Seeking Suggestions . . .
Are there “classic” books on grammar that you recommend?
These books can be for any age or ability.
Thank you for your help!
Grammar is to language as logic is to reasoning. They are an underlying structure. Grammar is a systematic study of one’s language and its rules. It is the foundation to talking and writing. Logic examines how the reasoning process works. It is the basis to thinking or inferring.
Both are similar: they somewhat abstract away from any concrete sentence or inference.
This is why part of logic is called “formal logic.” It looks to what might be called the “general structure” of arguments. Independent of any particular content, there are certain general structures that are invalid; that is, they are just bad arguments. This is a remarkable feature of logic. There are “moods” and “forms” of certain types of arguments. Some of them are logical, some illogical.
Grammar is not too dissimilar. Sentences per se are being examined. Perhaps we figuratively could claim that sentences can take on infinitely many variables, but those variables must be arranged in a certain way so that they are coherent. There are certain arrangements that must be met to be a sentence. Words play special “functions” for the sentence to be a sentence, albeit many of the rules of grammar are of a conventional nature.
The level of abstraction both with logic and grammar are similar.
In old logic textbooks, there’s often a distinction drawn between “first intention” and “second intention.” The former uses a word simply to refer to an object in the world. My dog is, as I write this, 13 years old. I’m referring to her.* The word “dog” is used simply as a means to refer to her. The latter, “second intention,” is used reflexively to think about “dog” as a concept as such. The concept as such I cannot pet or feed.
I mention this because formal logic is a science of “second intention.” That is, we are dealing with the conceptual order of things: all X is Y; all Z is X; ergo, all Z is Y. In formal logic, it doesn’t matter what X, Y, and Z refer to. They might just be concepts, though what they are concepts about doesn’t matter. Formal logic is about the “form” of argumentation.
What about grammar? Like I said, it is somewhat similar. An analogy can be drawn.
In Sister Miriam Joseph’s The Trivium: The Liberal Arts of Logic, Grammar, and Rhetoric, she most expertly explains that the science of grammar is “second imposition.” This is when we think about a word in both its meaning and its status as a “sensible sign” (p 38).
Unlike “first imposition,” where we only consider the meaning of the word, “second imposition” thinks about both meaning and its nature as a sensible sign. We then reflect on the word as a word, not just reflect on the word predicatively as it directs us to an object in the world. When I think about the word “dog” as a noun in a sentence, I’m both thinking about what the word refers to in meaning and how it acts as a sign in the given sentence.
No analogy is perfect. Grammar is “more concrete” than formal logic. We claim the word “dog” as a noun, in part, because we understand the meaning of that particular word.
(In case you’re wondering, in classical grammar, there is another term called “zero imposition.” It only thinks of a word as a sensible sign reflexively: pronunciation and spelling are the only concern. For example, how to pronounce and spell “dog.”)
In summary:
Logic is “second intention.”
Grammar is “second imposition.”
You might be like me: I never took seriously grammar in high school. It wasn’t a major part of the curriculum. And I certainly never got the philosophical rigor of a Sister Miriam Joseph!
Even to this day I wish I had a more solid foundation.
That’s why I read books like Sister Miriam Joseph’s.
It might be too advanced or philosophical as a first read, however. Don’t expect several pages reviewing basic things like nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, prepositions, etc.
Start with something basic, if that’s what you need.
Or are you a homeschooling parent? Give your children an advantage: with a powerful understanding of grammar, they will be light-years ahead of the competition. When it comes to writing, they will not fear getting creative. Why? Because they—or you—will have a solid foundation to build good sentences without fear.
It is a skill to master.
Learn the basics and then learn to diagram a sentence!
Review “Parts of Speech” from the English Club. Tons of helpful resources can be found there.
Here’s a good start for diagramming: “How to Diagram a Sentence“ by Grace Fleming. Why don’t we all learn this in school? I know I didn’t.
*R.I.P., Summer. She didn’t quite make it to 14. 🙁
[For fellow dog lovers, read the short book Ramses by Theodore Dalrymple]
