Joseph Priestley's The Rudiments of English Grammar, Adapted to the use of Schools with observation on Style(1761)

This study focuses on Joseph Priestley's The Rudiments of English Grammar, Adapted to the use of Schools with observation on Style(1761). In it the author claims that Priestley's supposed descriptvsm, as his allowing for alternatve variants such as the use of double gradation of adjectives, is demonstrated by a close analysis of his grammar and an assessment of its internal coherence. This contribution aims at challenging the traditional monolithic view of prescriptivism in the light of the most recent trends in the history of linguistics according to which it can no longer be considered as the only shaping force of the English Standard