the glamour of grammar by roy peter clark

This is the essence of rhetoric, the art of persuasion. Sensitivity to contextual elements can give language power at times when adherence to the standards cannot. However, as meaning and purpose adjust to context, the user of language must not neglect how language communicates to a given audience. Clark would go so far as to say that breaking free of these standards should be done fairly rarely, only after due consideration.

They are devices to be used as appropriate to the conveyance of the writer/speaker’s meaning, with the goal of achieving the language user’s purpose. He considers standards such as not ending a sentence with a preposition or including a verb in every independent clause to be tools of grammar. The only measure it must meet is: Does it, in fact, communicate? If the person hearing it understands what is being asked, it qualifies as acceptable, and may be considered even to be an advancement or evolution of the English language.Ĭlark sees value in both approaches and believes they can be reconciled by people “living in the language.” Such living is achieved by removing the rigidity of the rules of grammar while retaining them as standards. Prescriptivists may go even so far as to suggest that the speaker is uneducated, using sub-standard English.īy contrast, the descriptive perspective would recognize this question as an expression commonly used.

The prescriptive approach would pronounce this a faulty use of grammar, arguing it violates both the rule of a complete sentence needing a verb, and the rule not to end a sentence with a preposition. In The Glamour of Grammar: A Guide to the Mystery and Magic of Practical English, Roy Peter Clark thoroughly explores the shift from the notions of how people ought to speak (prescriptive) versus how they do in fact speak (descriptive).įor instance, “Where you at?” is a common question in current, regional discourse. The alternative, descriptive approach views language as living and evolving – language as it's used. Its adherents set out the rules of grammar as the standard to follow. The prescriptive school looks at the way the language ought to be used.

Two long-standing schools of thought have dominated discussion in grammar.

The glamour of grammar by roy peter clark