Grammar
Created | Updated Jan 28, 2002
It is a well-known, if little appreciated, fact that matter can be neither created nor destroyed. It is less well known that the same is true of grammar.
Grammar consists of the peculiar set of rules, practices and customs thrown up by many languages as an obstacle to human understanding. This is often exemplified in the 'Me and Jonny are going fishing', 'No Jonny and I are going fishing', 'Well, then what am I going to do?' school of 'humour'.
As time passes, and as technology provides humans with ever more avenues of communication, it becomes increasingly obvious that there are precious few repositories of unalloyed grammar available for use.
In this aspect, grammar is not unlike relevance, tact and past lives.
Grammar consists of the peculiar set of rules, practices and customs thrown up by many languages as an obstacle to human understanding. This is often exemplified in the 'Me and Jonny are going fishing', 'No Jonny and I are going fishing', 'Well, then what am I going to do?' school of 'humour'.
As time passes, and as technology provides humans with ever more avenues of communication, it becomes increasingly obvious that there are precious few repositories of unalloyed grammar available for use.
In this aspect, grammar is not unlike relevance, tact and past lives.
