"Grammarian"
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Linguists are prone to feel that the word "grammarian" should belong to them, not to prescriptivist scolds like the one in Elle Cordova's skit. And we often object even more strongly to "grammar" being used as the justification for condemnation of non-standard spellings, punctuation, word usage, etc., both because of the prescriptivist stance and also because the issues involved belong to aspects of usage (like orthography and lexical semantics) that are not part of what we call grammar.
But the OED's primary definition for grammarian is
An expert or specialist in grammar; a person who studies, writes about, or teaches grammar. Also more generally: an expert in or student of language; a linguist, a philologist; (formerly also) †a person of great learning (obsolete).
Sometimes (esp. from the 17th to early 19th centuries) somewhat depreciative, implying that a person is pedantic, too focused on minutiae, or overly concerned with rules and conventions.
The depreciative sense is illustrated in an 1806 citation from Henry Kirke White:
All that arithmeticians know, Or stiff grammarians quaintly teach.
Elle Cordoba's hypervillains spar over
Snuck vs. sneaked
Use of passive voice
Dangling modifiers
Split infinitives
Double negatives
Literally meaning "figuratively"
Loss of subjunctive mood
Pluralizing apostrophes
The Oxford comma
"I could care less"
Irregardless
"Beg the question"
"Between you and I"
Parenthetical asides
Bad vs. badly
…all of which have occasioned one or more LLOG posts, though we call the grammarian side prescriptivists (or even more negatively-evaluated terms). I'll spare you the links unless specifically requested.
My impression is that recent uses of the word "grammarian" are depreciative more often than not. For example, from Max Maxfield, "Good-For-Nothing Grammarians", IEEE Journal 12/28/2021:
[O]ne of my back-burner hobby projects is writing a book called Wroting Inglish: The Essential Guide to Writing English for Anyone Who Doesn’t Want to be Thought a Dingbat. […]
As part of writing this little rascal — Max’s Magnum Opus, if I might make so bold — I’ve learned all sorts of things myself, including the fact that I have an innate dislike of grammarians who delight in telling us that we’re doing everything wrong and that the world would be a much better place if we did things their way. Admittedly, these sad fellows, with their stooped shoulders, nervous tremors, and complete lack of personality (which explains why they are so rarely invited to parties) are presented with the unenviable task of attempting to retrofit grammar onto a living, breathing, and constantly evolving language. One might almost feel sorry for them if they weren’t such complete and utter drongos who have caused so much pain and suffering for the rest of us.
More context for the deprecation in Kirke's 1806 poem "On Being Confined To School One Pleasant Morning In Spring":
The morning sun's enchanting rays
Now call forth every songster's praise;
Now the lark, with upward flight,
Gaily ushers in the light;
While wildly warbling from each tree,
The birds sing songs to Liberty.
But for me no songster sings,
For me no joyous lark upsprings;
For I, confined in gloomy school,
Must own the pedant's iron rule,
And far from sylvan shades and bowers,
In durance vile must pass the hours;
There con the scholiast's dreary lines,
Where no bright ray of genius shines,
And close to rugged learning cling,
While laughs around the jocund spring.
How gladly would my soul forego
All that arithmeticians know,
Or stiff grammarians quaintly teach,
Or all that industry can reach,
To taste each morn of all the joys
That with the laughing sun arise;
And unconstrain'd to rove along
The bushy brakes and glens among;
And woo the muse's gentle power
In unfrequented rural bower:
But, ah! such heaven-approaching joys
Will never greet my longing eyes;
Still will they cheat in vision fine,
Yet never but in fancy shine.
Philip Taylor said,
November 22, 2024 @ 5:50 am
Well, as you would expect, I find nothing wrong with prescriptivism (nor with proscriptivism, for that matter) since these were the norm when I was at school. But your closing poem remind me of another which I would like to repeat here :
Henry Reed, 1942.
Cheryl Thornett said,
November 22, 2024 @ 7:10 am
Back in the days when I taught English as a second/third/fourth language, I carefully labelled the grammar part of my lesson plans as 'structures', not for the students, who wanted grammar and mostly by that name, but for certain managers and inspectors. In any case, lists of [often] zombie rules don't really help anyone learn how to put expressions together in a way that helps to convey their meaning.
I would advocate teaching children on the basis of 'how to put words together to make your meaning clear' as well, with spelling and punctuation also in service of meaning. Knowing the term 'fronted adverbial' at 11, as mandated by a Conservative education department in the UK, doesn't do that, unless you know how and when it's a good idea to use one or not.
Stephen Goranson said,
November 22, 2024 @ 7:46 am
Another use:
Grammar of Assent
An Essay in Aid of a Grammar of Assent
John Henry Newman
1870
Julian said,
November 22, 2024 @ 7:56 am
Thank you Philip. Always found that one deeply moving, but I don't know why.
J.W. Brewer said,
November 22, 2024 @ 11:07 am
The poem Philip Taylor quotes is included in the 1952 revised edition of "A Little Treasury of Modern Poetry: English and American" (Oscar Williams, ed.), which my father got a copy of as an undergraduate in the late 1950's which then sat on the shelf for several decades until I picked it up as a high school student in the early 1980's and read and reread it rather obsessively. Don't know how many of the 1940's compositions therein have made the cut for inclusion in more recent anthologies, but that's a good poem whose merits have survived the perhaps heavy-handed suggestion of its original wartime context.
Brett said,
November 22, 2024 @ 12:01 pm
It's a very evocative poem, particularly that in the extended contrast of rifle parts to gardens, the first plant Reed mentions is Japonica.
David Morris said,
November 22, 2024 @ 3:30 pm
A commenter on my blog claimed that 'grammarian' should only be used in the depreciative sense. I searched and found a post (here or somewhere else) by Geoffrey Pullum, calling Rodney Huddleston the world's most eminent grammarian. Wikipedia's article on him calls him a linguist and grammarian, but the words 'linguist' and 'grammarian' both link to 'linguistics'.