Gijsbert Rutten
List of John Benjamins publications in which Gijsbert Rutten is involved.
Language Planning as Nation Building: Ideology, policy and implementation in the Netherlands, 1750–1850
Gijsbert Rutten
The decades around 1800 constitute the seminal period of European nationalism. The linguistic corollary of this was the rise of standard language ideology, from Finland to Spain, and from Iceland to the Habsburg Empire. Amidst these international events, the case of Dutch in the Netherlands offers… read more
Norms and Usage in Language History, 1600–1900: A sociolinguistic and comparative perspective
Edited by Gijsbert Rutten, Rik Vosters and Wim Vandenbussche
Historical sociolinguistics has successfully challenged the traditional focus on standardization in linguistic historiography. Extensive research on newly uncovered textual resources has shown the widespread variation in the written language of the past that was previously hidden or neglected. The… read more[Advances in Historical Sociolinguistics, 3] 2014. viii, 334 pp.
Letters as Loot: A sociolinguistic approach to seventeenth- and eighteenth-century Dutch
Gijsbert Rutten and Marijke J. van der Wal
The study of letter writing is at the heart of the historical-sociolinguistic enterprise. Private letters, in particular, offer an unprecedented view on language history. This book presents an in-depth study of the language of letters focussing on a unique collection of Dutch private letters from… read more
Touching the Past: Studies in the historical sociolinguistics of ego-documents
Edited by Marijke J. van der Wal and Gijsbert Rutten
The study of ego-documents figures as a prominent theme in cutting-edge research in the Humanities. Focusing on private letters, diaries and autobiography, this volume covers a wide range of different languages and historical periods, from the sixteenth century to World War I. The volume stands out… read more[Advances in Historical Sociolinguistics, 1] 2013. vii, 279 pp.
2026 Forms of address as politic behaviour in seventeenth-century Dutch private and business letters Journal of Historical Pragmatics: Online-First Articles | Article
Various characteristics of historical letters, such as formulaic language and forms of address, have been analysed from a politeness perspective (e.g., Bijkerk [2004] and Tiisala [2004]) and sometimes also explicitly from a sociopragmatic perspective (Nevala 2004a). In Rutten and van der Wal… read more
2017 Relativisation in Dutch diaries, private letters and newspapers (1770–1840): A genre-specific national language? Exploring Future Paths for Historical Sociolinguistics, Säily, Tanja, Arja Nurmi, Minna Palander-Collin and Anita Auer (eds.), pp. 157–186 | Chapter
The paper focuses on three important themes in historical sociolinguistics: (1) the emergence of national language planning in the Netherlands around 1800, (2) the influence of historical prescriptivism on usage, and (3) genre as a crucial factor in explaining variation and change. The case study… read more
2015 Three Southern shibboleths: Spelling features as conflicting identity markers in the Low Countries The Historical Sociolinguistics of Spelling, Villa, Laura and Rik Vosters (eds.), pp. 260–274 | Article
Over the course of the long eighteenth century, a distinct Southern Dutch linguistic identity emerged in the region now known as Flanders, and spelling features are at the heart of this developing linguistic autonomy. By analyzing eighteenth- and early-nineteenth-century normative and… read more
2014 Language norms and language use in seventeenth-century Dutch: Negation and the genitive Norms and Usage in Language History, 1600–1900: A sociolinguistic and comparative perspective, Rutten, Gijsbert, Rik Vosters and Wim Vandenbussche (eds.), pp. 21–48 | Article
The chapter discusses language norms and language use in the Northern Netherlands in the seventeenth century. The seventeenth century is traditionally considered a crucial stage in the development of the Dutch standard variety. Nevertheless, the influence of normative publications on language use… read more
2014 The interplay of language norms and usage patterns. Comparing the history of Dutch, English, French and German Norms and Usage in Language History, 1600–1900: A sociolinguistic and comparative perspective, Rutten, Gijsbert, Rik Vosters and Wim Vandenbussche (eds.), pp. 1–18 | Article
2014 Language norms and language use in eighteenth-century Dutch: Final n and the genitive Norms and Usage in Language History, 1600–1900: A sociolinguistic and comparative perspective, Rutten, Gijsbert, Rik Vosters and Wim Vandenbussche (eds.), pp. 49–72 | Article
The chapter discusses language norms and language use in the Northern Netherlands in the eighteenth century. The eighteenth century is traditionally considered a period of consolidation, i.e. of ongoing codification of the seventeenth-century standard variety. So far, the influence of… read more
