Grammar

Grammar

1. Although people learn their own language without knowing the rules of grammar, we can say that grammar is a set of rules about words used in a language to form sentences, which is a reflection of a language at a given moment. These rules are necessary if you want to learn to speak a language quickly and efficiently. The study of these rules includes phonology, morphology and syntax.

2. Types of grammar

   • Generative Grammar Any theory capable of producing well-formed sentences or rejecting bad forming.
   • Mental grammar. This relates to the generative grammar that a native speaker possesses, and allows him to produce language in an understandable way. This kind of grammar is unconscious, that is, it is not taught; any adult speaker has mental grammar to recognize suitable structures for communicating, even if he does not know the reason of it.
   • Comparative grammar It is concerned with the analysis and comparison of grammatical structures of related languages. The objective is to compare the grammatical forms and usages of a group of tongues and reduce them to their earliest forms and senses.
   • Pedagogical Grammar It teaches you how to use the grammar of a language to communicate, for people the target language.
   • Prescriptive grammar Focused on what to do and not do in grammatical construction. Sets four rules about how language should be used correctly. This kind of grammar is taught in schools.
   • Descriptive Grammar It refers to an objective description of the grammatical constructions in a language. It is the basis for dictionaries, which records the changes in vocabulary and use. It details the way native speakers use the language, with the changes it goes through over the years. Its main goal is to explain how language works, with no assumption of ‘correctness’
   • Performance Grammar It is the language used in spontaneous conversations. It centers the attention on the production of language, containing different utterances produced by native speakers, even hesitations and unfinished structures.
   • Theorical Grammar It is concerned with the study of the essential components of any human language in general. This is a scientific theory that provides explanations about certain forms the language contains and not others. The purpose of this kind of grammar is the understanding of language
   • Transformational Grammar This theory of grammar should be with the constructions of a language by linguistic transformations and phrase structures. It focuses mainly on syntax rather than phonology or morphology. In transformational grammar, ‘rules’ are internalized by the speaker, unconsciously followed in the production and interpretation of sentences. Transformational grammar relates the active sentence “John read the book” with its corresponding passive “The book was read by John”.
   • Reference Grammar It describes the grammar, giving explanations of the rules and uses of words, phrases, clauses and sentences, as well as phonological features. It brings together a coherent treatment of a language as a system, within its cultural context, looking at the history of it too.
   • Traditional Grammar Also, known as ‘school grammar’ because it is the one that is taught in schools, that is the rules and concepts about the structure of language. It is based on the principles of Latin grammar. It is prescriptive since it relates to the distinction between what some people do with language and what they should do with it. It has the operational eight parts of speech: verbs, nouns, pronouns, adjectives, adverbs, prepositions, conjunctions and interjections. It is mainly based on function or meaning.
   • Universal Grammar It is a theory of grammars; it is a system of categories, operations and principles shared by all human languages, which are innate. It is about the human faculty for language. All humans are born with an understanding of the rules of grammar; humans have a natural predilection to learn and use them.

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