7 CONFLICTS THAT WILL BOGGLE YOUR MIND!
#1 “laugh” and “laaf”
Why do we spell & write the word “laugh” as “laugh” and not “laaf”?
(despite the fact that both the words sound exactly the same)
#2 “cat” and “pasta”
How do we instinctively (and so easily!) discriminate between the two different sounds as pronounced by the alphabet “t” in these two words?
What causes our mind to grasp this difference?
#3 “books these read us let.”
“Let us read these books.”
Why does the first sentence make no sense to our mind whereas with just a simple regrouping of words, the second sentence immediately makes sense?
#4 “Let’s cook Bunty!”
“Let’s cook, Bunty!”
Why and how come a single comma makes the difference of heaven and hell in these two sentences?
#5“The bear eats a leaf.”
“The leaf eats a bear.”
How does the meaning of the sentence alters drastically just by shifting the places of the two words “bear” and “leaf”?
How does our mind distinguish between the two sentences? What is the algorithmic pattern or knowledge behind it?
#6 “apple of my eye”
How do we instinctively understand the meaning of the idiomatic phrase like “apple of my eye” in a totally non-literal sense?
(Ideally, apple of my eye should mean that there is a part of my eye which is called as apple but when reading this phrase we understand that it is referring to a person who is cherished or lovable to us.
#7 “sunlight was dancing in patterns on the tiled floor of my office cabin”
Well, how can an inanimate object like that of sunlight, ever dance?
One word summarizes these conflicts.
That is,
Order.
GRAMMAR - THE ORDER OF WORDS & LANGUAGE!
There is an invisible order in everything.
An invisible and infinitely-complex mathematical algorithm, mysteriously hidden beneath the layers of the wordy universe, appearing to us, through our five senses.
A secret thread connecting all realities.
A symphony of perfect logic, enigmatically resonating, behind all the chaos of this illogical and dramatic life.
In different fields, this order is represented by different elements, fundamental to the respective field.
In mathematics, this fundamental element is the “zero”.
In music, this fundamental element is the “space” or the “ether”.
In the realm of language, this fundamental element is the “word”,
and the field of grammar takes the role of representing this secret order through the medium of words.
This video show presents the utility of grammar in context of creative writing, while explaining the six main components of grammatical theory in language, so as to keep the video not too long…
6 POINTERS TO REMEMBER ABOUT GRAMMAR
#1 The realm of grammar correlates to the logical part of our brain namely, our intellect.
#2 Just the same way we strive to maintain the balance between our intellectual brain and emotional brain, similarly, a piece of creative writing is a balance between raw expression and grammar.
#3 Grammar acts as a boundary-setter offering us a set of structural constraints while we sit down to pen a piece of writing.
#4 Grammar is NOT a set of some definite rules. Not one rule can be applied to every piece of writing.
o Writing comics require different kind of grammar rules than writing poetry does.
o Writing a technology handbook requires a different kind of grammatical construct than writing a blog post.
o The fundamental rules of grammar may also vary from language to language.
#5 Originally, the field of grammar has evolved from Sanskrit, Greek and Latin.
#6 Ancient Indian sages believed that a word is not just a word, but a form of energy. Grammar acts as the sculptor’s anatomy of this form just as a potter provides the form of a mudpot to a heap of mud or just as a jeweler shapes raw gold into an ornament.
DIFFERENCE BETWEEN LANGUAGE & GRAMMAR
While language is the natural ability for expression and communication using words, sounds & voices, whereas grammar is the field, under language’s umbrella, where we study structural construct(s) behind the expression, communication & usage of words and word forms.
When it comes to language, anything and everything has a language of its own, to express its unique nature. Even animals and birds, even flowers and trees have a language of their own. Stars have a language – the way fortune-tellers read the stars and patterns of constellations. Earth, wind, water, fire; the entire cosmos is filled with these languages. However, these beasts such as lions, woodpeckers, or sunflowers don’t seem to pay much attention to grammar.
Only we humans do.
Why?
Because it matters to us, what is being said and how it is understood.
Whether you tell a child “Let’s eat grandma” or “Let’s eat, grandma”,
the tiny difference between the two sentences, can cause us humans the difference between life and death!
And who knows, it is very possible after all, that, perhaps, even the seemingly inanimate beings like grains of sand or bluebells, or crocodiles too have a grammar
a secret grammar that only their fellow grains or fellow bluebells or fellow crocodiles can understand.
Or a mysterious set of grammatical rules that all the roses follow but only their fellow rose friends know about.
But what concerns us humans, is how best can we use our own grammar. Because we can write!
Monkeys or crocodiles or rabbits or lions don’t seem to write.
What do you think?
THE 3 REALMS OF GRAMMAR
There are three realms of grammar.
1. Sound [swara]
2. Form & Content [shabd roop]
3. Meaning [artha]
THE 6 MAIN COMPONENTS OF GRAMMAR
#1 Phonetics[swar-vigyan]
- Study of speech sounds
- The vocal sounds used for the formation of word syllables and resulting from the properties of human voice.
- Ex: ta-da-rum-pum, bee-u-tee, bl-oo, ss-paa-eed-urr, maa-oon-tae-nn etc.
#2 Phonology[dhvani-vigyan]
- Study of discrimination of sounds
- The alphabet “t” has different sounds in the words “mat”, “match” and “matchstick”.
#3 Morphology [shabd saadhan, aakriti vigyan]
- Study of word construct & word formation processes
- Ex: unmatchable – un is prefix, able is suffix, match is the root word
#4 Syntax[vaakya-vigyan]
- Study of arrangement of words in the formation of longer word forms such as phrases and sentences
- Relationship between words
- Word order
- Ex: “Let’s eat bear, tents and gossip!” and “Let’s eat, bear tents, and gossip!”
- Ex: “This beautiful poem was written by she, when she was in love.” and “This beautiful poem was written by her, when she was in love.”
#5 Semantics[artha-vigyan]
- Study of the literal meanings of words & word forms – dictionary definition of a word
- Ex: “We should spend more time together” and “Should we spend more time together”
- Ex: “I felt shocked at hearing of his sudden demise!” and “I felt shocked at hearing my name announced for the award!”
#6 Pragmatics[upyogitavaad]
- Study of the inferred/pointed meaning of a word or a word form specific to a context or usage.
- Ex: “She was fortunate that she kicked the bucket only after living the whole century.” and “She was fortunate that she kicked the bucket which was empty and not the one which was full of mudwater.”
- Ex: “Your eyes are the battery of my heart.” and “I couldn’t charge my phone’s battery because I had misplaced the charger.”
SUMMARY DIAGRAM
HOW MANY CONCEPTS/TOPICS ARE THERE IN GRAMMAR?
There can be infinite number of concepts and topics that we shall come across while deconstructing the realm of grammar.
From topics related to alphabets and strings of syllables, to the topics dealing in word formations and sentence structures, to the line of concepts pertaining to meaning and context, there are infinite permutations to explore and study in the field of grammar.
If you’re interested in exploring more ideas related to grammar and creative writing, stay tuned for my upcoming videos!
Thank you
Good day!
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