Hm.

 

Offhand, I think we've been using sentences about as long as we've been
using language.  That is to say - I know standardized spelling came along
just after the printing press (more or less - I'm condensing by a half
century or so), and as I recall standardized grammar followed along about
the same time.  That said, the Anglo-Saxons were using sentences, as were
the Angles and Saxons before them.

 

I know it sounds pedantic, but the point I am trying to make is that our
language has always been subject to change; some of that change has been
quite radical indeed.  I'm a very pro-grammar person, myself (why would I be
here otherwise?) but I try to take a longer view whenever possible.

 

-patty

 

  _____  

From: Assembly for the Teaching of English Grammar
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Carol Morrison
Sent: Wednesday, June 18, 2008 10:27 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: The Death of the Sentence?

 


Hi everyone. This was in my NCTE inbox this morning, so some of you may have
read it. (This is only part of the article). I bolded the second to last
line because it interests me: Does anyone know who "invented" the sentence?

 

The Fate of The Sentence: Is the Writing On the Wall?

By  <http://projects.washingtonpost.com/staff/email/linton+weeks/> Linton
Weeks

Washington Post Staff Writer 
Sunday, June 15, 2008; Page M01 

 

The demise of orderly writing: signs everywhere. 

One recent report, young Americans don't write well. 

In a survey, Internet language -- abbreviated wds, :) and txt msging --
seeping into academic writing. 

But above all, what really scares a lot of scholars: the impending death of
the English sentence. 

Librarian of Congress
<http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/related/topic/James+Billington?tid=inform
line> James Billington, for one. "I see creeping inarticulateness," he says,
and the demise of the basic component of human communication: the sentence. 

This assault on the lowly -- and mighty -- sentence, he says, is symptomatic
of a disease potentially fatal to civilization. If the sentence croaks, so
will critical thought. The chronicling of history. Storytelling itself. 

He has a point. The sentence itself is a story, with a beginning, a middle
and an end. Something happens in a sentence. Without subjects, there are no
heroes or villains. Without verbs, there is no action. Without objects,
nothing is moved, changed, destroyed or created. 

Plus, simple sentences clarify complex situations. ("Jesus wept.") 

Since its invention centuries ago, the sentence has brought order to chaos.
It's the handle on the pitcher, a tonic chord in music, a stair step
chiseled in a mountainside.

 


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