The English Language

What, R. G. Latham asks, is actually taught when schoolchildren study English grammar? Not the language they already speak—and, he argues, not its scientific theory.

Writing in mid-19th-century Britain, Latham turns the familiar rules of English into a question of history: how did the language take shape, and what can its grammar reveal about its past? He challenges the value of teaching correctness by rule, arguing instead for grammar as a disciplined inquiry into language and its relations. Beneath English’s comparatively spare forms, he sees traces of a fuller system, altered over time in ways that can be studied and understood. From Germanic roots to the structure of everyday words, the investigation reaches beyond the classroom. What hidden history survives in the English we speak?

With centuries of literature, it's inevitable that some will fall through the cracks. We hunt down public domain works and restore them so they're not lost to the world.

Who are we? We're Cairn Press. Our background is in design, publishing, typography, and technology. These skills fuel our mission to create the highest quality Public Domain eBooks available online, at an affordable price. We give them the treatment they deserve; our proprietary process restores books for a better overall user experience in design, readability, and e-reader compatibility.