Review: How Language Works
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,923-1982324,00.htmlInteresting fodder for discussion. The review is by someone blissfully ignorant of linguistics. (I suspect he doesn't know what "grammar"...
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Also the basics of linguistics (or rather a linguistic approach to their own language): how sounds are grouped to form meaningful units, how language changes over time (and the inevitability and moral...
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Usage, style, good writing, literature are imho more appropriate to high school, once pupils have been taught the structure of the language, which includes grammar, spelling and punctuation. I asked a...
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Quote:I asked a specific question, and nobody so far has given me an answer.First and foremost, just to read, i think --- preferably things to which they might not have access at home, but could find...
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grammar:3a. A normative or prescriptive set of rules setting forth the current standard of usage for pedagogical or reference purposes.b. Writing or speech judged with regard to such a set of...
View ArticleRe: Review: How Language Works
We have established that the man is not a linguist. Stipulate that he's not talking about "grammar" in the linguistic sense of the word therefore and the criticism here is plainly misdirected.Children...
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Your point being?sixenet has the right of it. DaveW & LHat are making little sense because they have some special intenSion on their terms 'grammar' and 'usage'. It appears they have a visceral...
View ArticleRe: Review: How Language Works
But he is reviewing a book on linguistics. Humphreys is talking at cross-purposes with Crystal and he does not know enough about the subject he is reviewing to realize that he is doing so. The problem...
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I would hazard to put forth that all art is somehow derivative of a structured reality. A painting is not a faithful three-dimensional representation of something in existence. A story or novel is not...
View ArticleRe: Review: How Language Works
The criticism here is that Crystal's book is about the implicit structure of language, but that Humphrys sees the word "grammar" and Litellas off on the subject of made-up rules of usage and style,...
View ArticleRe: Review: How Language Works
But the entire concept of "sound usage" (in his sense) is anti-linguistic. I'm glad he's on the defensive when confronted with Crystal, a man who actually knows about language, but he's still peddling...
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What exactly are these "quack nostrums" which you speak of? (And who are you talking about?)
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Assuming that a linguist's "grammar" is in fact the study of the structure of a language and how people talk, is it inconceivable that "grammar" can also refer to the practice of speech and language?...
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Quote:What exactly are these "quack nostrums" which you speak of?Here's an example from Safire's column in todays' New York Times. He quotes the judge's ruling in the Dover Area School Board case:"the...
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LH, you seem to be saying that because there are anthropologists, the people they study are mere automatons who are incapable of making value judgments about their own behavior.Not at all. I'm saying...
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I agree with LH - grammar can only take you so far. It's the equivalent of the rules of engineering, which tell you what you must and must not do to build a bridge which won't fall down, but which...
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Thanks for that wonderful quote -- I'm going to go use it on MetaFilter right this minute.
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I was forced to do that parsing stuff at school, and the connection between THAT and my own, or anyone else's, writing style was never made. It is one of the grear urban myths that that sort of...
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Humphrys sees the word "grammar" and Litellas off I finally got it. Gilda Radner.Hi Suzi, welcome! I remember dreading grammar lessons in the sixth grade and then, magically, they disappeared never to...
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Is there some basic level of competency in grammar-awareness in the modern era?Yes, but it involves solely how to text message most efficiently.
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