I was part of the generation that was not taught English grammar or punctuation at school.
Just in case you are wondering, yes it had been invented by then! However, our teachers felt that an over focussing on the mechanics of written structure could hinder the free flow of ideas. Some educationalists reasoned that if children had a love of literature, they would somehow “catch” the importance of grammar.
In many ways, they were right. In my own case, I have always had a love of literature. From an early age, I appreciated Winnie the Pooh and the wise humour of that tubby bear. As I entered the exam system, I discovered Shakespeare and Dickens and, through my faith, I loved the great narratives and depth of doctrine found in scripture.
To confound the educationalists, despite my reading, I never seemed to ‘catch’ the meaning of nouns, verbs, graphemes and diagraphs (I had to look that up, as I wrote this!).
It was only in later life, studying New Testament Greek, that I found my lack of English Grammatical knowledge hampered my learning the complexities of Greek! I had to learn English structures before I could makes sense of the Greek structures.
As for punctuation! (or should that be a ‘?’) I still struggle to work out where the little dots and dashes on a page go.
Lynne Truss in her wonderful book “Eat, shoots and leaves” says this;
Punctuation marks are the traffic signals of language: they tell us to slow down, notice this, take a detour, and stop.)
(Eats, shoots and leaves)
In the same chapter, she gives the well-known example
Woman, without her man, is nothing
Woman: without her, man is nothing
The punctuation gives meaning to the words.
So, what does all this mean? I have been thinking about how our lives need those moments of punctuation.
God gave weekly punctuation, through the Sabbath. A breath pause in the midst of life’s busy-ness. There are times when we need a slightly longer pause through time off and holidays. Sometimes, we need to start a new paragraph in our lives as we head in a different direction.
Whatever this year holds for you, make sure there is some punctuation in it. It will help your life to make sense.
I had grammar taught, so you are right , it is important. More importantly is the size of my fingers is wrong. On my mobile phone I don’t always press the right letter. I don’t have this problem on a computer keyboard. I also v as Lue the colon an SD a semi-colon.
Was taught grammar at primary school & later at Grammar & Technical School. Picked up more grammar there when I did French , Latin , & Ancient Greek, which included New Testament Greek , & Philology in 6th Form General Studies. Agree about punctuation in our lives. Sabbath is helpful, as are traffic light stops & computer outages. One I always appreciate is ‘ Be still & know that I am God ‘ . ( Psalm 46v 10 )
Thank you Sean. I too have struggled with grammar but God still loves me as I am. The punctuation in our lives is so important, it refreshes and renews us, reminding us of all the good things in life.
. Thank you Sean , I also struggle with grammar but God doesn’t mind, he accepts us as we are. I agree that it is important that we have punctuation in our lives to to refresh us and take stock of all the good things.
I try to put full stops in my life. For a break. But other people keep rubbing them out. I will have to be more determined, and put aside the guilt.
Grammar was invented in the 5th century to help barbarians learn Latin so they could take over the running of the western provinces of the Roman Empire. it was brilliant as a translation facilitator.
When it became converted in the 16th century into English as a way of making grammar school boys sound posher, however, it became a scientific nonsense, part of the problem of English monolingualism.
What we need is a way of replacing the appalling prescriptive grammar of English education by a descriptive linguistics, starting in primary school.