Grammar is useful only in some forms of communication

The argument

All of the facets of grammar — sentence structure, subject-verb agreement, punctuation, and so on — are essential for written forms of communication. Transcribing English words and ideas into a written form needs order, structure, and consistency, because a reader has none of the resources a listener has. What follows from that, however, is a claim about writing in particular rather than about language as such: grammar is nonessential to actually speaking English. The reason lies in what writing is. The written word takes the sounds of a language and assigns them arbitrarily to symbols known as letters. But it is not enough to simply learn which sound goes with which letter. Words must be organized into sentences. A sentence must contain a complete thought. Complete thoughts must be separated from one another to maintain clarity and order on the page. Grammar and punctuation rules are put into place to do that separating, and they do it by mimicking something already present — the way that we naturally speak, and the ways in which we organize our thoughts mentally and verbally. The rules transcribe an existing competence rather than creating it. That order of events is what the argument turns on. Grammar and punctuation were created solely to serve the purposes of the written word. Understanding grammar was never needed to learn how to speak effectively, and grammar itself did not exist prior to the written word; the need for grammar didn't arise until after the written word had already been developed. Speakers who had never met a rule of grammar were nonetheless producing complete and comprehensible thoughts, which is precisely why the rules could be derived from their speech in the first place. The conclusion is a qualified one rather than a dismissal. Grammar is genuinely useful, and for writing it is indispensable. But because its usefulness is confined to some forms of communication rather than all of them, learning grammar is useful, but not necessary.

Premises

Counter-arguments

Grammar is as important in speech as it is in writing and reading. Thinking about grammar helps us to formulate our sentences in a way that can be clearly understood when we talk to one another. In fact, when grammar was first conceived of, it was defined as a language which helps a person talk about their language, as well as help them speak it.

Rejecting the premises

[Rejecting P1] Grammar is as important in speaking as it is in reading and writing.