Regarding the possible division of the two main parts of ATEG, which I hope will be considered at the annual meeting, it seems to me that the goal of grammar is that we all might be on the same page, literally and figuratively, so that we might be better able to understand one another.
Understanding one another doesn't depend on where words and conventions came from as much as what they mean. Linguists look at what people actually say and write, (and said and wrote), whereas grammarians try to agree
on what makes sense to most of us most of the time. Linguists have different training, different interests, and different goals. They look at what divides us (descriptive grammar), while grammarians look for what joins us together (prescriptive grammar).
When the linguists, who dominate the ATEG listserv, go off on one of their arcane tangents, the grammarians politely say to the
linguists, "that's interesting", but it's rather like a corn farmer saying "that's interesting" to a cattle
rancher who describes the particulars of raising Holsteins. What interests the linguists IS interesting, it just isn't what makes the grammar world go around.
The demonstrable result is that the linguists tend to carry on their exotic discussions on this listserv and the grammarians tend to lurk in the shadows. I propose to you that there should be a way to better serve the grammarians, of whom there are thousands in this country, and who each have questions about the day-to-day of teaching grammar.
The grammarians can go somewhere else, of course, and maybe they do, but since ATEG is the Assembly for the Teaching of English Grammar, why is it not appropriate that ATEG concern itself with English Grammar and let the linguists go elsewhere and ponder, in a different venue, those things that interest them?
br-had.sun.17july11.
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