Grammar today,is almost like the grandma,not only because of the pronunciation of the two words with a kind of confusing similarity,but also because,grammar is looked upon as an old stuff like grandma,only to be respected,but not to be followed,due to generational differences in aspiration,aptitude and achievement of goals.
It is one's schooling that plants the grammar of one's language with its roots grooved to the base.Until five decades ago,parsing{classification and interpretation of words in relation to their grammatical implications}played a key role in implanting the grammar ingredients of English,into one's brain.But today'parsing'would mean like 'farcing' and will be heard only as'passing.'
English language being the richest legacy left by the colonial British era,India initially stuck to the basics of the language,for learning it in a flawless manner,both in speech and writing.English teachers were once the most formidable figures in all the schools from the primary to the secondary levels.The cane in the hands of an efficient English teacher,was the wand that performed miracles in letting the wards learn the rules of English grammar,before they left the school,after completion of their secondary schooling.
The importance of grammar ruled the enitire process of honing every learner's listening,speaking,reading and writing skills,briefly notified as LSRW.But today LSRW means Laugh,Speak,Revel and Wrestle with the communication network.The internet world whose objectives are speed and solution for vital global issues without loss of time,is looking for a minimal impact of grammar on the use of English,with a view to attaining projected goals through inter personal connectivity,by pruning the puritanical feathers of the languge in use.
The world is presently witnessing a kind of disorder with a semblance of order. William Butler Yeats in his famous poem"The Second Coming" wrote
"Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart;the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world".
The absence of order is a serious crisis felt everywhere,including the court premises where the judge often has to strike the wooden hammer saying"order order".So the most logical perception now is,when there is little order all around,why should grammar alone have word order(syntax) in a sentence.Travelling along the track of Lady Macbeth,who said"A little water clears us of this deed"the language user could very well say,a little meaning( semantics)will remove the stain of stabbing syntax.
In a similar vein,the grammatical 'itch' for tense perfection in the use of verbs, is considered to be the biggest irony of life because,the present is bleak,the past is meaningless and the future is absolutely uncertain.Above all when nobody is'perfect' here,why bother about the so called'perfect tense',that raises inquisitive queries about the use of time in language transmission.
Today the two trendy thumb rules of English are,1}Talk/speak to be understood.2} Write the way you talk/speak.As a funny instance,instead of asking"Santhome Church which way please?"if someone asks"Sir/Madam! Can you please tell me which one of these roads will take me to the Santhome Church?",by the time the question is completed,the person addressed to,would have left the scene.It is commonsense that prevails over rules of grammar and commonsense says,"brevity is the soul of wit"
As children,many of us would have come across grammar sessions on types of sentences.Who bothers now about these types,because each one is a type in their own way and talk their type of sentences,that could be easily tracked by the listener. Assertions are of course there,but only to cleverly avoid memories of what an assertive sentence is!.The word interrogation is mostly familiar with the police personnel and their wild catches.Even otherwise,who would trouble themselves to remember the two types of interrogative sentences and the way they are framed.As life's imperatives are difficult to follow,remembering imperative sentences is a futile exercise.Exclamations have a tie up with the snobbery clubs,where the users of exclamations express'awe!' 'oh!' 'woe'! and'wow'!as mechanical vibrations of the vocal cords.
We were all taught about the importance of two voices{not the mind voice and the mouth voice}viz:-Active Voice and Passive Voice,in grammar.But now we only know that men are'active'outside but'passive'at home,with their voices willing to be active but wantonly remaining passive.These days,even the voices of the social and envirnmental activists are supressed to stay passive.It is always safer to resort to expressions such as"it is believed"and" it is understood"instead of saying'I believe'or 'I undersrand' that could be branded as exhibition of arrogance.So the voice of grammar is far from being active.
Now coming to simple,complex and compound sentences,many would have had a tough time with this quixotic predicament of English grammar,like the murky ghosts of mathematics,in the form of algebra and trigonometry.Strangely,one may feel that they have the right to tranform their simple life into complex and compound proportions,but would be never ready to transform a simple sentence into complex/ compound sentence and vice versa.
The'If clause'has always been an irritant with its probable,improbable and impossible conditions.In fact,everyone in an improbable way,would happily say,"If I were a student now,I would certainly crack the skull of my English teacher,for having played hell with my student days,in the name of grammar".'Articles'are confined to the consititution and'prepositions'exist only as indicators of the preceding positions of power.The word'tag' exists only in Facebook,for tagging in friends,but not as'question tags'any more.
As far as'degrees of comparison' is concerned,everybody is bothered only about how to get their'degrees'without their parents'comparing'them to their friends and peers. Now owing to the perturbing pandemic,the word'positive'sounds like death knell. Comparatives make their popular rounds,in the vaccine zone.Superlatives make sense to know which country is worst hit,by the contagion.While synonyms are welcome as 'sympathizers',antonyms are looked down upon,as provocative opponents against the treasury benches.
All said and done,what is wrong in getting words scripted in alphabet form as U for 'you'R for 'are',TX for Thanks and so on,and as abbreviations like OMG replacing 'Oh My God'!Sentences like 'Are you Ok?'have shrunk into'U, OK?'It is a shrinking universe.We all come together to gesticulate more,than to articulate language.The grandma's stories are there only to make us go to sleep.So is the grammar of any language and English is no exception to this.
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