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From John Brewer:

Not sure if Language Log typically has a "travel page" section, but those readers in or near the NYC area who are vaccinated or otherwise not locked down might be interested in an exhibit at the Grolier Club in Manhattan that I visited a few days ago and will remain there until mid-May. It's called "Taming the Tongue in the Heyday of English Grammar (1711-1851," and includes sixty-odd different volumes from that time frame offering analysis, instruction, prescriptivist guidance, and/or complete crackpottery on the subject. They are all from the personal collection of the famous and/or notorious Bryan Garner. Admission is free but you need to book a time-slot 48 hours in advance via their website so they can limit the number of visitors to a pandemic-suitable total.

More details here (you may need to click on the "Second Floor Gallery" tab).

John sent three cell-phone photos:

I was interested to learn that Joseph Priestley thought and wrote about grammar — and that he apparently had sensible things to say about it, as the exhibit explains:

Some day I'll read Priestley's book 1772 book, The Rudiments of English Grammar, Adapted to the Use of Schools, with Examples of English Composition: To which are added, Notes and Observations for the Use of Those Who Have Made Some Proficiency in the Language.

But today I was distracted by the exhibit in John's second picture, featuring the writings of James Brown:

Mr. Brown's ideas never seem to have caught on, for reasons that may become clear as you read him. As evidence for the lack of uptake, he's missing from the long list of James Browns on Wikipedia's James Brown Diambiguation Page.

But this now-forgotten James Brown still managed to publish many editions of many books. Much of the content of these works is polemical invective directed against earlier authors, later authors who ignore him, and those few who took (mostly critical) note of his efforts. Most of the rest is evolution and exemplification of a large distinctive vocabulary of analytic neologisms. Brown's creations are nearly Wilkins-like in taxonomic breadth and depth, though he builds them out of Greek morphemes rather than arbitrary letters.

To whet your appetite, I've quoted a few sample passages from pp. 13-25 of his 1838 work The American System of English Syntax, Developing the Constructive Principles of the English Phrenod or Language, and impressing them on the memory by pictorial, and scenical demonstration, thus enabling the adult at home, and the child at school, to acquire, in a few months, a better knowledge of syntax by the American system than they can ever acquire by the British.

He starts off this way:

PHRENOD is that set of signs, which forms the medium of communication from one mind to another.
(Phren, the mind; and odos, a means, a medium, a way.)

REMARKS. I. Every nation has found it important to have a phrenod, composed of sounds, and a phrenod composed of letters. Hence, each nation has two phrenods; viz. a PHONOD, and an ALPHOD.
(Phone, a voice; and odos, a medium. Alpha, a letter, and odos a means.)
II. The distinctive name of a phronod is generally formed from the national appellation of the people who use it–hence, the phrase, the French phrenod, the Greek phrenod, the English phrenod, &c.

PHRENODY. PHRENODY is the science of phrenods. English phrenody is the science of the English phrenod.

PHRENODY is divided into two parts; namely,
1. SYNTAX, and
2. SIGNOLOGY.

1. Syntax is that part of phrenody, which comprises the constructive principles of phrenods.
2. SIGNOLOGY is that part of phrenody, which comprises the significant principles of phrenods. (Signology is taught by a Dictionary.)
ENGLISH SYNTAX. ENGLISH SYNTAX is that part of English phrenody, which consists of the constructive principles of the English phrenod.

ENGLISH SYNTAX is divided into six parts, viz.

1. GNOMEOLOGY.
2. MONOLOGY,
3. SYNCRATOLOGY,
4. SEMENOLOGY,
5. SYNTITHOLOGY, and
6. POEOLOGY.

Bet you can't wait for the next part!

I. GNOMEOLOGY. GNOMEOLOGY is that part of syntax, which consists of the doctrine of a gnomod, or sentence.

II. MONOLOGY. Monology is that part of syntax, which consists of the doctrine of monos.

III. SYNCRATOLOGY . SYNCRATOLOGY is that part of syntax, which consists of the conjunctive power, and character of words.

IV. SEMENOLOGY. SEMENOLOGY is that part of syntax, which respects the power of a word to distinguish those things to which the Dictionary meaning of the word does not apply.

V. SYNTITHOLOGY. SYNTITHOLOGY is that part of syntax, which consists of the principles of putting words together in the formation of gnomods, or sentences.

VI. POEOLOGY. Poeology is that part of syntax, which consists of the principles of forming words.

And one more bit:

GNOMEOLOGY is that part of syntax, which consists of the doctrine of a gnomod, or sentence.

A gnomod , or sentence . A gnomod, or sentence, is an assemblage of two, or more words, which expresses a cordiction; as,

1. It is nine.
2. If it is nine.
3. Is it nine?
4. Go thou to school.
5. Forgive thou our sins.

A gnomod consists of two things; namely, words , and a cordiction ; as, “ It is nine .”
1. The words are a frame-work of pointers , each pointing to something on which the cordiction has a near, or a remote bearing.
2. The cordíction is the abstract affirmation, the abstract nutation, the abstract interrogation, the abstract command, or the abstract petition which is expressed in the assemblage of words; as, “ It is nine , If it is nine , Is it nine ? Go thou to school , Forgive thou our sins . ”

You can continue the journey on your own, through the cited work or some of Brown's later works, e.g. the 1850 edition of
An English Grammar, in Three Books, Developing the New Science, Made Up of Those Constructive Principles which Form a Sure Guide in Using the English Language; but which are not found in the Old Theory of English Grammar.

And let me note, in conclusion, that it's nice to go places and see things IRL, but these days, digital versions of books published before 1922 are nearly all available on line, and so someone could create a (permanent?) virtual exhibition of (English and otherwise) grammar books back through history.

Update — from The National Gazette, Philadelphia, Pennsylania, Wed. 25 Aug 1830:

 

April 11, 2021 @ 12:21 pm · Filed by Mark Liberman under Grammar

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