Bob:
Any theory of language that posits syntagmatic or paradigmatic choices which are conditioned by connections across sentence boundaries -- even if that's limited to pronoun reference -- is starting to address issues of text effectiveness (actually, even interclausal connections within the sentence arguably do that, but I figured you might not want to count those). Certainly, any instructors teaching a composition course and trying to assist students who are developing their ability to signal paragraph cohesion, or foregrounding and backgrounding, will find themselves discussing choice of verb tenses, pronouns, and the like. And I know that no one teaching ESL for any length of time excludes cohesion from their discussion of verb tenses.
Or to put it another way: We certainly can't say that a particular text is 100% effective -- but we're on very solid ground saying that particular texts are not as effective as they could be. I doubt you'd want to say that simply because we can't say that someone's 100% fit, we can't say anything about how someone might improve health with diet or exercise. Randomizing verb tense choice in an essay will make it ineffective. Ignoring context established earlier in the text will quite likely result in bad pronoun choices, and hence an ineffective text, etc. The work on genre that Craig mentions has extensively developed descriptions of correlations between particular linguistic choices at specific points in a text and whether the text is considered a good example of science writing, or a good example of a narrative. You may or may not view that kind of correlation as being within the domain of "grammar" -- but that's a definitional issue, and one that I doubt educators are quite so invested in.
--- Bill Spruiell
Dept. of English
Central Michigan University
-----Original Message-----
From: Assembly for the Teaching of English Grammar [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Craig Hancock
Sent: Thursday, May 12, 2011 12:50 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Traditional vs. Transformational grammar question
Bob,
You can make the case that classical rhetoric (and the whole 19th
century rhetorical tradition) was essentially a study of effective
communication, one that didn't see a separation between studying
language and studying effective use. I'm not as well versed in it as I'd
like to be.
The Australians have done a great deal with genre as intermediary
focus. Cognitive grammar asserts a direct connection between language
and discourse (see Langacker, certainly, but others as well). The
Longman Grammar (Biber et. al.) looks at language patterns in different
kinds of language use, notably conversation, fiction, news writing, and
academic writing. Rhetorical grammar tries to connect grammatical choice
to effective text. Functional grammar sees form and function as
seamlessly connected, and they assert a textual metafunction woven into
the fabric of the clause. From that perspective, language is what it is
because of what it does, and constructing text is part of that. If
grammar limits itself to the study of discreet sentences, it may have
little to offer reading and writing.
Even if you treat language as a purely formal system, you still
need to figure out how understanding that system might be of use in
reading and writing.
I'm certainly not the only person who believes language choice is
enormously important in the creation of an effective text.
Craig
On 5/12/2011 10:17 AM, Robert Yates wrote:
> Colleagues,
>
> I have no idea where the following statement by Craig comes from.
>
>
>>>> Craig Hancock<[log in to unmask]> 05/11/11 9:46 PM>>>
> Karl points out that we can't judge a theory of language on the basis
> of its pedagogical utility, but pedagogical utility is very much at
> stake here. Can a theory of language (should a theory of language) be
> both true and useful? I think it should help us understand the nature
> of effective text.
>
> I know of no theory of language which lays out the principles of an "effective text."
>
> Perhaps, Craig would like to share with us what those principles might be.
>
> For example, is Huck Finn an effective text? Is Hamlet an effective text? Is the Gettysburg Address an effective text?
>
> If these are "effective texts," what principles, especially with regard to language, do they all appear to have?
>
> Bob Yates, University of Central Missouri
>
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