Netiquette IQ Blog Of 5/31/17 - A Good Grammar Primer

Buy the books at

 www.amazon.com/author/paulbabicki
====================================================

As repeatedly stated and outlined in my books (see below), good Netiquette is in part predicated on good grammar. Poor grammar, particularly in business communication, can be ruinous for the sender.The article below and others like it, are great to brush up on one's grammatical skills.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ From thoughtco.com by Richard Nordquist Updated April 09, 2017  English grammar is the set of principles or rules dealing with the word structures (morphology) and sentence structures (syntax) of the English language. Although there are certain grammatical differences among the many dialects of present-day English, these differences are fairly minor compared to regional and social variations in vocabulary and pronunciation.  In linguistic terms, English grammar (also known as descriptive grammar) is not the same as English usage (sometimes called prescriptive grammar). "The grammatical rules of the English language," says Joseph Mukalel,"are determined by the nature of the language itself, but the rules of use and the appropriateness of the use are determined by the speech community" (Approaches To English Language Teaching, 1998). Examples and Observations "Grammar is concerned with how sentences and utterances are formed. In a typical English sentence, we can see the two most basic principles of grammar, the arrangement of items (syntax) and the structure of items (morphology): I gave my sister a sweater for her birthday. The meaning of this sentence is obviously created by words such as gave, sister, sweater and birthday. But there are other words (I, my, a, for, her) which contribute to the meaning, and, additionally, aspects of individual words and the way they are arranged which enable us to interpret what the sentence means." (Ronald Carter and Michael McCarthy, Cambridge Grammar of English: A Comprehensive Guide. Cambridge University Press, 2006)   Basic Word Structure in English "[W]ords are made up of elements of two kinds: bases and affixes. For the most part, bases can stand alone as whole words whereas affixes can't. Here are some examples, with the units separated by a [hyphen], bases [in italics], and affixes [in bold italics]: en-danger slow-ly un-just work-ing black-bird-s un-gentle-man-ly The bases danger, slow, and just, for example, can form whole words. But the affixes can't: there are no words *en, *ly, *un. Every word contains at least one or more bases; and a word may or may not contain affixes in addition. "Affixes are subdivided into prefixes, which precede the base to which they attach, and suffixes, which follow." (Rodney Huddleston and Geoffrey K. Pullum, A Student's Introduction to English Grammar. Cambridge University Press, 2006)   Word Order and Inflection in English - "English grammar is unlike other grammars in that it is structured on word order while many languages are based on inflection. Thus, syntactic structure in English may be quite different from those in other languages." (Linda Miller Cleary, Linguistics for Teachers. McGraw-Hill, 1993) - "One of the major syntactic changes in the English language since Anglo-Saxon times has been the disappearance of the S[ubject]-O[bject]-V[erb] and V[erb]-S[ubject]-O[bject] types of word-order, and the establishment of the S[ubject]-V[erb]-O[bject] type as normal. The S-O-V type disappeared in the early Middle Ages, and the V-S-O type was rare after the middle of the seventeenth century. V-S word-order does indeed still exist in English as a less common variant, as in 'Down the road came a whole crowd of children,' but the full V-S-O type hardly occurs today." (Charles Barber, The English Language: A Historical Introduction, rev. ed. Cambridge University Press, 2000)   Rules of English Syntax - "Syntax is the set of rules for combining words into sentences. For example, the rules of English syntax tell us that, because nouns generally precede verbs in basic English sentences, dogs and barked may be combined as Dogs barked but not *Barked dogs (the asterisk being used by linguists to mark constructions that violate the rules of the language.)  . . . Still other syntactic rules require the presence of an additional word if dog is singular: one can say A dog barks or The dog barks but not *Dog bark(s). Moreover, the rules of standard English syntax tell us that -ing must be attached to bark if some form of be precedes bark: Dogs are barking or The/A dog is barking, but not *Dogs barking. Yet another rule of English syntax tells us that the word to must be present in a sentence such as I allowed him to sing a song, yet to must not be present if the  verb is changed to hear (I heard him sing a song but not *I heard him to sing a song). With still other verbs, the speaker has the option of using or omitting to, for example, I helped him (to) sing a song. Morphemes such as the, a, -ing, and to are often termed function morphemes to distinguish them from content morphemes such as dog, bark, sing, song, and the like." (Ronald R. Butters, "Grammatical Structure." The Cambridge History of the English Language, Volume 6, ed. by John Algeo. Cambridge University Press, 2001) - "[One]  feature of English syntax is transformation—moving phrases around within a sentence structure governed by certain syntactic rules. . . . After the transformation, the new meaning for two out of three sentences is different from their original sentences. The transformed sentences, however, are still grammatically correct, because the transformation has followed the syntactic rules. If transformation is not done by a rule, the new sentence will not be understood. For example, if the word not is put between the words good and student, as in He is a good not student, the meaning will be confusing and ambiguous: Is he not a good student? or Is he not a student?" (Shelley Hong Xu, Teaching English Language Learners. Guilford Press, 2010)   Gender in English "We think it's a nuisance that so many European languages assign gender to nouns for no reason, with French having female moons and male boats and such. But actually, it's we who are odd: Almost all European languages belong to one family—Indo-European—and of all of them, English is the only one that doesn't assign genders. . . . "Old English had the crazy genders we would expect of a good European language—but the Scandinavians didn't bother with those, and so now we have none." (John McWhorter, "English Is Weird." The Week, December 20, 2015)   Adjectives in English "The most frequently used adjectives in English are monosyllabic, or disyllabic [two-syllable] words of native origin. They tend to be paired as opposites such as good-bad, big-little, large-small, tall-short, black-white, easy-hard, soft-hard, dark-light, alive-dead, hot-cold, which have no distinctive form to mark them as adjectives. "Many adjectives, such as sandy, milky, are derived from nouns, other adjectives or verbs by the addition of certain characteristic suffixes. Some of these are of native origin, as in greenish, hopeful, handsome, handy, foremost, useless, while others are formed on Greek or Latin bases, as in central, secondary, apparent, civic, creative, and yet others via French such as marvelous and readable." (Angela Downing, English Grammar: A University Course, 3rd ed. Routledge, 2015)

