Grammar

In linguistics, grammar is the system of rules that governs how a natural language is structured and used, as evidenced by its speakers or writers. Grammar rules may concern the use of clauses, phrases, and words. The term may also refer to the study of such rules, a subject that includes phonology, morphology, and syntax, together with phonetics, semantics, and pragmatics. There are in effect two different ways to study grammar: traditional grammar and theoretical grammar. Fluency in a particular language variety involves a speaker internalizing these rules, many or most of which are acquired by observing other speakers, as opposed to intentional study or instruction. Much of this internalization occurs during early childhood; learning a language later in life usually involves more direct instruction. The term grammar can also describe the linguistic behaviour of groups of speakers and writers rather than individuals. Differences in scale can impact this definition: for example, English grammar could describe the rules followed by every one of the language's speakers. At a smaller scale, 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 a grammar book. A reference work describing the grammar of a language is called a reference grammar or simply a grammar.…

In linguistics, grammar is the system of rules that governs how a natural language is structured and used, as evidenced by its speakers or writers. Grammar rules may concern the use of clauses, phrases, and words. The term may also refer to the study of such rules, a subject that includes phonology, morphology, and syntax, together with phonetics, semantics, and pragmatics. There are in effect two different ways to study grammar: traditional grammar and theoretical grammar. Fluency in a particular language variety involves a speaker internalizing these rules, many or most of which are acquired by observing other speakers, as opposed to intentional study or instruction. Much of this internalization occurs during early childhood; learning a language later in life usually involves more direct instruction. The term grammar can also describe the linguistic behaviour of groups of speakers and writers rather than individuals. Differences in scale can impact this definition: for example, English grammar could describe the rules followed by every one of the language's speakers. At a smaller scale, 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 a grammar book. A reference work describing the grammar of a language is called a reference grammar or simply a grammar. A fully revealed grammar, which describes the grammatical constructions of a particular speech type in great detail, is called descriptive grammar. This type of linguistic description contrasts with linguistic prescription, a plan to marginalize some constructions while codifying others, either absolutely or in the framework of a standard language. The word grammar often has divergent meanings when used in contexts outside linguistics. It may be used more broadly to include orthographic conventions of written language, such as spelling and punctuation, which are not typically considered part of grammar by linguists; that is, the conventions used for writing a language. It may also be used more narrowly to refer to a set of prescriptive norms only, excluding the aspects of a language's grammar which do not change or are clearly acceptable (or not) without the need for discussions.

Theoretical frameworks

syntax 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 in theoretical linguistics. Dependency grammar: dependency relation (Lucien Tesnière 1959) Link grammar Functional grammar (structural–functional analysis): Danish Functionalism Functional Discourse Grammar Role and reference grammar Systemic functional grammar Montague grammar Cognitive grammar / Cognitive linguistics Construction grammar Fluid Construction Grammar Word grammar Generative grammar: Transformational grammar (1960s) Generative semantics (1970s) and Semantic Syntax (1990s) Phrase structure grammar (late 1970s) Generalized phrase structure grammar (late 1970s) Head-driven phrase structure grammar (1985) Principles and parameters grammar (Government and binding theory) (1980s) Lexical functional grammar Categorial grammar (lambda calculus) Minimalist program-based grammar (1993) Stochastic grammar: probabilistic Operator grammar Parse trees are commonly used by such frameworks to depict their rules. There are various alternative schemes for some grammar: Affix grammar over a finite lattice Backus–Naur form Constraint grammar Lambda calculus Tree-adjoining grammar X-bar theory

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