Grammar is far too important to dedicate only one month of the year to the topic.  As such, this month we will spend a little more time familiarizing ourselves with the subject… 

As noted in the March article, Masons concern themselves with the study of grammar because it, “assists us in conveying ideas and [to bring about] consensus, not division.  It is “[…] the skill of knowing language.  Grammar is the “who, what, when, where, and how” of understanding and knowledge.”  It is a set of rules for how we engage in speech and writing.

Grammar itself can be broken down into various frameworks, through which we arrive at specific scientific theories in the realm of theoretical linguistics.  One such example, called “functional grammar,” is an approach in which the linguistic processes and structures of language are analyzed.  The theories supporting this area propose that since language, at its core, is a tool.  Those who understand how best to use the tool are the most effective in conveying their thoughts and desires – eventually architecting effective rhetoric which persuades the listener.

This scientific approach often utilizes a “parsing,” or “derivation tree,” which represents the syntactic structure of a string of text which is free of any context (example below).  Very similar to approaches used in arithmetic (example below) and computer programming, in which the abstract structure of source code is represented.  These trees can be used both to gauge the fluency of language as well as ensure one is appropriately using the language.  Because parsing trees are used to help determine whether the “rules” are being appropriately applied, we can use them for a variety of purposes, including understanding and solving mathematical expressions.  Above is one such example (https://runestone.academy, 2020).