This is a list about the role of grammar in the classroom.  Whatever we mean by grammar must be grounded in some theory of language.  Therefore, there is something fundamentally wrong in the following formulation.

Craig writes: 

I don't think it is useful to the list to have an argument for
different approaches, especially since a more articulate presentation
of these views is available within the literature.

****
Let's consider what Craig says is a view of language that must be taken seriously.
Craig quotes Kemmer and Barlow:

   "Because the linguistic system is so closely tied to usage, it follows
that theories of language should be grounded in an observation of data
from actual uses of language....Intuitions about constructed data
cannot be treated as the sole, or even primary, source of evidence as
to the nature and properties of the linguistic system." (Kemmer and
Barlow, from the introduction to the same text.)
***

Even corpus linguists have to use intuitions to decide what relevant examples are from their corpus.

[An example from Biber et al.'s Grammar of Spoken and Written Language, a corpus based grammar of English.

The identifying pattern
Clauses following the identifying pattern answer the question 'Which one is/was X?'  The copular verb is invariably be.  . . . 

My headmistress was the president of the Shakespeare league. (conversation)
The only reliable source of work is the water industry. (newspaper)   (page 146)
**
My observation: Only intuitions about those example sentences allow Biber et al. to say such a pattern answers the question.  NOTHING in actual sentences says they answer such questions.  On almost every page in Biber et al. are descriptions of the structures that are based strictly on intuitions.]

Let's take seriously the notion that "constructed data cannot be treated as the sole, or even primary, source of evidence as to the nature and properties of the linguistic system" FOR PEDAGOGICAL PURPOSES.

Consider the sentence from a real essay a student wrote.

(1)  By taking time out of your day to get something for someone else just really shows that you really care about them.

If the source of knowledge about the language system is from actual language use, what language sources was the writer of sentence (1) exposed to for her to produce such a sentence?  I sure would like to know how an approach to language which claims our knowledge of language comes from "real language" answers that question.

More importantly, as writing teachers, how do we KNOW that sentence (1) is problematic.  What kinds of language were WE exposed to that accounts for our judgment about sentence (1)?  If we have never been exposed to mixed constructions and were never explicitly taught they are problematic (as writing teachers, were we?), how do we recognize them?  Under the approach Craig says we should consider, our intuitions are based on the language we have been exposed to.  

As teachers of grammar and writing, we encounter strings written by our students that are not in the texts they read.  And, just as importantly, those strings our students write are not in the texts WE read.  Yet, we are able to make judgments about those strings all the time.   If usage is so fundamental to our knowledge of language, what is the nature of the language we are exposed to that accounts for our judgments.  (Does anyone regularly note that sentences like (1) don't occur in writing?  How do you note the absence of something if your only knowledge is based on what you are exposed to?)

Of course, it is always possible that we possess no innate knowledge about language, as Herb points out.  And, it possible that there is no competence/performance distinction.  However, Jim Kenkel and I have proposed, assuming innateness and difference between competence and performance, that some of the "innovative" structures student write, like sentence (1), can be explained.   

A theory of language is fundamental for what we as teachers of grammar and writing do.  What Craig is proposing as a theory of language can't explain what our students do and, more importantly, what we as their teachers do when we respond to their writing. 

Bob Yates, University of Central Missouri.

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