#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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for more interesting ideas related to writing, art and life!
