LYRICFLUENT
LYRICFLUENTDoes Grammar Matter? Lyrics by Addison Anderson Addison Anderson
Below, you will find the lyrics for Does Grammar Matter? by Addison Anderson.
You're telling a friend an amazing story
And you just get to the best part when suddenly he interrupts
'The alien and I,' not 'Me and the alien.'
Most of us would probably be annoyed
But aside from the rude interruption
Does your friend have a point?
Was your sentence actually grammatically incorrect?
And if he still understood it, why does it even matter?
From the point of view of linguistics
Grammar is a set of patterns for how words are put together
To form phrases or clauses
Whether spoken or in writing
Different languages have different patterns
In English, the subject normally comes first
Followed by the verb
And then the object
While in Japanese and many other languages
The order is subject, object, verb
Some scholars have tried to identify patterns common to all languages
But apart from some basic features
Like having nouns or verbs
Few of these so-called linguistic universals have been found
And while any language needs consistent patterns to function
The study of these patterns opens up an ongoing
Debate between two positions
Known as prescriptivism and descriptivism
Grossly simplified
Prescriptivists think a given language should follow consistent rules
While descriptivists see variation and adaptation as a natural
And necessary part of language
For much of history, the vast majority of language was spoken
But as people became more interconnected
And writing gained importance
Written language was standardized to allow broader communication
And ensure that people in different parts of a realm
Could understand each other
In many languages, this standard form came to be considered
The only proper one
Despite being derived from just one of many spoken varieties
Usually that of the people in power
Language purists worked to establish and propagate this standard
By detailing a set of rules that reflected the established
Grammar of their times
And rules for written grammar were applied
To spoken language, as well
Speech patterns that deviated from the written rules
Were considered corruptions
Or signs of low social status
And many people who had grown up speaking in these ways
Were forced to adopt the standardized form
More recently, however
Linguists have understood that speech is a
Separate phenomenon from writing
With its own regularities and patterns
Most of us learn to speak at such an early age
That we don't even remember it
We form our spoken repertoire through unconscious habits
Not memorized rules
And because speech also uses mood and intonation for meaning
Its structure is often more flexible
Adapting to the needs of speakers and listeners
This could mean avoiding complex clauses that are hard
To parse in real time
Making changes to avoid awkward pronounciation
Or removing sounds to make speech faster
The linguistic approach that tries to understand
And map such differences
Without dictating correct ones is known as descriptivism
Rather than deciding how language should be used
It describes how people actually use it
And tracks the innovations they come up with in the process
But while the debate between
Prescriptivism and descriptivism continues
The two are not mutually exclusive
At its best, prescriptivism is useful for informing people
About the most common established patterns at a given point in time
This is important, not only for formal contexts
But it also makes communication easier between non-native speakers
From different backgrounds
Descriptivism, on the other hand
Gives us insight into how our minds work
And the instinctive ways in which we structure our view of the world
Ultimately, grammar is best thought of as a set of linguistic habits
That are constantly being negotiated and reinvented
By the entire group of language users
Like language itself
It's a wonderful and complex fabric
Woven through the contributions of speakers and listeners
Writers and readers
Prescriptivists and descriptivists
From both near and far
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