The real gem here is Public Domain Review, a blog that does what its title says it does. This specific post in Language Log from Victor Mair references a specific article from the Review, American Grammar: Diagraming Sentences in the 19th Century. It's a beauty. The article collects seven works on grammar from the 1800s and reproduces then as "crisply photographed archival works that you can flip through page by page to study at your leisure." And, appealing to my own arcane interests, it gives us a good look at how grammar was diagrammed over time. "It is interesting to observe how the explications and illustrations become increasingly clear and sophisticated through the years and decades." Do read Mair's article as he pulls out some of the best bits, and then (since it's the weekend) linger over these seven treasures of analysis "in an attempt to visualize the complex structure — of seemingly divine origins — at their mother tongue's core."
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