LibraryLady
Emeritus
Some of this topic has been covered elsewhere, so forgive me if I’m repetitive, but I feel the need to explain my love for grammar. If my fellow moderators want to merge this anywhere, please feel free.
It’s not that I find grammar useful, although I do, but that I actually love the subject itself. When someone calls my department and asks a grammar question, I’m happy to answer it; it’s not a chore as some questions are.
Grammar is rather like etiquette. It has a definite purpose which it fulfills beautifully, that of letting people know what to do next.
Think of the comma, lowly and despised. Now think of the comma lonely and despised. In the first sentence of this paragraph you knew where to breathe. Such are the rules of etiquette: when you are standing at a door, exiting or entering, and a disabled person/parent with a stroller/elderly person approaches, you hold the door.
And like etiquette, some of the rules are arcane and silly. Take contractions of words. “Haven’t” is the contraction for “Have not.” Shouldn’t it be “have n’t?” Take the question mark just used. In England it would be properly outside the inverted commas. In the United States it is properly inside the quotation marks.
Take the teaspoon. That which we usually refer to as a “teaspoon” in the U.S. is not a teaspoon at all, but a dessert spoon. A teaspoon is smaller and the handle is shorter. I just came from having tea at a coffee shop, where they actually do use teaspoons. Is this useful? No. But it’s rather charming.
Looking at the grammar of a written piece is like looking at a ballet. The grammar is the choreographer, mapping the rhythm of the words. The pauses, the full stops, the rise and fall, all are controlled by the grammar. Just as etiquette controls the rhythm of our daily lives and prevents misunderstandings.
I guess what I’m saying is that we can live without grammar, just as we can live without etiquette. It just makes life harder when we try to.
It’s not that I find grammar useful, although I do, but that I actually love the subject itself. When someone calls my department and asks a grammar question, I’m happy to answer it; it’s not a chore as some questions are.
Grammar is rather like etiquette. It has a definite purpose which it fulfills beautifully, that of letting people know what to do next.
Think of the comma, lowly and despised. Now think of the comma lonely and despised. In the first sentence of this paragraph you knew where to breathe. Such are the rules of etiquette: when you are standing at a door, exiting or entering, and a disabled person/parent with a stroller/elderly person approaches, you hold the door.
And like etiquette, some of the rules are arcane and silly. Take contractions of words. “Haven’t” is the contraction for “Have not.” Shouldn’t it be “have n’t?” Take the question mark just used. In England it would be properly outside the inverted commas. In the United States it is properly inside the quotation marks.
Take the teaspoon. That which we usually refer to as a “teaspoon” in the U.S. is not a teaspoon at all, but a dessert spoon. A teaspoon is smaller and the handle is shorter. I just came from having tea at a coffee shop, where they actually do use teaspoons. Is this useful? No. But it’s rather charming.
Looking at the grammar of a written piece is like looking at a ballet. The grammar is the choreographer, mapping the rhythm of the words. The pauses, the full stops, the rise and fall, all are controlled by the grammar. Just as etiquette controls the rhythm of our daily lives and prevents misunderstandings.
I guess what I’m saying is that we can live without grammar, just as we can live without etiquette. It just makes life harder when we try to.
