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David Crystal

The glamour of grammar: in context or not?

2015-11-09T14:55:47+00:00February 13th, 2014|English, literacy|

It's something of an understatement to say that glamour and grammar are not usually closely associated in many people's minds. One of the 100 words David Crystal uses to tell The Story of English is ‘grammar’. It turns out that grammar and glamour come from the same root. Grammar originally meant the study of everything written but, as reading must have seemed like an almost magical skill to your average medieval peasant, grammar became synonymous with supernatural or occult knowledge. ‘Grammary’ came to mean magical or necromantic learning. And this leads us to ‘glamour’ which first meant a magical spell or enchantment and has since [...]

Say what? Reflecting on spoken language

2012-04-03T21:31:13+01:00April 3rd, 2012|English|

The plus side to turning 40 http://xkcd.com/166/ Over the past few weeks I've been getting my Year 11s to analyse their idiolect for a Spoken Language controlled assessment as part of the specification for GCSE English Language . The task was to "Reflect on the way you speak including criticism made of it by adults". The Daily Mail (always an excellent source of vitriol and biased reportage) says in a typically pious piece headlined Innits and aints drive me insane! that "plummy" actress Emma Thompson is heartily sick of teenagers' sloppy use of English. In it she urges young people: [...]

Is grammar glamorous?

2015-01-26T12:38:54+00:00November 16th, 2011|English, literacy|

Well, no it's not is it. Grammar's that dull stuff what kids got taught in the 60s. And then enlightened educationalists decided it was unfashionable for children to know how to parse sentences and wotnot. Which leaves me part of a lost generation who trundled through our schooling without learning a blessed thing about this arcane and mysterious subject. And that neatly segues into the fact that I've recently been enjoying my favourite linguistic professor and all round eccentric, David Crystal's lovely new book, The Story of English in 100 Words. One of his chosen 100 is 'grammar'. You see, it [...]

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