Grammar and the Change of Meaning in Words

 

Words matter. Their meaning alone especially matters when understood within a proper historical context. Many today are attempting to interpret the King James Version of the Bible as if its meaning has in no way changed since the seventeenth century when it was published. In reality, though, to understand past works of literature, we often should be  learning how the grammar within them has changed over time. 

The history of grammar goes back to Aristotle. It's interesting how much the Latins took from the Grecians. Likewise, it is fascinating to think about how much the English language has been taken from the Latin one. Languages impact one another, and they have done so throughout history. I like your paragraph on tyne history of traditional grammar. I'm not sure about you, but one of my favorite aspects of this course so far was reading about the history of the Romans and Greeks as these ancient peoples related to the development of what we now know as ''grammar.'' 

On the other hand, universal grammar, and how it impacts every one of us startled me in this course. It is wild to think about how we have learned the language since our births into this world. Likewise, the fact that we all speak different languages across this globe has always appalled me. 

One of the most exciting aspects of grammar is how the meaning of words changes over time. Take, for example, the word ''charity.'' Now, many of us would likely (and wrongly) believe that this word is simply a word for giving away money to good causes. While this has not been the historic definition of charity, others of us still would wrongly claim that this word simply means ''love.'' However, charity, as known to writers like Augustine of Hippo (at least in the English translations from his works), charity meant the love of God. In the more grammatical sense, however, charity means the love of others. The King James Version of the Holy Bible used the word in 1 Corinthians 13. According to the Norton Anthology of English Literature, the King James Version was more moderate in its Protestant theology than other Reformation Bibles. Charity meant not simply love, but good works toward God in general, and this is why the Norton Anthology describes it as a moderate Protestant version: 

''In the passage selected here, 1 Corinthians 13, Tyndale's use of the word ''love,'' echoed by the Geneva Bible, is set against the Catholic ''charity.'' The latter term gestures toward the religious doctrine of ''works,'' against the Protestant insistence on salvation by faith alone. It is a sign of the conservative, moderate, Protestantism of the King James version that it too opts for ''charity (The Norton Anthology of English Literature: The Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries, p. 618).''

The word ''charity,'' has meant much to me over the years. It does even more so now as I announce my work on a future publication concerning early Christianity which will be titled: Suprised by Charity. The title has taken its inspiration from other works with similar names written by C. S. Lewis and N. T. Wright. 

References: 

The Norton Anthology of English Literature.W. W. Norton and Company. (2006).