In
linguistics,
grammar is the set of
structural rules that govern the composition of
clauses,
phrases, and
words in any given
natural language. The term refers also to the study of such rules, and this field includes
morphology,
syntax, and
phonology, often complemented by
phonetics,
semantics, and
pragmatics. Linguists do not normally use the term to refer to
orthographical rules, although
usage books and
style guides that call themselves grammars may also refer to spelling and
punctuation.
The term "grammar" is often used by non-linguists with a very broad meaning indeed; as Jeremy Butterfield puts it: "Grammar is often a generic way of referring to any aspect of English that people object to."
[1] However, linguists use it in a much more specific sense. Every speaker of a language has, in his or her head, a set of rules
[2] for using that language. This is a grammar, and—at least in the case of one's native language—the vast majority of the information in it is
acquired not by conscious study or instruction, but by observing other speakers; much of this work is done during infancy. Language learning later in life, of course, may involve a greater degree of explicit instruction.
[3]
The term "grammar" can also be used to describe the rules that govern the linguistic behaviour of a group of speakers. The term "English grammar", therefore, may have several meanings. It may refer to the whole of English grammar—that is, to the grammars of all the speakers of the language—in which case, the term encompasses a great deal of variation.
[4] Alternatively, it may refer only to what is common to the grammars of all, or of the vast majority of, English speakers (such as
subject–verb–object word order in
simple declarative sentences). Or it may refer to the rules of a particular, relatively well-defined variety of English (such as
Standard English).
"
An English grammar" is a specific description, study or analysis of such rules. A
reference book describing the grammar of a language is called a "reference grammar" or simply "a grammar." A fully explicit grammar that exhaustively describes the
grammatical constructions of a language is called a descriptive grammar. Linguistic description contrasts with
linguistic prescription, which tries to enforce rules of how a language is to be used.
Grammatical frameworks are approaches to constructing grammars. The most known among the approaches is the
traditional grammar which is traditionally taught in schools.
The standard framework of
generative grammar is the
transformational grammar model developed in various ways by
Noam Chomsky and his associates from the 1950s onwards.
[edit] Etymology
The word
grammar derives from
Greek γραμματικὴ τέχνη (
grammatikē technē), which means "art of letters", from
γράμμα (
gramma), "letter", itself from
γράφειν (
graphein), "to draw, to write".
[5]
[edit] History
The first systematic grammars originated in
Iron Age India, with
Yaska (6th c. BC),
Pāṇini (4th c. BC) and his commentators
Pingala (ca. 200 BC),
Katyayana, and
Patanjali (2nd c. BC). In the West, grammar emerged as a discipline in
Hellenism from the 3rd c. BC forward with authors like
Rhyanus and
Aristarchus of Samothrace, the oldest extant work being the
Art of Grammar (
Τέχνη Γραμματική), attributed to
Dionysius Thrax (ca. 100 BC).
Latin grammar developed by following Greek models from the 1st century BC, due to the work of authors such as
Orbilius Pupillus,
Remmius Palaemon,
Marcus Valerius Probus,
Verrius Flaccus, and
Aemilius Asper.
Tolkāppiyam is the earliest
Tamil grammar; it has been
dated variously between 1st CE and 10th CE.
A grammar of
Irish originated in the 7th century with the
Auraicept na n-Éces.
Arabic grammar emerged from the 8th century with the work of
Ibn Abi Ishaq and his students.
The first treatises on
Hebrew grammar appeared in the
High Middle Ages, in the context of
Mishnah (exegesis of the
Hebrew Bible). The
Karaite tradition originated in
Abbasid Baghdad. The
Diqduq (10th century) is one of the earliest grammatical commentaries on the Hebrew Bible.
[6] Ibn Barun in the 12th century compares the Hebrew language with
Arabic in the
Islamic grammatical tradition.
[7]
Belonging to the
trivium of the seven
liberal arts, grammar was taught as a core discipline throughout the
Middle Ages, following the influence of authors from
Late Antiquity, such as
Priscian. Treatment of vernaculars began gradually during the
High Middle Ages, with isolated works such as the
First Grammatical Treatise, but became influential only in the
Renaissance and
Baroque periods. In
1486,
Antonio de Nebrija published
Las introduciones Latinas contrapuesto el romance al Latin, and the first
Spanish grammar,
Gramática de la lengua castellana, in 1492. During the 16th century
Italian Renaissance, the
Questione della lingua was the discussion on the status and ideal form of the
Italian language, initiated by
Dante's
de vulgari eloquentia (
Pietro Bembo,
Prose della volgar lingua Venice 1525). The first grammar of
Slovene language was written in 1584 by
Adam Bohorič.
Grammars of non-European languages began to be compiled for the purposes of
evangelization and
Bible translation from the 16th century onward, such as
Grammatica o Arte de la Lengua General de los Indios de los Reynos del Perú (1560), and a
Quechua grammar by
Fray Domingo de Santo Tomás.
In 1643 there appeared
Ivan Uzhevych's
Grammatica sclavonica and, in 1762, the
Short Introduction to English Grammar of
Robert Lowth was also published. The
Grammatisch-Kritisches Wörterbuch der hochdeutschen Mundart, a
High German grammar in five volumes by
Johann Christoph Adelung, appeared as early as 1774.
From the latter part of the 18th century, grammar came to be understood as a subfield of the emerging discipline of modern
linguistics. The Serbian grammar by
Vuk Stefanović Karadžić arrived in 1814, while the
Deutsche Grammatik of the
Brothers Grimm was first published in 1818. The
Comparative Grammar of
Franz Bopp, the starting point of modern
comparative linguistics, came out in 1833.