2013 Epistolary formulae and writing experience in Dutch letters from the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries Touching the Past: Studies in the historical sociolinguistics of ego-documents, Wal, Marijke J. van der and Gijsbert Rutten (eds.), pp. 45–66 | Article
The paper discusses epistolary formulae and writing experience in Dutch private letters from the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Reviewing research into the history of reading and writing skills in Early Modern Europe, we argue that writing experience varied in the language community across… read more
2013 Ego-documents in a historical-sociolinguistic perspective Touching the Past: Studies in the historical sociolinguistics of ego-documents, Wal, Marijke J. van der and Gijsbert Rutten (eds.), pp. 1–18 | Article
2012 From adverb to conjunction and back: The (de)grammaticalization of Dutch dan Diachronica 29:3, pp. 301–325 | Article
In late Middle Dutch, the temporal adverb dan “then” grammaticalized into an adversative coordinator (“but”), which remained in use up to the nineteenth century. This paper investigates how adversative dan can be deduced from earlier usages and why it later disappeared. The paper’s first part… read more
2012 ‘Lowthian’ Linguistics across the North Sea Robert Lowth (1710-1787): The making of his grammar and its influence, Tieken-Boon van Ostade, Ingrid (ed.), pp. 43–60 | Article
This paper focuses on Dutch grammar-writing in the 18th century so as to put the linguistic works of Robert Lowth (1710–1787) in an international, comparative perspective. It demonstrates that certain characteristics of the “Lowthian” approach to grammar and of 18th-century English linguistics in… read more
2012 Functions of epistolary formulae in Dutch letters from the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries Journal of Historical Pragmatics 13:2, pp. 173–201 | Article
Wray (2002) distinguishes three main functions of formulaic language relating to processing, interaction and discourse marking. In this paper, we show that Wray’s analysis of the functions of formulaic language also applies to historical letter-writing in a corpus of seventeenth- and… read more
2012 The sociolinguistics of spelling: A corpus-based case study of orthographical variation in nineteenth-century Dutch in Flanders Historical Linguistics 2009: Selected papers from the 19th International Conference on Historical Linguistics, Nijmegen, 10-14 August 2009, Kemenade, Ans M.C. van and Nynke de Haas (eds.), pp. 253–274 | Article
The reunion of the Northern and Southern Low Countries under William I (1814–1830) marked the beginning of a renewed and intensified linguistic contact between the North and the South of the Dutch linguistic area. Two writing traditions usually regarded as different came into close contact, giving… read more
2012 Letters as loot: Confiscated Letters filling major gaps in the History of Dutch Letter Writing in Late Modern Europe, Dossena, Marina and Gabriella Del Lungo Camiciotti (eds.), pp. 139–162 | Article
In this contribution, we will introduce the recently rediscovered collection of Dutch documents from the second half of the seventeenth to the early nineteenth centuries, comprising over 38,000 letters, both commercial and private ones. The socio-historical linguistic value of these private… read more
2011 Local dialects, supralocal writing systems: The degree of orality of Dutch private letters from the seventeenth century Written Language & Literacy 14:2, pp. 251–274 | Article
In historical sociolinguistics, it is often assumed that ego-documents such as private letters represent the spoken language of the past as closely as possible. In this paper, we will try to determine the degree of orality of seventeenth-century Dutch private letters: the degree to which the… read more
2007 The nationalist turn: Dutch linguistics and German philosophy in the 18th and early 19th centuries History of Linguistics 2005: Selected papers from the Tenth International Conference on the History of the Language Sciences (ICHOLS X), 1–5 September 2005, Urbana-Champaign, Illinois, Kibbee, Douglas A. (ed.), pp. 288–307 | Article
From the nineteenth century onwards, a nationalist turn can be discerned in the history of Dutch linguistics. At the beginning of the eighteenth century, however, Dutch linguists did not address the people or nation but only a cultivated élite. In order to trace the rise of nationalist thinking in… read more
2004 Lambert ten Kate and Justus-Georg Schottelius: Theoretical similarities between Dutch and German early modern linguistics Linguistica Berolinensia, Fögen, Thorsten and E.F.K. Koerner † (eds.), pp. 277–296 | Article
Until now the Dutch linguist Lambert ten Kate (1674–1731), famous for his early discovery of Ablaut, has not been honoured with a publication concerning his relationship to German 17th-century linguists. Such an interpretation, however, shows great similarities between ten Kate and especially… read more