Question:
Reading the starting a sentence with and or but thread I started to wonder,
just who or what organization makes the rules and direction lines of English
grammar?
If I know well, nobody. So talking about "this is against the rules" is kind
of an oxymoron.
Let me explain. In Hungary there is an official body called the Magyar
Tudomanyos Akademia (Hungarian Academy of Science) where very smart
professionals make up new rules, trends and tendencies, concerning Hungarian
grammar and useage. Their advace is taught in schools after that so the
government tries to make sure that their decision in a question is not just a
plain advice but a followable example that gets to be used by the population.
Also there is an official Hungarian grammar book, that lays down the basic
rules
that should be followed by every Hungarian speaking person. This is also taught
in schools.
If I know well, the French has a similar body, the French Academy, working in
the same way.
But there is no such a body with such a function in English. There is some
kind of Royal Academy of this or that, but that doesn't make decisions
followable for all English speakers concerning English grammar, pronounciation
or usage.
So when we refer here to English grammar rules, are we talking about only
tradition?
Answer:
Largely, yes. There is no Académie Anglaise, as there is an Académie
Francaise for French. We use tradition for the majority of our rules.
Some rules (traditions) are being challenged. Spelling changes over
time. Eventually, we may be left with a language very unlike the
English we know today.
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