Fluency in a particularlanguage variety involves a speaker internalizing these rules, many or most of which areacquired by observing other speakers, as opposed to intentional study orinstruction. Much of this internalization occurs during early childhood; learning a language later in life usually involves more direct instruction.[1] The termgrammar can also describe the linguistic behaviour of groups of speakers and writers rather than individuals. Differences in scale are important to this meaning: for example,English grammar could describe those rules followed by every one of the language's speakers.[2] At smaller scales, 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 agrammar book. Areference work describing the grammar of a language is called areference grammar or simply agrammar. A fully revealed grammar, which describes thegrammatical constructions of a particular speech type in great detail is called descriptive grammar. This kind oflinguistic description contrasts withlinguistic prescription, a plan to marginalize some constructions whilecodifying others, either absolutely or in the framework of astandard language. The wordgrammar often has divergent meanings when used in contexts outside linguistics. It may be used more broadly to includeorthographic conventions ofwritten language, such asspelling andpunctuation, which are not typically considered part of grammar by linguists; that is, theconventions used for writing a language. It may also be used more narrowly to refer to a set ofprescriptive norms only, excluding the aspects of a language's grammar which do notchange or are clearly acceptable (or not) without the need for discussions.
The wordgrammar is derived fromGreekγραμματικὴ τέχνη (grammatikḕ téchnē), which means "art of letters", fromγράμμα (grámma), "letter", itself fromγράφειν (gráphein), "to draw, to write".[3] The same Greek root also appears in the wordsgraphics,grapheme, andphotograph.
Grammar appeared as a discipline inHellenism from the 3rd century BC forward with authors such asRhyanus andAristarchus of Samothrace. The oldest known grammar handbook is theArt of Grammar (Τέχνη Γραμματική), a succinct guide to speaking and writing clearly and effectively, written by the ancient Greek scholarDionysius Thrax (c. 170 – c. 90 BC), a student of Aristarchus of Samothrace who founded a school on the Greek island of Rhodes. Dionysius Thrax's grammar book remained the primary grammar textbook for Greek schoolboys until as late as the twelfth century AD. The Romans based their grammatical writings on it and its basic format remains the basis for grammar guides in many languages even today.[6]Latin grammar developed by following Greek models from the 1st century BC, due to the work of authors such asOrbilius Pupillus,Remmius Palaemon,Marcus Valerius Probus,Verrius Flaccus, andAemilius Asper.
Grammars of some languages began to be compiled for the purposes of evangelism andBible translation from the 16th century onward, such asGrammatica o Arte de la Lengua General de Los Indios de Los Reynos del Perú (1560), aQuechua grammar byFray Domingo de Santo Tomás.
From the latter part of the 18th century, grammar came to be understood as a subfield of the emerging discipline of modern linguistics. TheDeutsche Grammatik ofJacob Grimm was first published in the 1810s. TheComparative Grammar ofFranz Bopp, the starting point of moderncomparative linguistics, came out in 1833.
Agenerativesyntax tree in which the sentence (S) breaks down into a noun phrase (NP) and a verb phrase (VP), both of which break down into additional smaller constituents.
Frameworks of grammar which seek to give a precise scientific theory of the syntactic rules of grammar and their function have been developed intheoretical linguistics.
Grammars evolve throughusage. Historically, with the advent ofwritten representations, formal rules aboutlanguage usage tend to appear also, although such rules tend to describe writing conventions more accurately than conventions of speech.[9]Formal grammars arecodifications of usage which are developed by repeated documentation andobservation over time. As rules are established and developed, the prescriptive concept ofgrammatical correctness can arise. This often produces a discrepancy between contemporary usage and that which has been accepted, over time, as being standard or "correct". Linguists tend to view prescriptive grammar as having little justification beyond their authors' aesthetic tastes, although style guides may give useful advice aboutstandard language employment based on descriptions of usage in contemporary writings of the same language. Linguistic prescriptions also form part of the explanation for variation in speech, particularly variation in the speech of an individual speaker (for example, why some speakers 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 children's schooling from a young age through advancedlearning, though the rules taught in schools are not a "grammar" in the sense that mostlinguists use, particularly as they areprescriptive in intent rather thandescriptive.
Constructed languages (also calledplanned languages orconlangs) are more common in the modern day, although still extremely uncommon compared to natural languages. Many have been designed to aid human communication (for example, naturalisticInterlingua, schematicEsperanto, and the highly logicalLojban). Each of these languages has its own grammar.
Syntax refers to the linguistic structure above the word level (for example, how sentences are formed) – though without taking into accountintonation, which is the domain of phonology. Morphology, by contrast, refers to the structure at and below the word level (for example, howcompound words are formed), but above the level of individual sounds, which, like intonation, are in the domain of phonology.[10] However, no clear line can be drawn between syntax and morphology.Analytic languages use syntax to convey information that is encoded byinflection insynthetic 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. For example, Chinese andAfrikaans are highly analytic, thus meaning is very context-dependent. (Both have some inflections, and both have had more in the past; thus, they are becoming even less synthetic and more "purely" analytic over time.)Latin, which is highlysynthetic, usesaffixes andinflections to convey the same information that Chinese does with syntax. Because Latin words are quite (though not totally) self-contained, an intelligible Latinsentence can be made from elements that are arranged almost arbitrarily. Latin has a complex affixation and simple syntax, whereas Chinese has the opposite.
