Subj : Misinterprestation
To   : Dallas Hinton
From : Wayne Harris
Date : Wed Aug 05 2020 04:06:52

Hi, Dallas!

Dallas Hinton - Wayne Harris <0@7715.153.1> writes:

> WH> Interesting. :-) Maybe it decides on what's correct by observing
> WH> people's wisdom and in this case it can't really make up its mind.
>
> It's also possible that it chooses based on my previous habits - I'm
> going to make a deliberate attempt to use Hi, name for a while and see
> if gmail changes its habits!

Let me make a prediction.  It will not change its habits.  It will keep
on not making the correction.  Otherwise it would never offer good
advice to people with the usual skills. :-)

> WH> These references seem to be dictionaries of English usage.  Pretty nice.
> WH> But I'm looking for a respect[ed] grammar book.  Do you know any?
>
> I don't think there's much distinction between usage books and grammar
> books ... a huge overlap in content and maybe it's just the title that's
> offputting?

Let's take a look an example (of what I'm talking about) for
concreteness.  Have a look at this book.

  https://books.google.com.br/books?id=YHoSAAAAIAAJ

Let's take a random example (for concreteness too).  Look up page 212,
Rule V.

  PRONOUNS must always agree with their antecedents.  [...]  This is the
  friend whom I love;'' ``That is the vice which I hate;'' [...]

Now we know what the rule is.  If the writer is considered a great
authority, then we'd be excused by going with his opinion when conflicts
occur (among authorities).

This question of authority happens to be a little relevant in grammar
matters because rules are not all agreed among them all.  It's not like
mathematics, where truth is mostly implied by the axioms.

Also, it's hard to find the rule you're looking for (whose name one
usually doesn't quite know), so a good grammar book would also be wisely
and extremely well organized so that we may get some help in answering
questions that arise.  (``What is the right thing to do in this
sentence?''  In other words, ``which rule should I look up right now to
answer the question I have while writing this paragraph I'm writing to
someone important?''  This is often hard to find, which is why we tend
to ask people who know --- or worse, just guess and move.  It's a good
skill to know where to look and solve problems by ourselves, but it
turns this is hard in English.) (Also, I find it very ugly to write
correctly without actually knowing the rules and the sense in the rule.
Writing correctly out of habit is not quite proper.  If we don't know
the rule, we don't really know how to write.)

Natural languages are (unfortunately) not based on formal grammars.  So
the result is a huge set of rules.  A mess.

Anyhow, perhaps I'll keep Lindley Murray's ``An English Grammar'' as my
first pick.  But I think the subject is much too hard for me to make the
choice.  I think someone with experience has made their choices and I
should definitely get their advice.

[...]

Thanks! :-)

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