The Definitive Answer to “Why Do I Need to Know Grammar?”

 The Definitive Answer to “Why Do I Need to Know Grammar?”

By Mr. Barnes

I am asked on occasion “why do I need to know this” when I am teaching students grammar and parts of speech. It is always interesting to me because these students who ask these questions often leave my classroom and then get into conflict in the hallway due to miscommunication. To really know why we need to know how speech works, it is necessary to understand what speech is.

Speech is a social contract. As humans, we are physiologically capable of making a large variety of sounds. These individual sounds called phonemes fit together to form words. Words combined to make sentences, and so forth. Each aspect of these exists because of an agreement, the social contract. Words have assigned meanings, and we agree on the meaning of words. Without this agreement, language does not function. The definition of a word matters, and if I tell you to “meet me by the oak tree”, but you have decided that an “oak tree” is what I call a “light pole”, then we cannot communicate to where the actual location is. To illustrate, I will take a single sentence that is very common in the classroom and break it down so we can see how complex this process is, and how easily misunderstanding can occur.

Let’s imagine that you are sitting in a class and you realize you forgot your pencil. You turn to the person next to you and ask: “Can I borrow a pencil?” Simple question, but by breaking it down we can see all the ways this can go wrong.

First, grammatically the question is “may” instead of the common use of “can”. Beginning this question with “can” may imply that you are asking if this action is socially acceptable. Perhaps there exists a culture where you are not able to borrow a pencil for cultural or social reasons. You may be asking if it is allowed, or physically possible to borrow a pencil. Perhaps everyone has their writing instruments attached to their hands, and you are asking about the possibility. This is understood as asking “may I” as a part of what we can colloquialism. It is a figure of speech, we don’t take it literally, and it is understood.

The next most common misunderstanding is the word “borrow”. In the English language, it is understood that “borrow” means to use for a limited time and then return. The literal meaning of the word is to return after use, but often we use it without understanding of returning it. We ask to “borrow” items when cannot be returned afterward. Food, napkins, and tissues are items no one wants to be returned after use, but often they are asked for using the word “borrow”. The question of borrowing the pencil could mean one of two things. Can I use the pencil for a short time and then return it to you, or can I take this pencil with no plan or expectation to return it? The meaning is unclear, and while it can and probably should be assumed that the pencil will be returned, the word “borrow” doesn’t always mean it will be returned.

Some of the other pitfalls can be the ways used don’t always mean the same thing depending on culture, location, and dialect. In the US, in one part of the country, a carbonated, sweetened beverage is called a “pop”. In other places, it is a “soda” a “cold drink” or even a “coke”. All of these things refer to the same beverage. When you begin to move to different countries that speak English, it changes even more. The United States, The United Kingdom, Australia, and South Africa all have differences in what things mean. While we assume that the other person knows what a “pencil” is, they may come from a culture or dialect where it is called something else. 

This doesn’t even examine the use of pronouns like “I” and how they function, and the difference between an indefinite article like “a” and the definite article “the”. There is a difference between “a” pencil and “the” pencil. As native speakers of the language, we often communicate assuming what we are saying is understood universally. This just isn’t the case because so often things are ambiguous and unclear. 

Language must be understood by the culture and social group that uses the language, and without knowing how each part functions, then language and communication break down. In our society today, we are seeing a growing gulf between ideas and ideologies, and much of this comes from an inability to communicate ideas clearly. Without knowing and understanding vocab, parts of speech, how they work together, and how to use them properly, things can be easily misunderstood. The English classroom joke of:

“Let’s eat, Grandma, and Let’s eat grandma. Commas save lives”

This is made in jest, but it illustrates the point. Removing something as simple as a comma changes the meaning of that sentence completely. The only way we avoid a culture where language moves to being completely subjective and communication arbitrary is to learn and apply the rules of communication. Language is a social contract, and we must agree to this contract for language to function and for communication to be possible.