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I would like to continue Steve's thoughts in his first paragraph.

 

I hear you and totally agree about precise syntax, but what's wrong with that?  As a former software developer, syntax (read as grammar, punctuation, capitalization, ...) is extremely important.   It is what makes any language (spoken, written, computer, ...) compact and meaningful to communicate an intended idea.  I vote for doing syntax correct, the first time and all the time.  I do not want my computer program to try to figure out what it thought I meant when I wrote a program that was syntactically incorrect.  For example what's wrong with:

"English children dog walked market. The pulled tired to hungry"

I can think of at least 6 arrangements for this sytactically correct English "sentence."

Syntax is VERY important for correct decoding of what was intended.  We, as teachers, should grade every student artifact for sytax all the time; not just in English class.

 

Computational linguistics is an important study about computer languages and it is extremely precise.  Coming close is the language of mathematics including all its nomenclature.  Mathematics is close to a universal language.  Mathematics' utilitarian conventions facilitate efficient communication.  This is true across all subjects, across all disciplines.  We, as teachers, sometimes say we want a rigid curriculum.  I argue that we should practice it, preach it, model it, and expect nothing short of correct form and syntax.

 

I will leave semantics and pragmatics for another day.  :)