Grammar is the study of the rules governing the use of a given natural language, and as such a field of linguistics.
Traditionally, grammar included morphology and syntax, in modern linguistics commonly expanded by the subfields of phonetics,
phonology, orthography, semantics, and pragmatics.
The same term is also applied to any set of such rules; thus, each language can be said to have its own distinct grammar. Thus
"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 langauge is called a prescriptive grammar, or, in theoretical
linguistics, a generative 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.
History
- Further information: History of linguistics
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 (Τέχνη Γραμματική) attributed to
Dionysius Thrax (ca. 100 BC). Latin grammar
develops 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 begins in ca. the 1st century BC with the Tolkāppiyam.
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 the 1560 Gramática o Arte de la Lengua General de los Incas o los Reyes del Perú 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.
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 do not 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 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.
No clear line can be drawn 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 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 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 an "Universal
grammar" in the USA. Of these, the main divisions are:
See also
References
- American Academic Press, The (ed.). William Strunk, Jr., et al. The Classics
of Style: The Fundamentals of Language Style From Our American Craftsmen. Cleveland: The American Academic Press, 2006. ISBN
0978728203.
- Rundle, Bede. Grammar in Philosophy. Oxford: Clarendon Press; New York: Oxford University Press, 1979. ISBN
0198246129.
External links
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