Everything about Grammar totally explained
Grammar is the study of the
rules governing the use of a given
natural language, and, as such, is a field of
linguistics.
Traditionally, grammar included
morphology and
syntax; in modern linguistics these subfields are complemented by
phonetics,
phonology,
semantics, and
pragmatics.
Each language has its own distinct grammar. "English grammar" (uncountable) refers to the rules of the English language itself, while "
an English grammar" (countable) refers to a specific study or analysis of these rules.
A fully explicit grammar exhaustively describing the
grammatical constructions of a language is called a
descriptive grammar.
Specific types of grammars, or approaches to constructing them, are known as
grammatical frameworks. The standard framework of
generative grammar is the
transformational grammar model developed by
Noam Chomsky in the 1950s to 1980s.
A reference book that attempts a comprehensive description of the grammar of a language may be called "a grammar" or "a reference grammar".
Etymology
The word "grammar" derives from
Greek γραμματική τέχνη (
grammatike techne), "art of letters", from
γράμμα (
gramma), "letter" and that from
γράφειν (
graphein), "to draw, to write".
History
The first systematic grammars originate in
Iron Age India, with
Panini (4th c. BC) and his commentators
Pingala (ca. 200 BC),
Katyayana and
Patanjali (2nd c. BC). In the West, grammar emerges as a discipline in
Hellenism from the 3rd c. BC with authors like
Rhyanus and
Aristarchus of Samothrace, the oldest extant work being the
Art of Grammar attributed to
Dionysius Thrax (ca. 100 BC).
Latin grammar developed following Greek models from the 1st century BC with authors such as
Orbilius Pupillus,
Remmius Palaemon,
Marcus Valerius Probus,
Verrius Flaccus,
Aemilius Asper.
Tamil grammatical tradition also began around the 1st century BC with the
Tolkāppiyam.
A grammar of
Irish originated in the 7th century with the
Auraicept na n-Éces.
Arabic grammar emerges from the 8th century with the work of
Ibn Abi Ishaq and his students.
Belonging to the
trivium of the seven
liberal arts, grammar was taught as a core discipline throughout the
Middle Ages, following authors of
Late Antiquity like
Priscian. Treatment of vernaculars begins gradually from the
High Middle Ages, with isolated works such as the
First Grammatical Treatise, but becomes influential only from the
Renaissance and
Baroque periods. In
1486,
Antonio de Nebrija published
Las introduciones Latinas contrapuesto el romance al Latin, and in 1492 the first
Spanish grammar,
Gramática de la lengua castellana . In 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).
Grammars of non-European languages began to be compiled from the 16th century for the purpose of
evangelization and
Bible translation from the 16th century, such as
Grammatica o Arte de la Lengua General de los Indios de los Reynos del Perú (1560), a
Quechua grammar by
Fray Domingo de Santo Tomás. In 1643 appeared
Ivan Uzhevych's
Grammatica sclavonica, in 1762 the
Short Introduction to English Grammar of
Robert Lowth. The
Grammatisch-Kritisches Wörterbuch der hochdeutschen Mundart, a
High German grammar in five volumes by
Johann Christoph Adelung, appeared from 1774.
From the later 18th century, grammar came to be understood as a subfield of the emerging subject of modern
linguistics. The Serbian grammar by
Vuk Stefanović Karadžić appeared in 1814. The
Deutsche Grammatik of the
Brothers Grimm appeared from 1818. The
Comparative Grammar of
Franz Bopp, starting point of modern
comparative linguistics, in 1833.
In the
USA, the Society for the Promotion of Good Grammar has designated March 4, 2008 as National Grammar Day.
Development of grammars
Grammars evolve through usage and also of human population separations. 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
observation. As the rules become established and developed, the prescriptive concept of grammatical correctness can arise. This often creates a gulf between contemporary usage and that which is accepted as correct. Linguists normally consider that prescriptive grammars don't have any justification beyond their authors' aesthetic tastes; however, prescriptions are considered in
sociolinguistics as part of the explanation 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 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, as they're 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.
No clear line can be drawn between syntax and morphology.
Analytic languages use
syntax to convey information that's encoded via
inflection in
synthetic languages. In other words, word order isn't significant and
morphology is highly significant in a purely synthetic language, whereas morphology isn't 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 had more in the past; thus, they're 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 placed in largely arbitrary order. Latin has a complex affixation and a simple syntax, while Chinese has the opposite.
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 USA. Of these, the main divisions are:
Further Information
Get more info on 'Grammar'.
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