art vs rules
Prescriptive vs. Descriptive Grammar
These are terms I learned in a linguistics class in grad school. If you’re not familiar, here are the quick-and-dirty definitions.
Prescriptive grammar is grammar according to the super-official grammar books.
Descriptive grammar is how people actually talk.
Of course, language is always evolving, and often the changes come because something in the realm of descriptive grammar becomes so common and pervasive, it overwrites the prior rule in the prescriptive grammar books.
In certain arenas, it’s appropriate to follow prescriptive grammar rules to the letter. When writing fiction, it’s not so clear-cut. There’s also voice to consider. Dialogue in particular gets a little more leeway when it comes to grammar.
Once in a while, though, something comes along that can’t be explained away by voice, and yet I can’t bring myself to write it the “proper” way because my gut says we’re on the verge of overwriting the rule. (Or at the least, my gut says people who talk that way in real life are a critically endangered species.)
For example, in my current project, I have a character say, “It is her.” (The sense is, “She is the one we’re looking for.”)
Gerty Grammarian says it should be, “It is she.” In the particular situation, it makes sense that the character would be fairly educated and would probably speak in a proper manner.
But I can’t bring myself to write it that way. It just feels too wrong.
In a situation later in the story, a similar line came up, and in that case I did change it. I wanted that particular character to be over-the-top formal, so it made sense to me. It felt right.
How about you? Do you have any little gems of grammar that you know are “correct” one way, but you just can’t bring yourself to write it that way?
Speak up:
8 commentsAn Interlude Poetical
Today, I have a guest post of sorts. If you’ve been following the blog for a while, you may remember “The Hunger Pangs” from last summer. It’s a short story written by a student of mine, parodying The Hunger Games.
The same student has been quietly observing an ongoing war in her writing class between the teacher (Vicki) and one of her classmates. The battles are so constant, she was moved to poetry. Enjoy!
* * * * *
His words are free, twisting and turning on the page,
But she thinks they need to be trapped in a cage,
But he doesn’t believe it.
He says we should leave it,
The words don’t really need it,
But she says they do, so she screams,
Punctuation, punctuation, punctuation!
His words are gentle, just rambling around,
But she says he needs to change the sound.
Then his words are screaming,
No longer gently streaming,
Exclamatory, it’s seeming,
So she starts yelling,
Exclamation, exclamation, exclamation!
His words are peaceful, always having the answer
Until she comes along to infect like a cancer.
Until they don’t know what to be.
They don’t know what to see.
They don’t know why she—
Vicki, keeps shouting,
It’s a question, it’s a question, it’s a question!
His words run up hills and never stop.
She says there’s too many “ands,” it’s a little over the top.
Then they have nowhere to go.
They have nowhere to flow.
They don’t really know
Why Vicki keeps saying,
Too many conjunctions, conjunctions, conjunctions!
His words are tangled,
And she wants him strangled.
I say find an in-between.
Make his style seen,
But make it seem clean.
So I turn to her, suggesting,
Go easy on the conventions, conventions, conventions!
Then, I turn to him and say,
Go easy on the accusations, accusations, accusations!
But still it goes on.
* * * * *
Is it just me, or does this spring interesting thoughts for anyone else?
But still it goes on.