Myriad

Blondlot · Post by **Blondlot** » Sun Nov 04, 2001 9:42 am

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:<HR>Originally posted by Maccabee:
a bunch of snobbish neo-classicist grammarians (not that I have anything against snobbish neo-classicists as a general rule, mind you) slapped a bunch of rules that were appropriate for Latin but not English onto our language. You can't split a Latin infinitive because it's only one friggin word! That doesn't (or shouldn't) apply to us. I also think it should be fine to dangle a preposition when you've begun a sentence with an object. (e.g. "The things I have to put up with!") Subjunctives, on the other hand, I'd like to save. If we were to use them more I think it would make the language richer.Maccabee
"If this be treason, make the most of it."<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>I agree with you. I'm just putting a lot of emphasis on teaching the rules as they stand before telling the student to forget what he knows. I figure that we all agree thus far and we're just on different wavelengths. I realise that I, for example, sound mighty elitist (and cocky and pigheaded), though I don't mean to. *pop* Oh dear, there goes my monocle again. Stage -1 English speaker,
m.d

EWHPTIV · Post by **EWHPTIV** » Mon Nov 05, 2001 4:44 am

I agree. Cart before the horse. You can't break what you don't understand first.At least, not in grammar. With hammers, however...------------------
"Writing is a legal way of avoiding work without actually stealing and one that doesn't take any talent or training." --Robert A. Heinlein, The Cat Who Walks Through Walls