Boyd, Annamaria Enenajor, Karen Fried, Marcia Jones, Ruth Kanfer, Zofia Kumas, Valerie Legros, Silvia Odorcic, David Reevely, Aba Stevens, Peter Tseng, Ashwini Vasanthakumar), the Research Opportunity Programme (Katherine Baker-Ross, Debbie Lerech), and the Work-Study Program (Jesse Archibald-Barber, Andrea Cameron, Natasha Charles, David Heath, Jaan Lilles, Kara Macaulay). And I'm most grateful for the ongoing advice of Philippa Matheson, who designed the database program, "Ferret".

So far, this project has produced some articles: one on stereotypes of the language of women authors ("Easy women..."), another on some implications of using contractions and colloquialisms in the period, and a paper about the use of Latinate spellings like honor and explane in eighteenth-century pamphlet wars. In the pipeline is another essay about reviews of grammar books in the 1760s, and another, more general essay on spelling variation in the eighteenth century.

I am also working on a book about English grammar in eighteenth-century society, and (waiting for the technology to get easier for me) an on-line anthology of texts illustrating variation and change in the early modern and modern English language. I'm very grateful for the work done towards these projects by Samuel Allemang, Geoffrey Allen, Rachel Caballero, Jennifer Cairns, Joyce Chan, Leigh-Anne Coffey, Tonia Djogovic, Kate Francombe, Katherine Frankl, Julie Grajales, Christianna Guy, Zeenat Haq, David Heath, Arden Hegele, Andrew Hope, Malcolm Johnston, Emily Law, Nicole Lees, Jaan Lilles, Eliza Marciniak, Cari Mason, Bianca Raynor, Mel Rhodes, Brett Rhyno, Yvonne Robertson, Shannon Robinson, Alexis Sampson, Kathryn Sharaput, Kate Stevenson, Dylan White, and Christine Williams.

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