3229: Grammar

Grammar

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Title text: Communication is one of the most popular ways to transmit information, ahead of rivals such as

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Explanation

Miss Lenhart is shown teaching a classroom about grammar, which is a system of rules describing how a certain language is structured. This is useful to make communication and meaning standardized and clear, with little to no difficulty in parsing. However, due to having many rules and structures to learn, the grammar of some languages can be viewed with annoyance by some people who wish it were 'simpler'. Miss Lenhart claims that grammar is "one of the most popular ways to structure a language" and presents two alternative methods, but this is odd, as grammar is how we structure a language. Also, if the names of these 'rivals' illustrate their use, they reflect their own rules, and thus imply their own grammar. She also presents two alternative methods (though it could be interpreted as a list of four items without commas to split it up) that competed to substitute grammar, yet evidently never took off to be implemented for practical use. Despite seeming nonsensical, they've gained their own linguistic terminology:

Words order words random words words random good

This alternate to grammar likely has very loose rules around structure, as it consists of simply stating words that relate directly to the idea being conveyed (as opposed to normal grammar, which focuses on linking together many words to form a single coherent idea). This is superficially similar to some languages, like Ukrainian, where word order does not matter. However, in these languages, its role in the sentence is simply replaced with more in-depth conjugation, which is also a form of grammar. The provided sentence, conversely, appears to have neither conjugation nor any meaningful ordering, which would make it difficult to convey more complex concepts.

EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

This might be referencing a scream as a form of communication. Screams are capable of communicating small amounts of information, primarily the fact that someone is attempting to draw one's attention, but cannot convey most concepts without use of complex, structured encoding patterns like Morse code (which do not appear to be present here). Alternatively, it could be made up of various random syllables, with others in the system too. (like 'AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH' & 'OOOOOOOOOOOH'). It may also be a reference to one of the questions recorded in Randall's What If? 2 book, in the Short Answers #5 chapter. The "question", posted by Nate Yu, was a string of 960 letters "E", to which Randall replied: "I feel you, Nate".

The title text continues Lenhart's lecture, as she moves on to communication and its rival alternatives, similar to the subject of grammar, but seems to cut off before naming the first one. Lenhart is self-demonstrating non-communication, as the sudden stop in the middle of the sentence could be a joke for how there are no other ways to convey information without communication. Still, this doesn't rule at least one other 'rival' to communication, as Lenhart implies that at least one more method exists. If communication is defined as successful transmission of information, it is possible she is referring to some sort of method(s) that attempts, but fails to transmit information. Nonetheless, demonstrating lack of communication would not be useful in this setting without further explanation, as abruptly ceasing to provide more information could instill confusion in her students.

Transcript

[Miss Lenhart is teaching in a classroom. Two students can be seen sitting at desks in front of her, Cueball in the first row and Megan in the second row.]

Miss Lenhart: Grammar is one of the most popular ways to structure a language, ahead of rival methods such as words order words random words words random good and EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE.

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Discussion

E3EeE E3eE!! Logalex8369 (talk) 22:26, 6 April 2026 (UTC)

E

ProphetZarquon (talk) 19:54, 7 April 2026 (UTC)

I created a transcript, but used OCR for all the E's because I kept losing count of how many there were. If someone wants to factcheck that, please do. 104.28.215.220 22:45, 6 April 2026 (UTC)

Factchecked 19 E's counted in the image and 19 E's counted in the transcript. 12.155.149.34 23:00, 6 April 2026 (UTC)

It looks like the bot picked up the April Fool's "feature" as interactive, should we keep it or remove? 104.28.215.220 22:46, 6 April 2026 (UTC)

Side note: I have heard people using both alternate niche methods of language structure, kinda like those people who adopt a losing format even after it's clear it has lost. On character who has on occasion dabbled in both is Homer Simpson, BTW. --94.73.49.13

I still say that Video2000 was the superior home VCR format, in every way...81.179.199.253 23:55, 6 April 2026 (UTC)

Not really niche - a significant proportion of spoken language is non-grammatical. 82.13.184.33 16:27, 7 April 2026 (UTC)

