Comments on: It’s All Grammar

By: Arrant Pedantry » Blog Archive » It’s All Grammar—So What?

Arrant Pedantry » Blog Archive » It’s All Grammar—So What? — Tue, 25 Sep 2012 16:57:28 +0000

[...] has complained that grammar as it’s typically used refers to nothing more than a “grab-bag of linguistic peeve-triggers“. I think this is an overly negative view; yes, there are a lot of people who peeve about [...]

By: Off-putting grammar « Arnold Zwicky's Blog

Off-putting grammar « Arnold Zwicky's Blog — Thu, 12 Jul 2012 17:43:10 +0000

[...] the “hideous grammar” came in a text message, I suspect that it was garmmra that was at [...]

By: On the garmmra watch: The Oatmeal « Arnold Zwicky's Blog

On the garmmra watch: The Oatmeal « Arnold Zwicky's Blog — Fri, 06 Jul 2012 17:00:50 +0000

[...] From Alon Lischinsky on Google+ this morning: The Oameal has a series of “Grammar” posters berating, sometimes quite aggressively, some typical mistakes. Unsurprisingly, none of them are really grammatical; rather, they concern spelling, punctuation, or disputed word usage (i.e., “irony”). One more for Arnold Zwicky’s garmmra watch. [...]

By: The Grammar Police « Arnold Zwicky's Blog

The Grammar Police « Arnold Zwicky's Blog — Sat, 09 Jun 2012 14:52:13 +0000

[...] you’ll see that most of them aren’t about what linguists think of as grammar, but about what I’ve called garmmra (largely spelling and [...]

By: Peanuts vs. the grammar nazis « Arnold Zwicky's Blog

Peanuts vs. the grammar nazis « Arnold Zwicky's Blog — Fri, 20 Apr 2012 15:58:02 +0000

[...] And note that the Peanuts takeoff is about spelling rather than grammar — that is, it’s about garmmra. [...]

By: Grammandos and more « Arnold Zwicky's Blog

Grammandos and more « Arnold Zwicky's Blog — Mon, 05 Mar 2012 17:55:03 +0000

[...] grammando’s complaint is not actually about grammar, but about word choice. What the hell, It’s All Grammar, [...]

By: arnold zwicky

arnold zwicky — Sat, 03 Mar 2012 19:16:27 +0000

Not just you, I’m sure. Echoes of Gojira/Godzilla in there.

By: Joyce Melton

Joyce Melton — Sat, 03 Mar 2012 05:04:01 +0000

Is it just me or does Garmmra sound like a 1950s Japanese movie monster to anyone else?

By: DaveB

DaveB — Wed, 29 Feb 2012 23:40:17 +0000

Another bit of barely relevant but interesting etymology: I remember an excellent lecture as part of my English degree in which the lecturer pointed out that “grammar” and “glamour” come from the same root (seems implausible from the look of them, but I took him on his word). The idea was that for the illiterate, the ability to understand written words was no less mystical and awe-inspiring than the ability to, say, look at entrails or bird formations and predict the future. He also noted in this context the at-least-double-meaning of “spell”.
I seem to remember this being used as a jumping-off point to make us think about literature, exegesis, how they have variously been conceptualised over time, and the relationship of all this to power, culture and so on. (NB: being of sound mind, he explicitly warned against seeing the etymology itself as anything other than a natty little curio to introduce the topic.)

By: arnold zwicky

arnold zwicky — Mon, 27 Feb 2012 17:14:52 +0000

Fascinating. Quite possibly the principal wasn’t really using it as a synonym for extremely, but as a wry way of uttering an imperative sentence — a grammatically imperative one.