Prescriptive grammar is taught in primary and secondary school. The term "grammar school" historically referred to a school (attached to a cathedral or monastery) that teaches Latin grammar to future priests and monks. It originally referred to a school that taught students how to read, scan, interpret, and declaim Greek and Latin poets (including Homer, Virgil, Euripides, and others). These should not be mistaken for the related, albeit distinct, modern British grammar schools.
Title page of Joseph Priestley's Rudiments of English Grammar (1761)
Astandard language is a dialect that is promoted above other dialects in writing, education, and, broadly speaking, in the public sphere; it contrasts withvernacular dialects, which may be the objects of study in academic,descriptive linguistics but which are rarely taught prescriptively. The standardized "first language" taught in primary education may be subject topolitical controversy because it may sometimes establish a standard defining nationality orethnicity.
Cherokee language instruction at Kituwah Academy
Recently, efforts have begun to updategrammar instruction in primary and secondary education. The main focus has been to prevent the use of outdated prescriptive rules in favor of setting norms based on earlier descriptive research and to change perceptions about the relative "correctness" of prescribed standard forms in comparison to non-standard dialects. A series of metastudies have found that the explicit teaching of grammatical parts of speech and syntax has little or no effect on the improvement of student writing quality in elementary school, middle school or high school; other methods of writing instruction had far greater positive effect, including strategy instruction, collaborative writing, summary writing, process instruction, sentence combining and inquiry projects.[11][12][13]
The preeminence ofParisian French has reigned largely unchallenged throughout the history of modern French literature. Standard Italian is based on the speech of Florence rather than the capital because of its influence on early literature. Likewise, standard Spanish is not based on the speech of Madrid but on that of educated speakers from more northern areas such as Castile and León (seeGramática de la lengua castellana). InArgentina andUruguay the Spanish standard is based on the local dialects of Buenos Aires and Montevideo (Rioplatense Spanish).Portuguese has, for now,two official standards,Brazilian Portuguese andEuropean Portuguese.
TheSerbian variant ofSerbo-Croatian is likewise divided;Serbia and theRepublika Srpska ofBosnia and Herzegovina use their own distinct normative subvarieties, with differences inyat reflexes. The existence and codification of a distinct Montenegrin standard is a matter of controversy, some treatMontenegrin as a separate standard lect, and some think that it should be considered another form of Serbian.
Norwegian has two standards,Bokmål andNynorsk, the choice between which is subject tocontroversy: Each Norwegian municipality can either declare one as its official language or it can remain "language neutral". Nynorsk is backed by 27 percent of municipalities. The main language used in primary schools, chosen by referendum within the local school district, normally follows the official language of its municipality.Standard German emerged from the standardized chancellery use ofHigh German in the 16th and 17th centuries. Until about 1800, it was almost exclusively a written language, but now it is so widely spoken that most of the formerGerman 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), theRepublic of China (ROC), and theRepublic of Singapore. Pronunciation of Standard Chinese is based on the local accent ofMandarin Chinese from Luanping, Chengde in Hebei Province near Beijing, while grammar and syntax are based on modernvernacular written Chinese.
In the United States, the Society for the Promotion of Good Grammar designated 4 March asNational Grammar Day in 2008.[14]
Grammar instructions also differs between first-language (L1) and second-language (L2) learners, especially in academic writing. First-language (L1) are those composing in their native language, while second-language (L2) writers are writing in language they learned after childhood.[15] Research shows that L2 learners face additional challenges when revising grammar, as they must manage both language acquisition and writing development at the same time. According to Ester Odilia Breuer, revision in L2 writing is cognitively demanding and occurs not only after writing, but also during the planning and drafting stages. She argues that L2 writers often reorganize ideas and revise structure while composing, unlike L1 writers who may rely more on intuition and automatic grammar use.[16]
^Ashtadhyayi, Work by Panini. Encyclopædia Britannica. 2013.Archived from the original on 5 August 2017. Retrieved23 October 2017.Ashtadhyayi, Sanskrit Aṣṭādhyāyī ("Eight Chapters"), Sanskrit treatise on grammar written in the 6th to 5th century BCE by the Indian grammarian Panini.
^G. Khan, J. B. Noah,The Early Karaite Tradition of Hebrew Grammatical Thought (2000)
^Pinchas Wechter, Ibn Barūn's Arabic Works on Hebrew Grammar and Lexicography (1964)
^Carter, Ronald; McCarthy, Michael (2017). "Spoken Grammar: Where are We and Where are We Going?".Applied Linguistics.38:1–20.doi:10.1093/applin/amu080.
^Graham, S., & Perin, D. (2007). Writing next: Effective strategies to improve writing of adolescents in middle and high schools – A report to Carnegie Corporation of New York.Washington, DC:Alliance for Excellent Education.
