In wordanddeed

There's no need to be a

grammarphobe, says David Crystal,it's just a matter of catchi ng the

meamng

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26 T EST E A ( HER • A P R I l 3 0 2 0 0 4

Reality television has brought a newword to our attention: the "makeover".

Whether you are changing your homeor your face, the results are invariablydramatic. But nothing matches themakeover that has taken place in thestudy of grammar in recent years.

Most people who did grammar inschool have bad memories of it. Theyrecall a dry, boring, irrelevant, learn-by­heart set of intellectual exercises. It's notlike that now. Or, at least, it doesn't haveto be. Grammar is one of the most excit­

ing, creative, relevant subjects I know. Itis sometimes described as the skeleton ofa language, but it is much more thanbones. It is the language's heartbeat, itsnervous system, its intelligence. Forwithout grammar, there can be nomeaningful or effective communication.

Meaning and use - semantics andpragmatics, to use the modern terms - areat the heart of grammar. The chief reasonwe use language is to express meaning (inspeaking and writing) and to understandother people's meaning (in listening andreading). It is also to choose the rightkind of language to suit our intentionsand to appreciate the effect conveyed bythe linguistic choices made by others.

The key point is to appreciate thatgrammar relates to meaning and to seehow it does that. It is sometimes thoughtthat meaning is nothing to do with gram­mar - that it is "just in the vocabulary".But this is misleading. Aword on its ownconveys little meaning, as early childutterances show .."Push," says a two-year­old, and we can be nonplussed. Is this arequest to be pushed, a proposal to dosome pushing, a suggestion that some­thing else be pushed, or what?

"Put the word into a sentence, andthen we will know what you mean."That is what the two-year-old has to

learn, and it is the key principle behindall grammar. Only by using words insentences are we able to make sense ofthem. That is what sentences are for.

They are there, quite literally, to "make"- create - sense. And every tiny bit of asentence - every adjective, relativeclause, past tense, passive voice, indefi­nite article - helps create that sense. Thetask facing us all is to see how it's done.

That is what making sense of gram­mar is all about. It aims to show that

every grammatical feature is there for areason. The watchword is "Why?"Behind every piece of grammaticaldescription there is an explanation. Andit is when we start to look for explana­tions that grammar becomes reallyinteresting, because then we are explor­ing the ways people think and feel. Thisof course, is why grammar is complex.Human beings are entities that expresscomplex thoughts, making all kinds ofsubtle distinctions, and grammar existsto enable us to do just that.

So, where do we find our explana­tions? In two worlds - one semantic, theother pragmatic. In the semantic world,every time we encounter a grammaticalfeature, we need to ask: what meaningdoes it express?

In the pragmatic world, we need toask: what effect does it convey? Somefeatures convey an informal tone, othersa formal tone. Some give an impressionof elegant care, others of casual spon­taneity. It is always a matter of choice.

Whether in school or society, speechor writing, we have in our heads a hugerange of grammatical constructions,and it is up to us to choose which oneswill work best to express what we wantto say and to achieve the desired effect.

Grammar is the structural foundation

of our ability to express ourselves. The

more we are aware of how it works, themore we can monitor the meaning andeffectiveness of the way we and othersuse language. It can help foster preci­sion, detect ambiguity, and exploit therichness of expression available in Eng­lish. And it can help everyone - not onlyteachers of English, but teachers of any­thing, for all teaching is ultimately amatter of getting to grips with meaning.

To get from theory to practice, weneed a bridge, and it is a bridge with twospans: description and explanation. Thenew edition of my Rediscover Grammardeals with the descriptive part of theexercise. Making Sense of Grammar dealswith the explanatory part. We needboth spans to complete our appreciationof English grammar, as we routinelycross the bridge in both directions.

If we are listening and reading, webegin with description and proceed toexplanation (or D to E). We notice howsomeone else is using a grammatical fea­ture, and want to explain its meaningand effect. If we are speaking and writ­ing, we begin with explanation and pro­ceed to description (E to D). We reflecton the meaning we want to convey thekind of effect we want to achieve, andthen choose the features of grammarwhich will enable us to communicate

our intentions effectively.This two-way approach is reflected in

its acronym: DEED. Once both spans ofthe DEED bridge are in place, then thecore information we need to improveour grammatical abilities is available,ready to be put to active use. It'smakeover time.

• David Crystal's Making Sense ofGrammar and Rediscover Grammar are

publiShed by Longman, £10.99 each.Tel: 0800 579579

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