Grammar and the engineering mind

Source: photo taken by the author.

Are you a linear thinker? Do you have what I like to call an "engineering mind" accustomed to tracking logical propositions from A to B to C? If so, then that bodes well for you -- both in college and in life. However, one thing I've noticed is that students with highly developed, logical, engineering mindsets sometimes chafe at the "rules" of grammar. This is probably because language (and certainly the English language) was not developed as a system, but instead grew out of usage, from people interacting and communicating with each other. (The "rules" were applied after-the-fact). Thus, language developed (and continues to develop) organically and dynamically like a living organism. As such, it is more akin to biology than physics.

When a young child learns about past tense words that end in the -ed suffix -- talked, walked, borrowed, etc. -- the child will (very logically) follow this system and come up with words like "goed" instead of “went” and "buyed" instead of “bought.” Past tense verbs like “went” and “bought” are the infamous irregular verbs we all memorized as schoolchildren. But why are they irregular? Certainly, no logical (or even sane) person would decide that we should have a few exceptions to the rule "just because." Understanding the history of words will help. The modern word “went,” for example, was originally the past tense of the Middle English word "wenden" and later the archaic-sounding English verb “to wend” (meaning to follow a course or travel or go), but over time it has become the past tense of “go,” and so poor “goed” was left off the trip.

Everyday verbal language (unlike a mathematical or computer language) never springs from an entirely logical system. In fact, years ago some linguists got together and tried to invent an artificial international language from scratch. You can look it up today. It’s called Esperanto. Nobody uses it.

So if you possess an “engineering mind” and always seek logical connections, you need to familiarize yourself with the historical development of the English language. Do that and the irregularities should start to make more sense.

© 2014 Bob Dial.  All rights reserved.