My Blog is created to give English learners basic grammar needed to learn English. I have been doing this for well over ten years understand the process quite well.
The first thing we need to consider is the grammar of English. You can find a good definition of grammar in most dictionaries. For instance, the Oxford English Dictionary uses about four pages including the history of the use of the word (the etymology) since about the twelfth century. We will find more examples of how lexicographers, well-meaning people often confuse people who just want to learn the basics. For now, let me say that the best definition of English Grammar comes from the Cambridge Grammar of the English language (Huddleston, Rodney & Geoffrey K. Pullum, & Staff, Cambridge Press, 2002. PE11o6.H74 – ISBN 0 521 43143 8) which, on page 4 says: A grammar itself is divisible itself into two components, syntax and morphology, syntax is concerned with the way words combine to form phrases, clauses and sentences, while morphology deals with the formation of words.
I define syntax as the grammatical or logical arrangement of words in a sentence. We will talk about both syntax and morphology but, for now at least they are the two main elements of grammar.
I will try to give you definitions of the words that may be new to you.
We will begin with the word in the title of this course and series of lessons: mandate.
What is a mandate? Merriam Webster says:
Function:noun
Etymology:Middle French & Latin; Middle French mandat, from Latin mandatum, from neuter of mandatus, past participle of mandare to entrust, enjoin, probably irregular from manus hand + -dere to put — more at MANUAL, DO – Date:1501
1 : an authoritative command; especially : a formal order from a superior court or official to an inferior one
2 : an authorization to act given to a representative *accepted the mandate of the people*
3 a : an order or commission granted by the League of Nations to a member nation for the establishment of a responsible government over a former German colony or other conquered territory b : a mandated territory.
A mandate is a command. In the case of language, it is the primal command. We all have to learn a language if we want to be a part of human society. It was not always so. . .
Around 50,000 years ago (more or less, of course) our FoxP2 Gene got some help in the form of a new protein that added to a part of our genome that we shared with many other animals. It was now called, “FoxP2 Forkhead Box P2″ and it had a unique characteristic that set it apart from all other animals.
Current scientific literature says that Homo Sapiens Sapiens, (that’s US!) has this gene. Moreover, the other Homo groups that existed 50,000 years ago, Homo Ergaster, Homo Erectus, Homo Neanderthalis and Homo Sapiens (only one “Sapiens”…it means “wise”) are all extinct now. i.e. gone, no longer with us.
More than that, when we were out on the plains of Africa, we were the weakest, least able to climb around in the trees, least able to kill potential predators dedicated to having us for lunch, etc. etc.
The only way that we could hunt was to round up friends and family. Obviously we had the ability to communicate with others but at what level?
Many years later several scholars and scientists concluded that, in order to have the ablity to think, and paint on cave walls, and write on papyrus etc. we had to have a special gift. That gift was the change in our FoxP2 or “language gene.”
It is this gene, discovered and identified simultaneously with the analysis of the human genome that was completed in 2003, that gave us a more critical ability to think and reason. It is the ability to think critically that allows us to examine, reexamine and conduct an ongoing exploration of the world around us.
It is because we have language.