  +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Good Netiquette And A Green Internet To All!  =====================================================================

Tabula Rosa Systems - Tabula Rosa Systems (TRS) is dedicated to providing Best of Breed Technology and Best of Class Professional Services to our Clients. We have a portfolio of products which we have selected for their capabilities, viability and value. TRS provides product, design, implementation and support services on all products that we represent. Additionally, TRS provides expertise in Network Analysis, eBusiness Application Profiling, ePolicy and eBusiness Troubleshooting. 

We can be contacted at:

sales@tabularosa.net  or 609 818 1802.

 ===============================================================
In addition to this blog, Netiquette IQ has a website with great assets which are being added to on a regular basis. I have authored the premiere book on Netiquette, “Netiquette IQ - A Comprehensive Guide to Improve, Enhance and Add Power to Your Email". My new book, “You’re Hired! Super Charge Your Email Skills in 60 Minutes. . . And Get That Job!” has just been published and will be followed by a trilogy of books on Netiquette for young people. You can view my profile, reviews of the book and content excerpts at:

 www.amazon.com/author/paulbabicki

Anyone who would like to review the book and have it posted on my blog or website, please contact me paul@netiquetteiq.com.

In addition to this blog, I maintain a radio show on BlogtalkRadio  and an online newsletter via paper.li.I have established Netiquette discussion groups with Linkedin and  Yahoo.  I am also a member of the International Business Etiquette and Protocol Group and Minding Manners among others. I regularly consult for the Gerson Lehrman Group, a worldwide network of subject matter experts and I have been contributing to the blogs Everything Email and emailmonday . My work has appeared in numerous publications and I have presented to groups such as The Breakfast Club of NJ and  PSG of Mercer County, NJ.

Additionally, I am the president of Tabula Rosa Systems, a “best of breed” reseller of products for communications, email, network management software, security products and professional services.  Also, I am the president of Netiquette IQ. We are currently developing an email IQ rating system, Netiquette IQ, which promotes the fundamentals outlined in my book.

Over the past twenty-five years, I have enjoyed a dynamic and successful career and have attained an extensive background in IT and electronic communications by selling and marketing within the information technology market.