The first printed grammar of Dutch, which appeared in 1584, was created by members of the Amsterdam chamber of rhetoric De Eglantier. They presented their text as breaking with traditional ways of dealing with Dutch in the chambers by treating the vernacular as an object of study, by proposing rules, and by rejecting words borrowed from other languages. By studying three cases of rhetoricians active before De Eglantier's grammar was printed this essay shows that the Amsterdam chamber, in fact, took part in an already established tradition of studying the vernacular. These three rhetoricians, Eduard de Dene, Matthijs de Castelein, and Jan van Mussem, were interested in the rules, form, and structure of Dutch, and in how it differed from other languages. All three of them accepted, to a certain extent, loanwords, but they also emphasised the importance of using them carefully and critically. De Eglantier could delve into this pre‐existing learned stance on language. De Dene's case shows, moreover, that language study was not just a theoretical enterprise. Through his poetry, he experimented with neologisms and with the ability of Dutch to incorporate elements taken from other languages, thus exploring the frontiers of his mother tongue.

中文翻译：

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每种语言都有其规律 - 修辞学家和荷兰白话研究

第一个印刷的荷兰语语法出现在 1584 年，是由阿姆斯特丹修辞会 De Eglantier 的成员创建的。他们将白话文作为研究对象，提出规则并拒绝从其他语言借来的词，从而打破了传统的处理荷兰语的方式。通过研究在 De Eglantier 的语法出版之前活跃的修辞学家的三个案例，这篇文章表明阿姆斯特丹商会实际上参与了研究白话的既定传统。这三位修辞学家 Eduard de Dene、Matthijs de Castelein 和 Jan van Mussem 对荷兰语的规则、形式和结构以及它与其他语言的不同之处很感兴趣。他们三个都在一定程度上接受了借词，但他们也强调谨慎和批判性地使用它们的重要性。De Eglantier 可以深入研究这种预先存在的语言习得立场。此外，De Dene 的案例表明，语言研究不仅仅是一项理论事业。通过他的诗歌，他尝试了新词和荷兰语融合其他语言元素的能力，从而探索了他母语的前沿。