Sunday, June 13, 2021

Life Review: On Being a Grammar Idealist

 I confess, I am constantly correcting your grammar--silently hopefully. I just read where someone posted on Facebook about something being "Very unique". The word "unique" isn't unique, but is a bit odd in that it is an absolute--it does not, ever, take a modifier. Something is either unique--i.e. one of a kind--or it is not. There are no degrees of unique.

Verbs are modified by adverbs, not adjectives. Adjectives modify nouns not verbs. Infinitives (noun from of verbs, e.g. to err is human) should not be split. E.g. "to hardly work at all" is wrong. "To work with little effort" is fine.

Prepositions are not appropriate words to end sentences with.  See what I mean?

To my surprise, as I read and correct the grammar in published (by a commercial publisher) I am shocked at the numerous grammar errors.

Then two weeks ago I attended an online seminar in writing. To my shock I learned that the uses of punctuation had changed dramatically since I learned grammar.  Ellipses, " ... ", are not used to denote an incomplete thought. A colon, :, can be used to make an emphasis, as well as intro a list.

When I discovered the changes in punctuation, I asked about the other grammar "rules". I was shocked to hear that ending sentences in a preposition is now OK.

Who knew?  Certainly not me.

To some extent i gues, rules, including grammar rules, are arbitrary. I once thought that following the rules of grammar made communications more clear.  I guess I was wrong.

So grammar is a thing of the past.

But beware, some of us are still correcting you.

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