Chapter three in the book: Grammar for Grammarians outlines different Prescriptive Rules. These rules were developed during the 18th century and many of them are still used to this day. This blog will contain a summary of the second half of the chapter: pages 48-60 and will contain these Prescriptive Rules: “Parallelism, Latin Grammar is an Appropriate Model for English, Different Forms Imply Different Meanings, Language Change Represents Decay, and Language is “Logical.”
Parallelism in a rule in Grammar that is thought to date back to “Murray” and it “requires that items in a series be of the same grammatical form.” A few examples the book gives to help understand this rule are: “If he prefer a virtuous life, and is sincere in his professions, he will succeed;” “if he prefers.” “The parliament addresses the king, and has been prorogued the same day;” “and was prorogues.”
Latin Grammar is an Appropriate Model for English- At this point in the chapter the authors bring up the point that a lot of English’s rules are based on the rules of other languages such as Latin. (E.g. the rule of not being able to end a sentence with a preposition) The problems that come from this are:
- Latin is an Italic language and English is a Germanic one.
-Latin is a “synthetic “language with many inflections and English is “analytic” with few inflections.
-Latin is a language where the direct object normally precedes the verb and in English the direct object normally follows the verb.
These differences make both languages not able to be considered a “direct transfer language.”
The next subject the book covers is “Different Forms Imply Different Meanings.” In this section the reader learns that English is a language that has many interchangeable words such as “shall” and “will.” In most languages words can’t be interchangeable and rules are made when and what word to use. Some would use “shall” only for “first-person and “will” would be used for “second and third-persons.” Some people argue that there is always one word or way of saying something that is “superior” to the other.
When languages are changed the authors say the reason is because it has become “decayed.” This rule comes from people thinking that past versions are better, but as time goes on everyone makes small gradual changes to languages and this apparently “normal” as the author states. The best example is to think how English has been changed over the years. 1000 years ago people spoke Old English and we see this in texts such as, Beowulf. Then we evolved to Middle English which is the language that Chaucer developed in his writings. We slowly made our way to Early Modern English which is what a lot of Shakespeare’s writings are in. At this point, English is thought to be known as Modern English, but this doesn’t mean that our language won’t gradually change again and again until the end of time.
During the last section of this chapter readers learn that Language is “logical” because “it is a self-contained, rule-governed system.” The author wants us to keep in mind though that English and all languages can never be thought of as “common sense.” There are many rules that have to be learned by all and take a big part of memorization of rules that go into that language. Interpretation is another thing that makes languages not able to be “common sense” because many see things in different ways and there are many words in English alone that can be interpretive differently.
Prescriptive grammar is a set of rules that make things “correct” or “not-correct” and “actual language use various grades of acceptability.”
9 comments:
This blog highlights some of the many reasons why learning English as a second language can be so difficult. There are so many rules! Many of these rules don't apply to other languages. A perfect example is the fact that English has so many words that can be interchanged. As a native speaker of English, these rules can be a lot to take on, so I can only imagine how difficult it must be for those learning it as a second language.
I agree 100% with what Julie said. English has way too many rules. I have been speaking and reading English my entire life and still do not know some of the rules that apply to it. However, the mention of Old English and Modern English, reminded me of when I read all three of the mentioned works in the blog, Beowulf, Chaucer, and Shakespeare. These were entirely different from the works we currently see and read today, which does go to show that the English language is always changing. Who knows, in 50 years or so, the English we associate with today, can be something of the past, as Old English is.
I found, through my survey, that parallel structure is a concept that most college students understand. It is as simple as making the verbs in the sentence take the same form.
I don't think that language decays as time goes by; it just changes. As new words are introduced and new meanings of words are introduced, there is bound to be a marked difference in the spoken language. This does not detract from the original language.
English as a first language can be difficult, so it is no surprise that as a second language there is also a problem. I am able to speak Stand English just fine but all the rules and regulations and reasons why this rule applies here but doesn't apply there....
I agree with what students have said. The English language has a lot of rules, exceptions and interchangeable words. It is a very difficult language to learn. I do not believe that they language decays throughout the years. I think the circumstances of the world changes the languages. Nothing stays the same forever, all things change.
I'm really glad that English is my first language. Learning it as a second seems like it would be incredibly difficult.
I'll confess that I don't know all of the rules of our language by name. However I do know how to communicate and I know when something sounds or looks wrong, even if I don't know that it is wrong because of such and such rule.
There are so many things to learn and know about the English language. I could not imagine having the English language as my second language. there are many rules to follow that are very confusing.
I can see very well how learning English as a second language can be difficult. So many rules, with so little time. As a future English teacher and a English speaker, I know how hard it is to learn the rules for Standard English. Because English is changing all the time, I know that English will definitely not get easier to learn. Good Luck to foreign language speakers!!!
I agree with Michaela Bazar's comment about the decay of language. It is so self-righteous to say that language is decaying: it supposes that some standard is being forgotten. This is the same kind of thing as assuming there is some true "standard English" dialect. Sure, there should be a generally accepted professional form. However, who is kidding themselves by supposing this form is somehow perfect. Michaela is right that it just constantly changes over time. I would add that, with different dialects, it is constantly changing (evolving) in many different directions.
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