The Poor With Us All Ways

Dear Linguists and College
Across the Curriculum,

Innate Knowing.

The data we are exposed to
is "imporverished."

All ways less than what is
necessary to account for the
richness and complexity of the
grammars we attain and wield.

Not yr old man’s grammar or
Dr. Bradshaw’s concatenation
of clause & phrase, indirect &
direct object distinctions, ratios
of independence & subordination
& the etiquette of conjunction,
proper punctuation, non-terminal
pre-positions; nor the humanist
capacity for tedious systematic
taxonomies of sound & sense
devastatingly demonstrated in
my so-called Introduction to
Language text..

But the Grammar of Talk talking:
asking questioning quibbling
quarreling claiming clamoring
whining-- communicating:
state of the art always going on
& on: the deep psyche-logical
richness & complexity of the

Grammar of
Converse-action

Thoughtless, metarule-driven,
structured, syn-tact & context-
dependent machinery early
provoked by the linguistic environ-
mentalism we swim in, indifferent
to its token topics, subject-object
matter: fast food or global warming,
mitochondria or monkey business:
it can handle it. Put it in play. .

Or call it wee official grammarians
behind my eyebrows, designated
drivers, designed to manufacture if
not what I’m talking right now,
then how: my media
messenger .

Maybe what, too: so often a surprise
what I have to say, & don’t know
it till I hear it . See?
Analyze THAT.

I am not taught to talk.
A provocation.
An awakening.
Equipment turns on,
activated by specimen samples.
Can you remember how it happened?
Your first words in the beginnings?

Never the less: we have theories.
Flatlander Interpretations &
Explanations. Hard Balls
& Mallet determinations.

“The poverty of the stimulus.”

Despite the impoverishment we
have always with us, we “know”
far more about our linguistic
environmentalism than is
exemplified by what
we hear around us.
Born to be mild:
our Grammar Guns
so to speak, manners of
speaking, naturally. Nurture don’t
manufacture it. Topics, sure. Tokens
for play: our subject-object matter.

Like many on this campus, I wake
early wondering how to get better at
sustain ability, stimulated by a linguistic
environment that piques a deep ecologic
generating a green grammar of planetary
accountability; I put a brick in my toilet,
brush my teeth in the shower,

The poverty of the stimulus: in other
words, what’s out there is never
RICH ENOUGH to account
for what I know. What’s inside
(innate) is triggered. It don’t
take much from outside.

I learned how to talk, how to
think automatically. But I
had to study German.

Do we have to study
CONVERSATION-ing?

What does it take
to get better &
good?

Data?

syllabus
assignments
papers
projects
quizzes
exams
conscious
purpose
measurable
goals, aims
outcomes.
exercise
balance
nutrition
check-ups
mindfulness
hard work
upbringing
good grades

Just being random here,
considering notions we
associate with learning.

Education.Do we know
the difference between
Education and Edification?
The Relationship? (Ratios?)

Between Conventional &
Non? The Relationship?
(Ratios?)

I'm just asking.
xxxooo, Sam