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:
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 Linton Weeks
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 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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