Parts of speech
My (second) cousin is taking an introduction to linguistics course, of the applied kind. She asked me if I knew where she could get some of the basics of English grammar, since she grew up in Ontario and never learned it.
Things like, oh, parts of speech. I had done MadLibs, so my problem was prepositions — I also didn’t learn grammar in school. (For advice, I could only think of the old framing sentence, “The squirrel ran ____ the tree”.)
It’s funny. I suggested she asked the prof, or one of the TAs (not hers), who was a friend of mine. If those didn’t work, I can get her stuff.
But it’s funny, things they[1] assume people know. Despite never having learned formal grammar — and also despite what my writing here may show — I am a good writer. (I think it comes from reading a lot of good writing.) Still, it’s strange. How are there generations (between my mother, who learned grammar, and my aunt, who didn’t, up until now) who just don’t learn what a noun is? It goes a little far. Phonics and traditional grammar are not tools of the devil. Not always, anyways.
[1] Anyone, really.