A lot of people I know are quick to admit they know nothing about Physics but hardly anyone will readily say they don't know English grammar. I'm sure I have looked into this before elsewhere in this blog. I most certainly have offended quite a lot of people when I call them 'grammar ignoramuses'. But they really are. Most people are ignorant of English grammar. That is a fact and I have given in this blog examples of cabinet ministers in the UK who were stumped by journalists' questions on simple English grammar and I have also mentioned the reason for this. In the 1960s, linguists very wrongly advised against teaching English grammar in schools and this advice was adopted all over the world where English was taught. Although they are now redressing this huge mistake in the UK by reintroducing grammar in schools, it is not wrong to say that most English-speaking adults today are grammar ignoramuses.
But unlike Physics ignoramuses who do not profess a knowledge in Physics, let alone pretend to teach anyone Physics , grammar ignoramuses really believe they are grammar experts. I used to think they were dishonest but I am fairly certain now that it's a kind of benign mental state that makes a person believe he has a vast knowledge in grammar when he is really utterly ignorant of it. They are honest but they are ignorant and they don't even know that.
You can see this in Quora, an internet-based forum where people ask questions and those who think they know the answers give their response. I have mentioned Frank Dauenhauer before in this blog post: Query Quora. That Frank knows nothing about English grammar is obvious. He can't even get his part of speech right and that's kindergarten-level grammar. Here's what he posted on Quora slightly more than a week ago in response to the simple question, 'Is it "I feel bad" or "I feel badly"?':
The comments of his readers are no less shocking. One of them thanks him for his explanation. Another insists that 'badly' is correct and not 'bad' because 'bad' is not an adverb in the UK. The madness goes on. It's definitely a case of blind Frank leading his blind followers.
After reading Frank's answer and his followers' posts, I almost lost all faith in humanity. But I wanted to see if the circle I moved in was similarly afflicted with this puzzling grammar ignorance. I asked three persons - they are reasonably educated: medical doctors by profession but with no linguistic training whatsoever. I was pleased to see that all three of them got it right. 'Bad' in 'I feel bad' is an adjective. How Frank and his followers could be so wrong is indeed mind-boggling.
But there is a reason for Frank's error. Grammar ignoramuses usually can't think straight. Frank is probably thrown off the track by the verb 'feel'. Very young children are usually stumped when you place a verb just before an adjective. Like these children, Frank must have drawn an incorrect link with many adverbs that follow a verb, e.g. 'She wept bitterly' and this probably led him to conclude that 'bad' after 'feel' must be an adverb. This kind of kindergarten mindset is what you are sure to encounter in many answers on grammar given out in Quora. People who don't know grammar should stop giving advice on grammar. Although Frank may assume that 'bad' which follows 'feel' has to be an adverb, I very much doubt if he or his Quora followers would say 'I feel happily'.
I really hope everyone will stop asking questions on grammar in Quora or elsewhere on the internet. All you can expect to get is garbage.
Finally, I need to make one thing clear. I seem to have offended a lot of people when I call them grammar ignoramuses. Please understand that when I say you are ignorant of grammar, I am merely stating a fact. I am being descriptive and not vituperative. To me, these grammar ignoramuses are merely people with no knowledge of English grammar. Their ignorance of grammar does not at all affect their virtue and I pass no judgment on their character and nature.
If you want to read more of my blog posts on language, please click here.
The perpetrator of this blog has conveniently neglected to post an important part of my Quora answer to this question. Here it is:
ReplyDelete____________
Flat adverb - Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flat_adverb (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flat_adverb)
>In English (https://www.quora.com/wiki/English_language) grammar (https://www.quora.com/wiki/Grammar), a flat adverb, bare adverb, or simple adverb is an adverb (https://www.quora.com/wiki/Adverb) that has the same form as the corresponding adjective (https://www.quora.com/wiki/Adjective), so it usually does not end in *-ly*, e.g. "drive *slow,*" "drive *fast*," "dress *smart*," etc.
As you can see, I did not make this answer up. I quoted Wikipedia. The sum of this is that I have been personally maligned, slandered, and libelled by the the author of this blog for something I did not originate, but merely quoted. I wonder what he or she has against me, when all I did was truthfully quote from an article in a respected online journal. Do I really deserve his high-handed treatment? I'll ask all you readers to decide. Thank you.
