Grammar

Grammar is the set of rules of a language. It is the collection of principles defining how to put words together. Grammar includes how words are arranged in sentences, or syntax, and how sentences are arranged to create cohesive understanding.

Every language has grammar components or rules on how words must be arranged to make sense. Studying grammar helps people understand what creates clear and intelligible sentence structure to gain meaning. Depending on one's views, grammar can either be prescriptive, meaning it provides rules for correct usage, or descriptive, which means it describes how language is used.

Background

Ancient Greeks used grammar as a tool in the study of literature. In the first century BCE, the Alexandrians further used grammar to preserve the Greek language. Dionysius Thrax, a Greek grammarian, wrote an influential paper, The Art of Grammar, in which he analyzed written works in terms of letters, syllables, and parts of speech. The grammar model for the Greeks and the Alexandrians was the writings and language of Homer. The Romans adopted the idea of grammar from the Greeks and adapted it to Latin. The Roman grammar model came from the writings and language of Cicero and Virgil. In medieval Europe, because education was conducted in Latin, Latin grammar became the cornerstone of the language curriculum.

From the thirteenth century into the seventeenth century, educators looked for a universal grammar. They wanted to find common elements that described grammatical categories of all languages. These grammarians did not study the language of literature, but thought that grammar should be dictated by the way people actually spoke, which is known as the living language. Some modern researchers recognize these educators as the first transformational grammarians. Transformational grammar is the idea that no languages are unique. It proposes that all languages follow the same underlying rules.

New theories about grammar emerged around the 1950s. Noam Chomsky, a linguist, offered the idea that the ability to learn grammar was hardwired in the brain. He called this concept the language acquisition device. Overall, he thought that the ability to learn language is already in humans' genes and as children grow, they learn to process the information they hear.

Overview

Grammarians believe that babies begin to learn basic grammar in their first year of life. Later, many children study grammar in school to understand language better and to learn the rules of grammar.

In the English language, different types of words work together to create meaning. Words that define people, places, and things are called nouns. Words that describe actions are called verbs. Words like a, an, and the are called articles. Some other types of words include pronouns, prepositions, and conjunctions.

English sentence structure depends on three things: word order, inflection, and function words. Word order is the most important component of grammar. If the word order of a sentence is changed, the meaning of the sentence will also change. In the English language, word order dictates which part of the sentence is the subject and which part is the object or the predicate of the sentence. The order of words can also show which words modify other words within sentences. Inflection, the second component of grammar in the English language, is a change in the form of a word. For instance, -er and -est are inflectional endings that can be added to words, such as hot, hotter, and hottest. The addition of -ly to the end of a word usually shows that a word will function as an adverb—quickly, softly. The English language has other inflectional endings such as -s and -es to pluralize words. For example, book becomes books and church becomes churches. The third component of grammar in the English language, function words, show relationships between words in sentences or specify grammatical meanings. Two types of function words are prepositions—such as around, near, and by—which show relationships between words, and conjunctions, including but and or, which connect clauses, sentences, or words.

The English language includes various important components to grammar, such as subject-verb agreement. When it comes to subject-verb agreement, if the subject of a sentence contains two or more nouns, then the predicate part of the sentence must contain a plural form of a verb. The subject part of a sentence is the person, place, thing, or idea that is doing or being something. The predicate is the part of the sentence that contains the verb and states something about the subject. An example for this is, the cats are eating their dinner. Because there is more than one cat, the plural verb are must be used in the subject of the sentence. Likewise, if a sentence has only one noun in the subject, then a singular verb must be used in the predicate part of the sentence. An example for this is, the cat is eating his dinner. Because there is only one cat, the singular verb is must be used in the sentence.

The two major types of grammar are prescriptive grammar and descriptive grammar. Prescriptive grammar is the traditional way people view grammar. In this type of grammar, people follow a prescribed set of rules. Teachers rely on tradition and favored style guides to instruct students in grammar rules. Many people view individuals who do not abide by the rules as being careless or uneducated. In the United States, the style of grammar that is used in schools, government agencies, and in professional situations is called Standard American English. Descriptive grammarians, in contrast, observe and study language as it is used within communities. They seek rules and patterns that speakers follow. Descriptive grammar does not distinguish between correct or incorrect ways to speak or use grammar. Descriptive grammarians may study dialects, which are the forms of languages specific to a region or social group.

Not all languages function the same way. For instance, the Latin language relies on changes in the forms of words. In Chinese, the pitch of a speaker's voice is very important. English emphasizes the order in which words appear in sentences.

Bibliography

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