[edit] Development of grammars
Grammars evolve through usage and also due to separations of the human population. With the advent of written
representations, formal rules about language usage tend to appear also. Formal grammars are
codifications of usage that are developed by repeated documentation over time, and by
observation as well. As the rules become established and developed, the prescriptive concept of grammatical correctness can arise. This often creates a discrepancy between contemporary usage and that which has been accepted, over time, as being correct. Linguists tend to view prescriptive grammars as having little justification beyond their authors' aesthetic tastes, although style guides may give useful advice about Standard English based on descriptions of usage in contemporary writing. Linguistic prescriptions also form part of the explanation for variation in speech, particularly variation in the speech of an individual speaker (an explanation, for example, for why some people say, "I didn't do nothing"; some say, "I didn't do anything"; and some say one or the other depending on social context).
The formal study of grammar is an important part of
education for children from a young age through advanced
learning, though the rules taught in schools are not a "grammar" in the sense most
linguists use the term, particularly as they are often
prescriptive rather than
descriptive.
Constructed languages (also called planned languages or conlangs) are more common in the modern day. Many have been designed to aid human
communication (for example, naturalistic
Interlingua, schematic
Esperanto, and the highly logic-compatible
artificial language Lojban). Each of these languages has its own grammar.
Syntax refers to linguistic structure above the word level (e.g. how sentences are formed)—though without taking into account
intonation, which is the domain of phonology. Morphology, by contrast, refers to structure at and below the word level (e.g. how compound words are formed), but above the level of individual sounds, which, like intonation, are in the domain of phonology.
[8] No clear line can be drawn, however, between syntax and morphology.
Analytic languages use
syntax to convey information that is encoded via
inflection in
synthetic languages. In other words, word order is not significant and
morphology is highly significant in a purely synthetic language, whereas morphology is not significant and syntax is highly significant in an analytic language.
Chinese and
Afrikaans, for example, are highly analytic, and meaning is therefore very context-dependent. (Both do have some inflections, and have had more in the past; thus, they are becoming even less synthetic and more "purely" analytic over time.)
Latin, which is highly
synthetic, uses
affixes and
inflections to convey the same information that Chinese does with
syntax. Because Latin words are quite (though not completely) self-contained, an intelligible Latin
sentence can be made from elements that are placed in a largely arbitrary order. Latin has a complex affixation and simple syntax, while Chinese has the opposite.
[edit] Grammar frameworks
Various "grammar frameworks" have been developed in
theoretical linguistics since the mid 20th century, in particular under the influence of the idea of a "
universal grammar" in the United States. Of these, the main divisions are:
[edit] Education
Prescriptive grammar is taught in
primary school (
elementary school). The term "
grammar school" historically refers to a school teaching
Latin grammar to future Roman citizens, orators, and, later, Catholic priests. In its earliest form, "grammar school" referred to a school that taught students to read, scan, interpret, and declaim Greek and Latin poets (including Homer, Virgil, Euripides, Ennius, and others). These should not be confused with the related, albeit distinct, modern British
grammar schools.
A
standard language is a particular dialect of a language that is promoted above other dialects in writing, education, and broadly speaking in the public sphere; it contrasts with
vernacular dialects, which may be the objects of study in
descriptive grammar but which are rarely taught prescriptively. The standardized "
first language" taught in primary education may be subject to
political controversy, since it establishes a standard defining
nationality or
ethnicity.
Recently, efforts have begun to update
grammar instruction in primary and secondary education. The primary focus has been to prevent the use of outdated prescriptive rules in favor of more accurate descriptive ones and to change perceptions about relative "correctness" of standard forms in comparison to non standard dialects.
The pre-eminence of
Parisian French has reigned largely unchallenged throughout the history of modern French literature. Standard
Italian is not based on the speech of the capital, Rome, but on the speech of
Florence because of the influence Florentines had on early
Italian literature. Similarly, standard Spanish is not based on the speech of
Madrid, but on the one of educated speakers from more northerly areas like
Castile and León. In
Argentina and
Uruguay the Spanish standard is based on the local dialects of
Buenos Aires and
Montevideo (
Rioplatense Spanish).
Portuguese has for now two official written standards, respectively
Brazilian Portuguese and
European Portuguese, but in a short term it will have a unified orthography.
[9]
The
Serbian language is divided in a similar way;
Serbia and the
Republika Srpska use their own separate standards. The existence of a third standard is a matter of controversy, some consider
Montenegrin as a separate language, and some think it's merely another variety of Serbian.
Norwegian has two standards,
Bokmål and
Nynorsk, the choice between which is subject to
controversy: Each Norwegian municipality can declare one of the two its official language, or it can remain "language neutral". Nynorsk is endorsed by a minority of 27 percent of the municipalities. The main language used in primary schools normally follows the official language of its municipality, and is decided by referendum within the local school district.
Standard German emerged out of the standardized chancellery use of
High German in the 16th and 17th centuries. Until about 1800, it was almost entirely a written language, but now it is so widely spoken that most of the former
German dialects are nearly extinct.
Standard Chinese has official status as the standard spoken form of the
Chinese language in the
People's Republic of China (PRC), the
Republic of China (ROC) and the
Republic of Singapore. Pronunciation of Standard Chinese is based on the
Beijing dialect of
Mandarin Chinese, while grammar and syntax are based on modern
vernacular written Chinese.
Modern Standard Arabic is directly based on
Classical Arabic, the language of the
Qur'an. The
Hindustani language has two standards,
Hindi and
Urdu.
In the United States, the Society for the Promotion of Good Grammar designated March 4 as
National Grammar Day in 2008.
[10
Kamis, 22 Desember 2011
