We Know English Grammar Without Knowing It
The greatest intellectual feat of mother tongue English speakers has been achieved by the age of two or three. By that time we have learnt English grammar. A glance through one or two hefty tomes will show what a considerable accomplishment that is.
English speakers carry the conventions of their language around with them for the rest of their lives. Chinese speakers carry the grammatical rules of their language which is arguably even more complex than English. Although many errors occur we are usually able to communicate effectively.
The vast majority of language users are quite unable to explain to anyone else the rules that they apply when they speak and write. They are very complex and enmeshed in our brains. Learning grammar is a process of discovering why we speak and write as we do. Therefore, it is a way of knowing ourselves better. That is the point of learning about the rules that we apply unthinkingly.
For people who learn English as a second or foreign language learning the rules is a more difficult process. In many cases they have a better knowledge of terms and theoretical rules than native speakers do. Still they make mistakes when it comes to actual use of the language. This shows something important about the relationship between grammatical rules and the use of a language.
We do not learn the rules and then use them to write or speak. We write or speak first, and then use our knowledge of conventions to edit or reflect on what we have written or spoken.
Editing a piece if writing is a very important part of the writing process. It is at this stage that knowledge of rules becomes important. Explaining quite what the rules are and how they operate is not even necessary for editing. It is only when teaching the language that this knowledge is essential. As a teacher it is not sufficient to explain a rule by saying, 'that's just the way we say it'. Nevertheless, some rules and idioms are very difficult to explain, even though we apply them on a daily basis.
Latin grammar was uses as a guide for English grammar for many centuries. This was because Latin was the lingua franca of the classical world. Grammarians used Latin with growing unease as the centuries advanced and Latin became undeniably dead. In the 1950s Noam Chomsky startled many grammarians from their long slumber by expounding on a new way to formulate the rules which actually do apply when we use English.
Chomsky's grammar was called 'transformational' because it attempted to explain how language is transformed from deep structures to surface structures as it is used. We might start with a deep structure like 'John be'. This structure will be transformed into a surface structure like 'John is running' by the application of various grammatical rules. The rules of English grammar are far from simple but the wonder is how we apply such complex rules almost intuitively as a consequence of having acquired language appropriately in the course of our linguistic development.
English speakers carry the conventions of their language around with them for the rest of their lives. Chinese speakers carry the grammatical rules of their language which is arguably even more complex than English. Although many errors occur we are usually able to communicate effectively.
The vast majority of language users are quite unable to explain to anyone else the rules that they apply when they speak and write. They are very complex and enmeshed in our brains. Learning grammar is a process of discovering why we speak and write as we do. Therefore, it is a way of knowing ourselves better. That is the point of learning about the rules that we apply unthinkingly.
For people who learn English as a second or foreign language learning the rules is a more difficult process. In many cases they have a better knowledge of terms and theoretical rules than native speakers do. Still they make mistakes when it comes to actual use of the language. This shows something important about the relationship between grammatical rules and the use of a language.
We do not learn the rules and then use them to write or speak. We write or speak first, and then use our knowledge of conventions to edit or reflect on what we have written or spoken.
Editing a piece if writing is a very important part of the writing process. It is at this stage that knowledge of rules becomes important. Explaining quite what the rules are and how they operate is not even necessary for editing. It is only when teaching the language that this knowledge is essential. As a teacher it is not sufficient to explain a rule by saying, 'that's just the way we say it'. Nevertheless, some rules and idioms are very difficult to explain, even though we apply them on a daily basis.
Latin grammar was uses as a guide for English grammar for many centuries. This was because Latin was the lingua franca of the classical world. Grammarians used Latin with growing unease as the centuries advanced and Latin became undeniably dead. In the 1950s Noam Chomsky startled many grammarians from their long slumber by expounding on a new way to formulate the rules which actually do apply when we use English.
Chomsky's grammar was called 'transformational' because it attempted to explain how language is transformed from deep structures to surface structures as it is used. We might start with a deep structure like 'John be'. This structure will be transformed into a surface structure like 'John is running' by the application of various grammatical rules. The rules of English grammar are far from simple but the wonder is how we apply such complex rules almost intuitively as a consequence of having acquired language appropriately in the course of our linguistic development.
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