greek salad

In David Mulroy's second chapter, "The first Liberal Art," he goes all the way back to the influence of the Greeks and Romans on the English language. While the Greeks acquired the idea of the alphabet from the Phoenicians, it was the first of it's kind and allowed people to express complex ideas and stories as they had never been able to before. While prose is the more widely used form of communication today, the roots of writing can be found in poetry, as the first things to be written were the songs that were sung.

The likes of Homer and others employed and spread the use of the alphabet. The Romans were fast to emulate the Greeks alphabet, which played a major role in making their way up in the world. The Hellenistic period was one of expansion of the Greek and Roman literature. The Greek Plato came up with seven areas of study that all his students had to learn before tackling philosophy. Of course, the Romans were quick to follow with the institution of the same areas into their curriculum, deaming them "the liberal arts." Plato's Socrates stated that all peole had a priori of knowledge which enabled them to know the rules of their language. While it is true that knowledge of grammar comes from experience, it is still learned rather than just known. The liberal arts worked to instill the foundations of thought and problem solving due to the notion that knowledge must be learned, rather than that it is already known.

The mandates of the English language were layed down in greater detail by Dionysius and added to later by Donatus and Priscian. The books of the latter two became the basis of the study of the liberal arts. While grammar was not one of the most important of the seven subjects taught, it was still held in high regard since none of the ideas of the others would be possible to communicate without knowledge of this area.