Prisonrs f grmmar lolzzz ;)

It seems to be routine to me when publishers rejects my articles for one or other reason.  But what made to think for this post is the comment of one reviewer that I should improve my grammar and academic writing skills. This was an important comment for me, not because it gave me scope for improvements but because it was forcing me adhere the rules set by so called grammar laureates (especially when the article was talking about non adherence of rules and norms in society !!!!).

Grammar of any lingual system is a set of rules which is developed to synchronize system for producing and communication meanings. Our obsession with grammar is so increased that we are getting away from own thoughts and feelings while writing. Let me simplify this further.

There is thin line difference between language and speech. While speaking we need not be conscious of about “rules of language” (grammar) but while writing we are “taught” to confirm these “rules”. This creates problem in expressing words on paper. Some of my friends are good writers but bad speakers and on other side there are also people who are good speakers and bad writers (like me J ).  What makes them good or bad is simply their capacity to submit to the rules of language they use to write or express.

Another problem with grammar I feel is that it is very dry thing.  “Rules of language” gives us limited to scope to express our own feelings for instance we never say “your request has been acknowledged and soon action will be taken…” instead of this we say “Oh ya !!! I’ll do it, thanx for telling….”. This difference and expertise to understand such difference makes “good” writers.

Interestingly, my generation is better writer than my previous generation.  How? Let’s take example of new communication pattern being observed over internet and mobile i.e. texting or chatting. More intellectuals are worried about “condition” of grammar and language itself when they talk about texting or chatting. Because texting and chatting do not confirms to grammatical regime. It violates all so called notion of grammar and allows people to speak by text.  

Unlike formal writing texting and chatting are very near to our unconscious speech and meaning making ability. For instance, usage of words like “hmmm”, “oooh”, “lolz”, “hehehe”, “ahaa”, “Naah”, “yaaaa” etc. allows us to express what we exactly feel. This is completely absent in formal writing. Texting and chatting also makes heavy use of emoticons i.e. expression symbols like :) ;) :P :D :( and many more. These make meaning making process very easy and simplify the communication. For example after long conversation with someone when you receive “K” (OK)  or “Hmmm” it becomes easy to understand what the other person might have got in his/her mind.

It becomes more interesting to understand this when it comes to Indian culture where regional words are mixed with English words to produce exact meaning in regional language itself. For example, “HE” is “हे” in texting, literally meaning “is” or “are”. There has been many exercises going on to understand emergence hybridity of languages (it is called Hinglish=Hindi + English). Such language structure, do not have sets of rules for vowels, for articles, for verbs, for nouns, etc. this structure of language is getting widely accepted due to its adoptability and shows that how dangerous is the obsession  of grammar to the humankind.  I would not go into details of this but We should not forgot express our thanks to technocrats who didn’t made spellchecker for texting and chatting tools ;)

The language used without any rules are not haphazardly ordering of words but it is clear reflection of one’s own speech, own thoughts and expertise to understand “rules of language”. Everyone in this world is not expert to understand grammar (especially English grammar). They should not be complying to follow the rules of grammar. People should be allowed to express what they feel along with how they feel.