Re: Grammar

[mn13189@WCUVAX1.WCU.EDU]

Poster: mn13189@WCUVAX1.WCU.EDU

On Sat, 15 Mar 1997 linneah@erols.com wrote:

> Another bone of contention is, why do we continue to teach the "grammar" that 
> our grandparents learned?  Languages evolve and change over time.  Why do 
> you think that people in England, the US and other "English" speaking 
> countries speak so differently?  I believe that the rules need to change over 
> time as well.  After all, in Old English each of the letters in the work "knight" 
> were pronounced, not far off from the Monty Python pronunciation in" The 
> Holy Grail".  Why then, would the rules of needing a noun and a verb in a 
> sentence still apply?

Historically speaking, it has always been the common, working class people
wh ohave determined the path of a language.  It is among this group that
changes occur most rapidly, and then later on those changes are eventually
adopted by the ruling class (here, the class that teaches the "official"
grammar rules).  It the ruling class did dtermine the path of the
language, we'd all be speaking French today, and English would have taken
the path of Manx or Gaelic 800 years ago.
Aye,
Eogan

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