I did not include your quotation from wikipedia because the section by wikipedia on the flat adverb is totally irrelevant to the Quora question. Your mistake stems from a fundamental ignorance of basic grammar and what I have quoted from you clearly illustrates that. You identify ‘bad’ in the sentence as an adverb. This is an outrageous error that no linguist or student of linguistics will make. From that very basic error, you went into the totally irrelevant topic of adverbs that do not relate at all to the question posed in Quora. I do not know you and I have nothing against you. I have not maligned you. I have merely stated that you are ignorant of grammar and that is a fact, evidenced by the startling errors you make in the many answers you give to Quora. You are not trained in linguistics and you have no knowledge of English grammar. Why you persist in giving erroneous answers on grammar when it’s clearly not your area of expertise is puzzling. You are not alone in this. There are many others like you in Quora and from time to time, I do make comments about their hilarious errors. It’s nothing personal. I just hope those who really want to learn English grammar will seek help from books written by linguists and not turn to Quora to get erroneous answers from people like you. I am sorry if you are offended by what I have written but I have said nothing more than what is patently true - you are ignorant of grammar and you really shouldn’t teach what you know nothing about just as I wouldn’t presume to teach Latin to anyone even though it may very well be that my knowledge of Latin far exceeds yours of English grammar.
DeleteYou say you have not maligned me. That is a bare-faced untruth. You have called me an ignoramus, which is an ad hominem. And you say there are many more like me on Quora. What do you consider name-calling? Being truthful? You say I have no knowledge about English grammar? That is an untruth. My statements that I have made on Quora are entirely truthful and accurate, or I would not have made them. It is you who refuses to see that what I quoted from Wikipedia and the WordWebPro dictionary about "bad" being a bare adjective is accurate. You also malign Quora by saying by inference that there are many ignoramuses on Quora. You yourself have not shown any expertise in regard to grammar. You have maligned and defamed me and Quora by your public libellous statements.
ReplyDeleteIt is a statement of fact that you are a grammar ignoramus. That there are many grammar ignoramuses on Quora is also a statement of fact. I have shown elsewhere in this blog the egregious blunders you and other self-professed grammar teachers on Quora have made in the past. What I have said in this blog is entirely truthful. You must be terribly confused if you don't seem to be able to distinguish an adjective from an adverb. Let me sort out your confusion. In your Quora answer, you classified 'bad' in 'I feel bad' as an adverb (not adjective). You then went on to say that 'bad' is a flat adverb in that sentence. You now call 'bad' in 'I feel bad' an adjective which is of course correct and you are now merely repeating what I have said in this blog post. But that is not what you said on Quora. You said it was an adverb (which is different from an adjective). Do you now see why your statement is untruthful? You called 'bad' an adverb in Quora but in your second comment on this blog post, you said you called it an adjective which is untrue.
DeleteCalling a grammar ignoramus a grammar ignoramus is not libellous. Read what I have written again. Take comfort - you are not the only grammar ignoramus on this planet and it's not your fault to be ignorant of English grammar. This is what I wrote: "...most English-speaking adults today are grammar ignoramuses" and I went on to explain why. It's not wrong to be a grammar ignoramus. What is wrong is to profess to teach others grammar when you are ignorant of English grammar. Mistaking an adjective for an adverb is a mistake fundamental enough to qualify you as a 'grammar ignoramus'.
You seem to be barking up the wrong tree. You keep saying that wikipedia is correct in its write-up on the flat adverb. But you don't seem to see that that is not relevant. You can quote the most authoritative text on the flat adverb and it's still irrelevant. The Quora question is simply: 'Is it "I feel bad" or "I feel badly"?' In your ignorance, you said 'bad' in such a sentence is a flat adverb. And you brought in wikipedia's explanation of a flat adverb. Do you now see why even the most definitive text on the flat adverb is irrelevant? I'll make it clearer for you. Supposing you write in your answer that 'bad' is a mass noun. You then quote the OED's definition of a mass noun. Even though the OED's definition is undoubtedly correct, it's irrelevant to the Quora question. 'Bad' in that sentence is an adjective. It's not an adverb or a noun. Do you now see your error?
Delete