Grammatical mistakes

[Jules Levin]

On 10/17/2011 10:43 AM, George Kalbouss wrote:
> 	This question stems from frustrating experiences I've had with people
> in the Columbus area whose grammar is positively atrocious.  I'm not speaking
> of word mispronunciation or spelling mistakes.  I'm speaking of people who seem
> totally incapable of forming a past tense (i.e. "we wuz here," "I seen it yesterday,"
> "he has came here,"), as well as other variances from the norm.  There should
> be no excuse for this, for the most part the speakers are from the working class,
> but are virtually all high school graduates.
>
> 	The question I have is this:  "do Russians make grammatical errors?"
Of course Russians make mistakes.  One error I have noticed is that the 
stressed (?) Gen pl of mascs. in -sh, -ch, -zh
have a tendency to get -ov instead of -ei.
But as for English, the examples you give are very significant.  
Currently English seems to be undergoing
a major restructuring of verbs and tense systems.  3-stem verbs are 
being reduced to 2-stem verbs, not only in
"working class", but among all younger speakers.  One occasionally sees 
examples even in newspaper writing.
This is facilitated by the lack of any overweening authority monitoring 
English usage now--in school or out.
Jules Levin
Los Angeles




>    When
> I think of all the interactions I have had with Russians, both in Russia and emigres
> in the US,  I cannot recall ever encountering one who made a grammatical error.
> (I'm excluding so-called "heritage speakers,"  persons of other ethnic backgrounds
> for whom Russian is a second language, or people who mispronounce words).	When
> I think about the various dialogues I've read in Russian literature and drama,  I can recall many
> instances of "dialect" Russian which was usually expressed with alternate pronunciations,
> but not really errors in grammar.
>
> 	A few years back, I was taking a seminar in the Finnish language in Finland.
> After going through practicums in incredible rules of grammar,  declensions, exceptions, etc.,
> one of the participants in the group asked the instructors the same question, i.e.,
> "do Finns make grammatical errors?"  The instructors seemed visibly lost in answering
> the question,  their first inclination was to say, "no they don't" -- yet an answer like
> that seemed positively silly.
>
> 	If I am right (or leaning in that direction),  what is it about English that seems to invite
> people into making these mistakes when Russian and Finnish (and other languages)
> where there are many more rules and variances, for people to speak correctly?  Perhaps
> at least we can agree that errors in grammar seem to abound more with native English speakers
> than they do with native Russian speakers.
>
> 	I'd appreciate any musings on this subject!
>
> George Kalbouss
> Assoc Prof (Emeritus)
> The Ohio State University
>
> 	
>
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