OBSOLETE, OBSOLESCENT, AND RARELY USED VERB FORMS IN CONFEDERATE GRAMMARS
OBSOLETE, OBSOLESCENT, AND RARELY USED VERB FORMS IN CONFEDERATE GRAMMARS

Summary/Abstract: Confederate textbooks published between 1861 and 1865 have recently been receiving more and more scholarly attention. Nonetheless, only a handful of publications deal with the linguistic aspects, focusing mainly on the extralinguistic traits typical of textbooks published in the Confederacy during the Civil War. This article aims to, at least partially, fill this void by means of exploring the realm of irregular verbs; more specifically it focuses on those verbs, whose preterite/past participle forms were deemed obsolete/obsolescent/belonging to solemn style in seven prescriptive grammars of the time. In the discussion section, whenever possible, comparisons to existing studies depicting coeval British and American verbal paradigms are carried out. It is assumed that such an approach allows for showing plausible similarities/discrepancies between the patterns offered in Confederate patters and in their British/Northern counterparts.

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