English is an evolving language, in the way it is used, whether in writing or speaking. It always had, has, and will be changing throughout the course of time. A tale by Chaucer, an Anglo-
Saxon lament or Shakespeare’s plays are a few examples of written work that demonstrate these differences.
Even a novel written as little as 50 years ago may differ in its style, vocabulary, and punctuation from the ones you could find on the bookstore shelves today. For example, most of Enid
Blyton’s work available on the shelves today are revised versions, as the originals were considered
to be out of touch for modern children, and perhaps her propensity for naming her characters Fanny, Dick, and so on so forth.
Consider this. How will you react to the following phrases?
To thee am I to you.
What say you?
I have no qualms with that.
Holy-guacomoley!
I liek 2 zay I yam wogay tu be kuul. Oh, and I liek kloudzzzzzz.
Do you find yourself doubting your English proficiency?
Or are you questioning the other person’s very existence itself (for delivering the language in such an absurd manner)?
Either way, it is beyond our mere capabilities to stop English from changing, but it is our duty of care to ensure that it does not become compromised along the way and to preserve its best
features.
Grammar plays an important component within any language, as it governs the language users to be precise and avoid any sort of ambiguity. In 1762, Robert Lowth, an Oxford professor,
produced a prescriptive text titled A Short Introduction to English Grammar as an effort to maintain the integrity of the language. Without his work, the majority of people would have had little to no knowledge of English grammar until the end of the nineteenth century as most of them could not read or write. It was also observed that only by the late 1800s that schooling became compulsory where children are taught to read and write (together with the importance of English grammar).
Anywho, the scholars of the eighteenth centuries who decide to impose a grammar system within the English language were of Ancient Greek and Latin specialists, not of German, from which
English was derived of. Therefore, creating unnecessary complications with an awful lot of Latin rules within the system. Lowth’s publication of A Short Introduction to English Grammar is regarded as an influential text dominating grammar teaching well into the twentieth century, serving as a guideline for the users.
Some may regard grammar to be too particulate that it should not matter when we are chatting up with close friends and family, as long as the message is delivered and received, but what
about when we want to apply for a job or compiling a report or writing our own will to be passed to
our family?
Grammar becomes a vital part of the language, as much a part of how you will like to present yourself – and how other people react to you – just as to the way you dress. If we could have invested the time and effort to send those dress suit to be dry cleaned, wake up earlier to do our make up and have your hair set in the most pleasing way, why can’t we spend an extra 3 minutes, re-reading calmly what we have written before hastily pressing that send button? Why can’t we put in the effort to polish our language skills?
So, yes.
Mind your language, as it matters in building and maintaining relationships. Keep in mind that English is a rich and fluid language, where one person’s unbreakable rule is another person’s insufferable pedantry. By learning it, knowing the ins-and-outs, if and when you were to break it, it is solely because you feel like it, not because you don’t know any better – this will make you a more confident, creative, entertaining, and better user of English language. No such application or software (such as Natural Language Processing) should be more superior to our own knowledge, conscious and sense of the language.
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