| What is grammar? Is it different from semantics? | | | | prescriptive approach to grammar in the modern |
| Or is it the same as linguistics? This short | | | | age. They prefer to describe language as it exists |
| run-through on grammar and some of the details | | | | in a given speech community. |
| will walk you through some important but | | | | However, many teachers, grammarians, and |
| unfamiliar terms, names, and other items related | | | | pedagogues in general still have a prescriptive |
| to grammar and linguistics. | | | | approach towards grammar. They hold to |
| Grammar is actually a branch of linguistics dealing | | | | standardized rules as being the only proper way |
| with the form and structure of words (called | | | | to speak the language. |
| morphology) and their inter-relations in sentences | | | | Prescriptive grammar is used in teaching a |
| (called syntax). The study of grammar reveals | | | | language to non-native speakers. When teaching |
| how language works. | | | | English, for example, it is deemed important to |
| Kinds Of Grammar | | | | use a "standard" form of English as some form of |
| There are two kinds of common categories of | | | | basis to teach from. It had been declared that |
| grammar: descriptive and prescriptive. Both of | | | | these also help reduce confusion among students. |
| these are in wide use, although linguists tend | | | | Once the language has been acquired, of course, |
| towards a descriptive approach to grammar. | | | | a less-prescriptive approach will necessarily take |
| Those who are teaching English tend to go for | | | | over. Today, the movies and television, plus some |
| the more prescriptive approach. Usually, however, | | | | books are the places where non-native speakers |
| there is a bit of give and take in both approaches. | | | | learn the regional rules of the sample English |
| Descriptive | | | | language. Some of the rules may not conform |
| A descriptive grammar looks at the grammar of | | | | then to the prescriptive grammar the student |
| any language (or dialect for that matter) as it | | | | originally learned the English from. |
| actually exists. A sentence is judged grammatical | | | | There are other approaches to the study of |
| based on the rules of the speech group in which it | | | | grammar aside from the prescriptive and the |
| is spoken, and not from the arbitrary set of rules. | | | | descriptive kinds. They are the historical, |
| An example "He done got thrown off the horse" | | | | comparative and functional kinds, too. They usually |
| would be grammatical and it can be defended with | | | | focus on word building and word order, concerned |
| an entire set of rules of grammar that would | | | | mainly with the structure of the language. |
| explain why that sentence is indeed grammatical. | | | | These types are also distinct from phonology (the |
| Other versions of the sentence might also be | | | | linguistic study of sound) and semantics (the |
| judged grammatical in other communities, and | | | | linguistic study of meaning or content). |
| with only a version "He was thrown off of the | | | | The American linguistic scholar Noah Chomsky |
| horse" considered acceptable by all. | | | | approached grammar as a theory of language. |
| Prescriptive Grammar | | | | Language here means the knowledge that men |
| On the other hand, a prescriptive grammar looks | | | | have that allow them to acquire a language. |
| at the norms of speech as given by authoritative | | | | The man on the streets would argue that |
| sources (upper-class groups or the academics) | | | | grammar is how one person uses a set of rules |
| and creates strict rules by which all speech within | | | | of any language to communicate to another. So |
| that language must abide to be considered | | | | far, this short run-through of grammar has not as |
| grammatical. | | | | yet ascertained which set of rules to follow: that |
| Nowadays, only a few linguists would take a | | | | of the prescriptivists or the descriptivists? |