Via Facilis

"Good evening."
"To you, as well. Did we shave?"
"What? Oh, you mean the gauze. Or lack of it. Well, no, but my nose has healed considerably. Nice to breathe again through that left nostril. Haven't used it for forty-two years."
"That must be a strange sensation."
"It's quite liberating, actually."
"I'll bet."
"You'd win, so I'm not laying odds. Anyway, when we last were having our discussion, you asked a critical question."
"I did?"
"That wasn't it."
"Oh, right. I remember now."
"Will you reask it?"
"Surely. I asked, 'How do we know when a noun is acting as a subject or a direct object?' "
"Have you thought about it since then?"
"No, that wasn't the question I asked. I remember clearly."
"No, I mean, have you thought about an answer to your question which you just right now brought our attention back to."
"Oh. Well, yes."
"And you have an answer?"
"I said I thought about an answer. I didn't say I had one."
"Shall we conjure up that sentence which gave rise to your question?"
"Good idea."
"Our sentence was, 'Cows eat...'"
"'grass'!"
"Right. Did we decide anything about the function of 'Cows' in the sentence?"
"Yes, that it was a noun acting as the subject, i.e., the doer of the action."
"Right. Did we decide anything else?"
"We determined that 'eat' was the verb, i.e., the action that the subject, 'Cows', was performing."
"Okay. And?"
"And that 'grass' was the direct object of the verb 'eat' because it was what the 'cow', the subject, was eating."

"Let me ask you if you would agree to the following as a summing up of what we discussed last time:
1. Nouns are things (or persons or places)
2. Nouns can act as subjects, i.e., doers of the action of the verb
3. Nouns can act as Direct Objects (i.e., direct receivers of the
action of the verb)
4. Verbs are action words, i.e., words that denote action performed
by Nouns acting as subjects on nouns acting as direct objects.

Anything else?"
"No, that's about it."
"Okay. So your question then was, in a nutshell: How To Decide?"
"How to decide what?"
"Well, if a noun can act either as a subject of a verb, or a direct object of a verb, how do you know when you see a noun how it's acting?"
"I need some help here."
"Okay, let's bring back our sentence."
"Let's."
" 'Cows eat grass.' "
"So much is clear."
"How many nouns?"
"Two."
"Subject?"
" 'Cows'."
"Direct Object?"
" 'grass'."
"Verb?"
" 'eat' ."
"Where is the subject placed?"
"At the beginning of the sentence?"
"Yes, but let's be even more specific."
"Okay. Directly in front of the verb."
"Correct. How about the direct object?"
"That's directly after the verb."
"Correct. Do you know the answer to your question yet?"
"Sort of...."
"Take our sentence again."
" 'Cows eat grass.' "
"Switch 'Cows' and 'grass'."
" 'Grass eats Cows.' "
"Do those two sentences mean the same thing?"
"Don't they?"

"Look at them closely:
'Cows eat grass'
'Grass eats Cows'
Are they the same?"

"Well, no."
"What did I change?"
"The placement of 'grass' and 'cows'."
"What happened?"
" 'grass' became the subject; 'cows' became the direct object."
"What happened to the placement of the verb?"
"Nothing. It stayed the same."
"So what are we saying about where words appear in a sentence?"
"That it means a lot."
"It actually means everything. Where a word falls in a sentence determines its function in the sentence, and therefore, the force of that sentence."
"Could you summarize?"
"Absolutely. Word order tells you word function. An English sentence is completely dependent upon its word order to establish meaning."
"Are you sure?"
"Let me rephrase. 'Cows grass eat.' "
"What does that mean?"
"Exactly."

Dear All:

CAGSE Challenges You.
To invest in public education in the UK at the level where the impact will be greatest.

Specifically, state schools.
More specifically, primary schools, years 5 and 6.
Even more specifically, in state schools that employ the cutting edge teaching of Latin. CAGSE's Latin program.

What if you could have a profound impact upon education from grassroots to leaftip?
If you could not simply remodel education, but revolutionize it whereby kids would be in a position to define their own social status, not have it foisted upon them by economic constraints?

