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Perhaps it would be better to institute "guidelines" rather than "rules", with the admonition that it's generally better to stay within them until one learns when it may be appropriate to venture outside them.
Peter
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To me this looks like a restatement of the "good writers can break the rules" argument, Not disagreeing. Though I was inclined to think of it more along the lines of extenuating circumstances. "Your Honor, this man was doing 95 mph in a hospital zone". "Yes, but his wife was screaming in labor in the passenger seat. Case dismissed."
I did feel surprise that a mathematician would say the rules don't always have to be adhered to.
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Perhaps it would be better to institute "guidelines" rather than "rules", with the admonition that it's generally better to stay within them until one learns when it may be appropriate to venture outside them.
What sort of grammatical rule or guideline would we be not allowed to break until we become good writers? Shouldn't we be striving to emulate the writing of good writers, not avoid it?
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"And since we all want to be good writers, and since good writers can break the rule, how useful is the rule anyway?
There is a difference between breaking a rule for an obvious purpose or breaking a rule because you never exactly knew what the rule was.
( I mean I can't help feeling irritated when in newspapers that were known for clean and correct use of language, I now often find limp grammar published )
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There is a difference between breaking a rule for an obvious purpose or breaking a rule because you never exactly knew what the rule was.
I think I need an example.
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a restatement of the "good writers can break the rules" argument
I never understood this equivocation. If a normal writers breaks a "rule" of grammar (though most of these "rules" are really styles of usage), doesn't that move them from normal writerhood to a better writerhood?
Ceci n'est pas un seing.
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There is a difference between breaking a rule for an obvious purpose or breaking a rule because you never exactly knew what the rule was.
There's where we part company. Nobody consciously knows the rules of grammar for a specific language, either native or acquired later. The only way to describe the grammar of a language is through observation of people speaking (or writing) it. If you find a situation where you find two conflicting rules, it's either because they are optional or because of a regional (or other kind of 'lect) difference.
Of the "rules" you find in the normative grammars, and style guides masquerading as same, most are not grammatical rules but style choices. (Here I'm thinking of the "use less adjectives" and "don't end sentences with a preposition" kinds of "rules".) Matters of spelling, punctuation, and usage have very little to do with the grammar of a language. (For me a grammar is a sort of abstract device for parsing and generating acceptable sentences in a given language.)
Ceci n'est pas un seing.
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Or, to put it another way, the so-called rules are just there for the guidance of folks who don't really know how to write. If you are a good writer your writing will be good. You don't need to pass some sort of good writer test to be permitted to break the so-called rules.
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old hand
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Or, they are guidelines for those who are learning the language.
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Or, they are guidelines for those who are learning the language.
I don't think so. People acquiring a language are busy learning real rules of grammar, not not seeking guidance in matters of style. It's the difference between learning that the 3rd person singular present indicative form of verbs (in English) end in -s.
Ceci n'est pas un seing.
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