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By William R. Jones
Rules or principles that describe grammar began to be taught as one of the subjects in primary and secondary schools in the United States around the year 1842. Among students, there has been a strong aversion or intense dislike for it ever since. It was put upon us and reinforced by joyless rote memory. We loathed it and it bored us, yet at times it came to our rescue.
In my present-day ESL (English as a Second Language) classes, I do not stress prescriptive or preferred grammar. My choice, option and preference is the descriptive or nonrestrictive grammar that we see, hear and understand from almost everyone. I subscribe with hopefulness that students will absorb the standard conventional norms of correct and incorrect use of the features, relationships and constructions of the studied language through our storied guidebook by the very much exposed reading of assorted conversations.
Also, I give support to non-conventional English by what Robert Frost did say, "You can be a little ungrammatical if you come from the right part of the country." By all means, if English is your second language, you have the reserved qualitative right to be ungrammatical. Of course, we cannot do away with grammar altogether, especially if we are involved in media. Nevertheless, even in that, we have proofreaders and editors to protect us.
Here is an exercise that I put upon my students: Place the word "only" correctly in the following sentence: She told the policeman that she kills mosquitoes. Perhaps, you may classify the word order relationship as lexical functional grammar. You may place "only" one time in any position in said sentence and all construe correct meanings. Many theoretical frameworks of grammar abound and give rise to much dispute. There are many misconceptions concerning English usage due to regularization (formal schooling), invented rules and the fact that language is not static, but dynamic over time, and, too, no authoritative academy exists. Thus, many organizations reference particular style guides.
An impressive, poignant and keenly clear crucial observation by Jack Lynch, a most popular former Irish politician, was that "Arguments over grammar and style are often as fierce as those over IBM versus Mac, and as fruitless as Coke versus Pepsi and boxers versus briefs." Thus, I no longer entertain or debate with self-appointed grammarians whether they be professors or not.
Nevertheless, as former British linguist Charles Randolph Quirk did say, "English is just as much big business as the export of manufactured goods. There are problems with what you might call 'after-sales services;' 'delivery' can be awkward, but at any rate, the production lines are trouble-free." Novices abound.
Good grammar develops over time, we must refrain from excessive verbal corrections and set aside the copious red ink pen markings to keep from discouraging the students on the path of learning. I ask you, "Ain't I right?"
The author (wrjones@vsu.edu) published the novella "Beyond Harvard" and presently teaches English as a second language.
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