“Gems of elocution and humour”: Ideology, prescription and (self-)educational materials

Recommended usage of linguistic forms has often been based on ideological tenets, such as in the case of early American English, when attention was paid to its patriotic value. Ideology is found in grammars, dictionaries, and in other more popular genres, the relatively low cost of which made them accessible also to minimally-schooled audiences. The aim of this study is to highlight some significant features of the latter group of materials, in order to see how American distinctiveness was emphasized and placed in a specific historical context; examples taken from literary sources may prove of particular interest, in order to assess the indebtedness of those books to European and/or American traditions and to outline some of the connections existing between cultural attitudes and normativity.