Palmer's Grammar

Rereading Frank Palmer's Grammar, I was reminded of some phrases he writes in his book:

1. Speech is ephemeral while writing is permanent. You can only hear speech, and cannot touch or visualize it.
2. There are no spaces between words in speech. We separate words in writing butinspeechwecannotdoitandthat'swhypeoplespeakfast. So the task is to separate words when listening. A difficult task in a foreign language.
3. The letters of the alphabet are insufficient to represent the sounds of English. This I explain in my Phonética inglesa para torpes.
4. Grammar is the study of language, not a set of normative rules. If we study grammar we can better understand how a language works.