Any "competitors" to grammar would still be grammars since a grammar, by definition, describes how a language is structured. 75.248.235.98 00:00, 7 April 2026 (UTC)

Well, the Random Words one seems to have no particular structure beyond being word-utterances, and the EEEEEEEEEEEEEE one doesn't even have much that can be structuralised (though I'm half expecting it to actually supposed to be a modem 'yowl', it needn't even be that), so I'm willing to bet that this exempts them from any consistent quality of being grammar. 81.179.199.253 00:08, 7 April 2026 (UTC)

The second example used the term word-s which in itself is a structure with grammar. And the last example might well have grammar, if eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee is a single morpheme, we siply wouldn't be able to recognize the grammar. 195.65.24.115

I interpreted "words order words random words words random good" differently. I assumed it was missing commas and should be read as "words-order", "words-random" "words-words" "random-good". Maybe(probably?) not what Randall intended, but if anyone interpreted it the same as me, you're not alone! 69.204.108.174 (talk) 00:23, 7 April 2026 (UTC) (please sign your comments with ~~~~)

i reconsider this: non-verbal communication isn't another rival for communication, as it is a subset (after seeing and liking this anon's edit), but i'm not sure what other methods there could be than just communication and non-communication; Lenhart says "rivals" plural -- somefan (talk | contribs) 00:45, 7 April 2026 (UTC)

Pretty sure the joke is that any alternative to communication would by definition be impossible to communicate. --Biotronic (talk) 08:18, 7 April 2026 (UTC)

Actually, I worded that wrong - what I meant is that is an example of non-communication, which is not very effective at transmitting information --Biotronic (talk) 08:58, 7 April 2026 (UTC)

give orange me give eat orange me eat orange give me eat orange give me you 137.25.230.78 00:54, 7 April 2026 (UTC)

steal orange me steal eat orange me eat orange steal me eat orange steal me you King Pando (talk) 02:34, 7 April 2026 (UTC)

orange orange orange orange orange orange orange orange orange yellow orange you glad I didn't say orange? 98.22.184.160 11:27, 7 April 2026 (UTC)

I would suggest that light/photons are the most popular way of transmitting information? to (most) humans anyway... 2a02:a468:b8cb:0:5a82:a830:1528:55af (talk) 13:15, 7 April 2026 (UTC) (please sign your comments with ~~~~)

Only up until the last mile. 82.13.184.33 14:15, 7 April 2026 (UTC)

Why waste time use good grammar when bad grammar do trick? 70.40.121.82 15:08, 7 April 2026 (UTC)

Cuz if you're doing too bad grammar, sometimes you'll see some sentences that triggers Uncanny Valley effect (or related stuff). (I would guess this way) Cream Starlight (talk) 15:25, 7 April 2026 (UTC)

It's a reference to this scene from the American version of The Office. MeZimm (talk) 16:08, 7 April 2026 (UTC)

In Cookie Clicker, there’s a news ticker message that says “Neeeeews : "neeeew EEEEEE keeeeey working fineeeeeeeee", reeeports gleeeeeeeeful journalist.” Might be a reference to that. 185.124.31.68 15:41, 7 April 2026 (UTC)

Erm, isn't the current description kind of missing the point? "Grammar is one of the most popular ways to structure a language" is a tautology. "Grammar" studies how languages are structured, so ANY organization scheme of a language (from random to highly structured) would be classified as that language's grammar. Trying to say there are "other ways to structure a language" would just be a different form of grammar. Same thing with the title text. "Communication" is transmitting information from one individual to another. Any alternative to "Communication" isn't transmitting information. 57.140.32.31 16:32, 7 April 2026 (UTC)

The "words order random words" part may be a reference to Nim Chimpsky's sign language "sentences" like "Give orange me give eat orange me eat orange give me eat orange give me you". 193.179.120.253 18:22, 7 April 2026 (UTC)

I figured the EEE....EEE was referring to the screeching of a modem trying to establish communication. --Jimmosk (talk) 22:07, 7 April 2026 (UTC)
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