[Lecture Eight] Principles of Grammar
by Dr. Leonard Peikoff
Total Time: 2 hours, 29 minutes
Course summary: In this course, Dr. Peikoff explores the epistemological roots of the science of grammar. In it, he illustrates how an understanding of the basic methods of combining words into sentences is essential to clear thinking and writing. Each lecture contains student exercises that should be completed prior to the end of the lecture. Read more »
In this lecture: This lecture continues Dr. Peikoff’s discussion of diction with specific focus on the question of linguistic change. He analyzes the ways that language changes and the proper approach to assessing those changes.
Study Guide
This material is designed to help you digest the lecture content. You can also download below a PDF study guide for the entire course.
| What factors account for linguistic change? |
| How should one approach changes in language and grammar? |
| What are the mistaken views of linguistic change? |
| If possible, provide examples of recent changes in language that you find appropriate and some that you find inappropriate. Explain why. |
Q&A Guide
Below is a list of questions from the audience taken from this lecture, along with (approximate) time stamps.
| 2:23:52 | Regarding the use of the word “nor” as part of the correlative “neither/nor” as opposed to the use of “nor” by itself to introduce a main clause. It came to light in homework #6… when do we say “nor” and when do we say “or”? |
| 2:25:29 | Can you tell us what the relationship is between the content of the course and the epistemological problem of organizing concepts into propositional sentences? |
| 2:27:11 | You mentioned this evening that the death of inflection in English is an ongoing process. Latin reached the stage that inflection was used so much that word order didn’t matter at all, which is what makes it such a poetic language. Do you think it’s possible that English will go as far in the opposite direction, such that inflections won’t matter? |