CAGSE is that opportunity.
We have programs in eleven schools.
Soon to be a thousand.
With your help.

Your schools need you. They have been asked by their government to meet requirements - the 12 strands of UK Literacy - in a vaguely spelled out, sprawling, thirty page document available on the internet.

CAGSE has crystallized that thirty page document into one page.
Our program is the key to helping schools fulfill their dream.
To give students the fighting chance to forge their own destiny.

This is your cue.
Your participation is invaluable.
Your effect on education: incalculable.

Your company's name will forever be linked to not just the rejuvination or the renaissance of learning, but the Reformation of UK Education.

Your money will go to underserved state schools.
At the primary level.
The Ground Floor.

Your Mission:
Accept the Challenge.

drg

Let's revisit that post of April 7.

'Cows grass eat.'

The meaning of this sentence couldn't be less clear.
The import of that meaninglessness couldn't be more obvious.

In English, very simply,
Word Order Rules.

Let's take a look at the blog entry I wrote over a year ago.
It bears directly upon word order and the critical role it plays in English syntax.

"A New Word Order?

"'Done what you've looked,' angrily shouted one of the salesman. He meant to say 'Look what you've done,' but the words had gotten so hopelessly mixed up that no one could make any sense at all. 'Do going to what we are!'"
- The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster

So begins a chapter from Norton Juster's fabulous book about a boy with nothing to do and his travels in the Lands Beyond.

The greatest difficulty that confronts the English speaker in the learning of Latin is the manner in which the two languages establish meaning. In the English sentence (as Juster's words demonstrate so poignantly), word order plays the crucial role, with endings of words filling in any informational gaps.

In the drama of the Latin sentence, meanwhile, word ending is the protagonist, with word order playing a secondary, nuanced role. Yes, the verb in Latin prose tends to come at the end of a sentence. But very frequently you will find the verb in first position (we're talking sentence structure here, not ballet).

Ask your typical speaker of English the question:
"How does the English sentence convey meaning?"

A shoulder shrug and "I don't know" will be the response.

Direct said speaker to a book store with words of the following sort:

"And up hurry Phantom the Tollbooth Juster buy Norton by."

They point the get might.'"

"This is all very enlightening about English word order, but so what?"
"What do you mean?"
"I mean, what's the point?"
"Point?"
"Weren't you going to tie this in to Latin?"
"Yes."
"Well, we’re waiting."
"Based on our conversation, can you make a guess?"
"About Latin, you mean?"
"Yes."
"Let's see. I would guess that it can help students with word order."
"And?"
"And that's all."
"But what is the import of word order in English?"
"Meaning?"
"Exactly. Without it, there isn’t any.”
“No, I meant, ‘What do you mean?’”
“I mean, Without word order, there isn't any meaning."
"But how does Latin figure into this?"
"Well, that’s the question. But it isn't just Latin. It’s a specific type of Latin."
"Which is...?"
"CAGSE's Latin."
"Aren't all Latin programs the same?"
"No. Our program is linguistic/language-acquisition-oriented.”
“Isn’t that a little narrow?”

“So it may seem. But our experience is that the power to communicate is critical for all students. The person who has control of language – not just vocabulary, but the manner in which that vocabulary is accessed and applied - is a force to be reckoned with. As such, the question becomes, What is the best vehicle for the acquisition of these skills? These communication skills? These literacy skills? The answer is, unequivocally, a linguistic approach to Latin.”

“How so?”

“Because we focus on the structure of words and their relationship to, and with, one another. With our program, students learn to take account of every component of every word. Each component of a word plays a role in establishing the word’s meaning. In turn, every word plays a role in a sentence. We show how elements fit together to form words, how those words fit together – how they relate to one another - to make sentences."

"Okay, but still, what’s the point?"

"The point is that it is CAGSE’s approach to Latin which particularly helps students develop an exacting awareness of, and facility for, English and how it establishes meaning."

"How?”

“By making the passive learning of language into an exercise of active awareness where every linguistic component is accounted for; by providing students with a scientific lexicon, a vocabulary, which enables them to become active understanders and practioners of language, not mere consumers.”