Grammar is the system of a language. People sometimes describe grammar as the "rules" of a language; but in fact no language has rules*. If we use the word "rules", we suggest that somebody created the rules first and then spoke the language, like a new game. But languages did not start like that. Languages started by people making sounds which evolved into words, phrases and sentences. No commonly-spoken language is fixed. All languages change over time. What we call "grammar" is simply a reflection of a language at a particular time.
Do we need to study grammar to learn a language? The short answer is "no". Very many people in the world speak their own, native language without having studied its grammar. Children start to speak before they even know the word "grammar". But if you are serious about learning a foreign language, the long answer is "yes, grammar can help you to learn a language more quickly and more efficiently." It's important to think of grammar as something that can help you, like a friend. When you understand the grammar (or system) of a language, you can understand many things yourself, without having to ask a teacher or look in a book.
So think of grammar as something good, something positive, something that you can use to find your way - like a signpost or a map.
* Except invented languages like Esperanto. And if Esperanto were widely spoken, its rules would soon be very different.
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tags:about,Grammar,english
1 التعليقات:
Overall, I agree with your points. In particular, I appreciate your pointing out that grammar is actually a friend that should be embraced. Having said that...
1. Whether or not a language actually has rules depends on how you define "rules". If, by rules, you mean that some utterances are required while others are forbidden, then every language has rules. For instance, in English, I cannot say "The greens apples has on thaten treesn grown" - English forbids noun-adjective agreement, requires verb-subject agreement, requires agreement between nouns and demonstrative pronouns, does not inflect nouns and adjectives for case (except for genitive), and does not push the participle of a compound verb off to the end of the sentence. Simply because these constraints came into being unconsciously does not mean that they do not exist and cannot be codified. The rules are definitely there. What we may disagree on, however, is exactly what constitutes those rules.
2. Esperanto actually is widely spoken - its 2,000,000 or so speakers are spread around the globe, albeit by relatively few people in each location. Also, it started out as a planned language, but was soon "released" to the community to eventually become a full-fledged living, natural language that has indeed evolved with time. Nevertheless, it has proven resistant to change over its more than 120 years of existence. Its very simple and logical grammar, its very rational and extensible vocabulary and its international distribution all provide strong incentives for it not to change.
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