Grammar and Usage

Catalog description

Misplaced commas or misspelled words are often referred to as “grammar mistakes,” but in this course “grammar” means something much more interesting: a branch of linguistics that studies and describes how words, phrases, and clauses are formed by native speakers of a language, in all its dialects and degrees of formality. Why is “tell me something” grammatical, while “tell something me” is not? What about “can’t nobody tell me nothing”—grammatical or not? We’ll discuss standard and non-standard forms, how they are often stigmatized, and how to understand usage conventions and controversies.