The word of the day for May 30, 2008 is "grammarian" — noun — one who studies: 1 a: the classes of words, their inflections, and their functions and relations in the sentence. b: what is to be preferred and what avoided in inflection and syntax. 2 a: the characteristic system of inflections and syntax of a language. b: a system of rules that defines the grammatical structure of a language.
My sister, the research librarian, just reported this exchange:
A patron just called and asked, "How do you spell throwed?"
Librarian: "...As in, 'You tossed the ball'?"
Patron: "No, as in, 'Them having throwed their hats in the ring.'"
Librarian: "I think you might want to say 'They threw their hats in the ring,' or 'They
have thrown their hats in the ring.'"
Patron: “Oh, you mean I should say, 'Them having threw their hats in the ring.'"
Librarian: “Not quite.”
The patron was happy with: “Them having thrown their hats in the ring.”
It is a good thing that my Eighth Grade English Teacher, Mrs. Deutch, was not fielding that call. She was a strict grammarian, who took no nonsense from anyone—on any front. She would haul a six-foot, Tenth Grade Remedial student out of the hallway to spit his gum into her wastebasket. She would walk between the students' desks during tests, singing very softly, "If you see me coming better step aside./ Many men didn't, and many men died./ One gun of iron, the other of steel,/ If the right don't get you, then the left one will." (For those of you not old enough to remember Tennessee Earnie Ford, this is a verse from the coal miner song, "Sixteen Tons.")
Mrs. Deutch had us all buy a book of grammar/style that I wish I had today, because it showed how to diagram sentences. This is a dying skill, as most people don't write or read sentences of more than five words anymore. Yet, if one wants to read poetry or philosophy or anything written before the end of the Victorian era, diagramming sentences can bring meaning out of seeming chaos. Let's see, start with your subject on a horizontal line with a vertical stroke dividing it from the predicate...
Our quote for the day is from Juvenal (fl. 1st to 2d cent. A.D.):
Grammarian, orator, geometrician; painter, gymnastic teacher, physician;
fortune-teller, rope-dancer, conjuror,—he knew everything.
4 comments:
And your Mrs Deutch ,must have been sister to my Miss Fairburn,she wouldnt have tolerated it either ,(I am now hoping, I have put the comma's in the right places )....love Jan xx http://journals.aol.co.uk/jeadie05/Serendipity/
Yes, I remember that song very well indeed. I had the same sort of teacher, she was a stickler for grammar.
http://journals.aol.co.uk/jeanno43/JeannettesJottings/
I wish I had been as good at math as I was at sentence diagramming!
... unfortunately, I never had a really grammarian in my life ... I have longed for someone to teach proper grammar ... that conversation illustrates the lack of importance placed on education, and IMO, the lack of proper, but simple conversation within the family ...
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