Regarding the national standards, Dennis Newson wrote: I hope the committee begins by making a statement about what they mean and don't mean by grammar. And I hope they've all read Chapter 12, The Language Mavens, in Steven Pinker's brilliant: The Language Instinct The New Science of Language and Mind (1993). -------- From what I have seen, he need not worry: the word "grammar" does not appear in the standards, nor do any grammatical terms or rules. It seems that as far as the standards are concerned, grammar does not exist. Ed V.