From Customary to Metric: On Late Modern English Measurements

Abstract

The paper aims to analyse Late Modern English instructional texts with respect to the use of measure terminology. It will focus on the changes in the use of measurement terms in light of the amendment of the Weights and Measures Act, which took place at the beginning of the 19th century. Two major categories of measure terms will be discussed: (i) specific terms, such as pound and ounce; and (ii) non-specific ones, which contain imprecise terminology, such as a bit, a good deal of, as well as container-related terms, such as pot, kettle, cupful and glassful. The research will answer whether the unification of the metric system affected the degree of precision among cookbook writers. The study is based on two parts of the Corpus of Women’s Instructional Texts in English covering the 18th and 19th centuries, respectively.