by Laura Lai/ Essay
All language learning is about
vocabulary and grammar. And these two, when learning a language, are like horse
and carriage – you cannot have one without the other. When writing, spelling
and grammar mistakes accompany the writer. This occurs also when the writer is more focused on the flow of ideas or the unfolding of
the arguments, particularly when they unfold over several pages. It does not
mean at all that the writer disconsiders the importance of grammar. Still, how
important should grammar be?
Before attempting to give an answer, the first logical question is: what is grammar? Whose relevance are we approaching here? By ‘grammar’ it is meant ‘morphology’ – meaning the way words change, when verbs are conjugated or nouns decline in some languages, for example – and ‘syntax’ – meaning the way words are combined to form sentences and phrases.
Hommo
sapiens sapiens use language to communicate,
meaning words, and usually spoken words. Those of us who do not have a
voice (like those who are deaf and dumb) use their hands and bodies to communicate.
These are words expressed through gestures. Similarly to spoken
language, one gesture may mean one word or may have several meanings. But
knowing the signs for each word does not mean that the interpreter is
communicating anything. By simply putting into signs every word the interpreter
hears with the grammar it hears, does not mean that the interpreter is
communicating. The sent message does not reach the receiver. The receiver can
only recognize the signs for a word, such as the sign for ‘vaccine’ and guess
that the interpreter may be ‘speaking’ about ‘vaccines’, but what the
interpreter says about vaccines – meaning the message to be communicated – does
not pass through because sign language has its own ‘unwritten’ grammar. The way
to put the words into sign language is by practicing with ‘native speakers’,
meaning with deaf that use this language. The message is understood when the
deaf understands what it is told about exactly as we understand when we are
spoken to.
But when we are
spoken to, we may hear sentences such as: ‘Rome
was not built in a day’, ‘Jane and
Tom did London in one day.’ Both these sentences are short, correct,
and all words are clear. What is it that we do not understand? We do not
understand the way Jane and Tom could do London in one day. The meaning of the
words becomes clearer if one knows all or most of the meanings of one word (or
those we regularly use) – in this case, of the verb ‘to do’. Its sense is ‘to
visit’ not to build London in one day. All words of a language constitute its vocabulary The dictionary is a book or, newly, an electronic device that has an inventory
of all words in a language ordered alphabetically.
Therefore, if both grammar and
vocabulary are important, how can we balance the desire to write interesting,
meaningful ideas with the need to be grammatically correct? The answer depends
a lot on several factors. It depends on whether or not the writer writes in its
native language. Then, the syntax should not be so problematic, and the spelling
mistakes can be easily corrected by the computer. But when the writer writes in
English as a foreign language, to be ‘grammatically correct’ depends first on
the level of English. When the level is advanced, the writer does not make
morphological mistakes (it theoretically knows the way a word becomes an
adjective or an adverb, or makes an agreement between verb and subject).
But
even when the level is advanced, it is possible (actually, very possible) for
the writer to make syntax mistakes. It seems that each language has its syntax,
with the German language having the most particular one. German syntax requires that
in a subordinate clause, the verb stays at the end of the sentence. Another
particularity of this language is constituted by the so-called verbs with
prefixes. When conjugated, the prefix and the verb separate, and the prefix is
placed after the verb (for example, the verb ‘aufstehen’ (to wake up) is
conjugated in the present tense as ‘ich stehe auf’). It is rightly assumed that
syntax gets more challenging if one has a subordinate clause, with a verb with a prefix, and in a composed tense. These challenges are part of the beauty of
studying a language even if making mistakes is unpleasant. A mistake becomes
annoying only when it constantly repeats itself. And it is, humanly, forgiven when the
mistake has never been explained and the writer persists in this ‘unknown’
mistake.
Besides the German
language that has these syntax rules – that are not difficult to understand
logically – the other languages that most of us currently use (such as English,
for example) do not have complicated syntax rules, but each language has its
own syntax rules. However, the fact that the writer writes in English as a
foreign language when daily uses another language, with another syntax, can influence the way the writer writes in English. When the writer speaks
several languages and is familiar with several syntax rules, it may get more
challenging.
On
the way to balance the logical flow of meaningful ideas and grammatical correctness, there are no rules. Exposure to the language in which the writer wants to
write is the most important. Being surrounded by English when the writer wants
to write in English increases vocabulary, increases capacity to think in
English, and, consequently, the capacity to write syntactically correct
sentences.
And speaking of correct sentences, is the following sentence syntactically correct: ‘Of this fundamental work, this day is the anniversary?' Before anybody would think that it might have been written by a writer writing in English as a foreign language, it shall be mentioned that this hypothesis is ruled out. This is actually an art in a sentence! It is a rhetorical device called ‘hyperbaton’ – meaning a change from the ordinary syntax nature. How many of the writers writing in English as a foreign language would have the courage to use a hyperbaton with the risk to be called … all kinds of linguistically incompetent names?
In conclusion, although two times a 'sapiens' (a word that comes from Latin, sapientia means 'knowledge,' 'wisdom') when learning a language is about learning its vocabulary and its grammar. They both rely on each other so that the spoken message reaches its receivers. Vocabulary needs grammar and grammar uses words. In writing, spelling and grammar mistakes may occur, especially when the writer writes in a foreign language and it is firstly more preoccupied with the flaw of its meaningful ideas. It is at the second reading that the spelling and grammar mistakes can be corrected and the overall quality of the text improved. But when the writer makes grammar mistakes it is not because it is an idiot - it may speak more language than the accuser does. It may also be the fact that it was not sufficiently exposed to the language in which it is writing, or it may be doing it on purpose making a written art from a change in the syntax of a sentence.
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