Grammar is the way a language works. People sometimes describe grammar as the “rules” of a language; but in fact no natural languages have rules. If we use the word “rules”, we suggest that somebody made the rules first and then spoke the language, like a new game. But languages did not start like that. Languages were started by people making sounds which gradually changed into words, phrases and sentences. No commonly-spoken language is fixed. All languages change over time. What we call grammar is simply a description of a language at a particular time.
Do we need to study grammar to learn a language? The short answer is “No”. Very many people in the world speak their own native language without having studied its grammar. Children start to speak before they even know the word “grammar”. But if you are serious about learning a foreign language, the long answer is “Yes, grammar can help you to learn a language more quickly.” It’s important to think of grammar as something that can help you, like a friend. When you understand the grammar of a language, you can understand many things yourself, without having to ask a teacher or look in a book.
So think of grammar as something good, something helpful, something you can use to find your way like a signpost or a map. 【題組】42. From Paragraph 1 we can see that _____.
(A) language is changing, so is its grammar
(B) grammar must be simple to describe a language
(C) languages were formed by people now and then
(D) grammar should be changed at a particular time
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