Accuracy in Grammar

Whenever we talk about grammar, we tend to mix up two of its most fundamental meanings. These are sometimes divided into two categories: grammar as science and grammar as art. Grammar with a capital G and grammar with a small g are my preferred names for these two types of grammar. In any case, grammar relates to the structure of a language, its sounds and syllables, its morphemes, words, and sentences. According to the general principles of linguistic science, it is a descriptive study that catalogs and inventories a language's elements. Prescribed grammar is the set of rules that govern how language is to be used in a formal setting. Knowledge of acceptable and unacceptable ways of pronouncing words and idioms is an important part of social graces. It's a skill in being accurate.

If you're an English speaker, you may find yourself in a situation where you're caught in the crossfire between (or among) the experts. In pursuit of the facts about English, which descriptive linguists are obligated to undertake in order to preserve our language's evolution, they are frequently accused of discarding all norms and approving linguistic forms that are deemed inferior. Prescriptivists, who are also part of the self-regulating system of our language, rarely agree on general or specific concepts when they try to put forth rules for everyone to follow. The procrustean bed of language commentators is too much for our brittle limbs, no matter how much we admire their efforts. Language commentator Logan Pearsall Smith (1948) dubbed grammar "the natural enemy of idiom" in this prescriptive sense. No matter how hard we try, we can't seem to follow the differing prescriptions of the prescribers. New errors are made, pushing English into new and uncharted territory and enraging language critics even more as we strive for perfection.

When H. C. Wyld wrote in 1921 that we have a reluctance to accept the existence of substantial amounts of well-established linguistic facts and that these facts can shed light on the many issues that face teachers, writers, editors, and the general public in relation to language, he was expressing a common sentiment among linguists. With this book, I wish to combat in some little manner this inclination to reject the facts of English and to urge my readers to follow the subject in all its fact and imagination well beyond the bounds of these pages..