Concept
Grammar
Overview
In linguistics, grammar is the system of rules that governs how a natural language is structured and used, as evidenced by its speakers or writers. Grammar rules may concern the use of clauses, phrases, and words. The term may also refer to the study of such rules, a subject that includes phonology, morphology, and syntax, together with phonetics, semantics, and pragmatics. There are in effect two different ways to study grammar: traditional grammar and theoretical grammar.
Fluency in a particular language variety involves a speaker internalizing these rules, many or most of which are acquired by observing other speakers, as opposed to intentional study or instruction. Much of this internalization occurs during early childhood; learning a language later in life usually involves more direct instruction. The term grammar can also describe the linguistic behaviour of groups of speakers and writers rather than individuals. Differences in scale can impact this definition: for example, English grammar could describe the rules followed by every one of the language's speakers. At a smaller scale, it may refer to rules shared by smaller groups of speakers.
A description, study, or analysis of such rules may also be known as a grammar, or as a grammar book. A reference work describing the grammar of a language is called a reference grammar or simply a grammar. A fully revealed grammar, which describes the grammatical constructions of a particular speech type in great detail, is called descriptive grammar. This type of linguistic description contrasts with linguistic prescription, a plan to marginalize some constructions while codifying others, either absolutely or in the framework of a standard language. The word grammar often has divergent meanings when used in contexts outside linguistics. It may be used more broadly to include orthographic conventions of written language, such as spelling and punctuation, which are not typically considered part of grammar by linguists; that is, the conventions used for writing a language. It may also be used more narrowly to refer to a set of prescriptive norms only, excluding the aspects of a language's grammar which do not change or are clearly acceptable (or not) without the need for discussions.
Overview adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0; see the article history for authors).
In the original texts
Passages from public-domain books where Grammar is discussed.
This is exemplified in the abandonment of that intensely stupid custom, the teaching of grammar to children. As M. Marcel says:--"It may without hesitation be affirmed that grammar is not the stepping-stone, but the finishing instrument." As Mr. Wyse argues:--"Grammar and Syntax are a collection of laws and rules. Rules are gathered from practice; they are the results of induction to which we come by long…
Herbert Spencer, Essays on education and kindred subjects
names the idea; states what it is
SPERBERG-McQUEEN discussed the variety of forms of formal grammars, implicit and explicit, as applied to text, and their capabilities. He argued that these grammars correspond to different models of text that different developers have. For example, one implicit model of the text is that there is no internal structure, but just one thing after another, a few characters and then perhaps a start-title command, and then…
Library of Congress, Workshop on Electronic Texts
names the idea; opens on it
The classic languages were the only means of escape from the limitations of the Middle Ages. Thus there sprang up the prototype of the grammar school, more liberal than the university (so largely professional in character), for the purpose of putting into the hands of the people the key to the old learning, that men might see a world with a larger horizon. The object was primarily culture, secondarily discipline. It…
John Dewey, The school and society
names the idea; opens on it
It seems as if the language of the most civilised nations has the most imperfect grammar, and that the same language has a more perfect grammar when the nation is in a more uncivilised state than when it reaches a higher civilisation. (Cf. W. von Humboldt’s _Essay on the Dual_.)
Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, Hegel's Philosophy of Mind
names the idea
The emphasis is put on helping the child to express his ideas; but such work affords ample opportunity for the drill in the required mechanics of writing. Grammar no longer appears as a separate subject in the Chicago public school curriculum; the teacher gives a lesson in grammar every time any one in the classroom talks and with every written exercise. However, grammar can be given a purpose and made interesting…
John Dewey, Schools of to-morrow
names the idea
Philosophers who discussed Grammar
- Pierre Bourdieu
- Hemachandra
- Alexander Bain (philosopher)
- Heraclides Ponticus
- Roland Barthes
- Al-Farabi
- Marshall McLuhan
- Marsilio Ficino
- Michelangelo
- Renaissance
- Roger Bacon
- Zeno of Citium
- Language of thought hypothesis
- Abu Bakr al-Razi
- Porphyry of Tyre
- Theophrastus
- Robert Kilwardby
- Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius
- Nigidius Figulus
- Motoori Norinaga
- Crates of Mallus
- Jan of Głogów
- Manwel Dimech
- Jan of Stobnica
Related ideas
- Pingala
- Grapheme
- Hindi
- Word
- Ancient Greek
- Latin
- Lambda calculus
- Learning
- Language acquisition
- Middle Ages
- Argentina
- Mandarin Chinese
- Natural language
- Norwegian language
- Observation
- Linguistics
- Phonology
- Patanjali
- Portuguese language
- Quechuan languages
- Renaissance
- First language
- Syntax
- Singapore
Opposing perspectives
Place in the tradition
Part of Conventionalism.