Descriptive Grammar 1
What is grammar?
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[G]rammar refers to the set of relationships that structure language […]
(Karmiloff and Karmiloff-Smith 2001:[86])
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The term ‘grammar’ is used in a number of different senses – the grammar of a
language may be understood to be a full description of the form and meaning
of the sentences of the language or else it may cover only certain, variously
delimited, parts of such a description […]
(Huddleston 1993:1)
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grammar /ˈgræmə/ noun
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the study of the way the sentences of a language are constructed;
morphology and syntax
these features or constructions themselves: English grammar
an account of these features; a set of rules accounting for these
constructions: a grammar of English
Generative Gram. a device, as a body of rules, whose output is all of
the sentences thare permissible in a given language, while excluding
all those that are not permissible
prescriptive grammar
knowledge or usage of the preferred or prescribed forms in speaking or
writing: She said his grammar was terrible.
the elements of any science, art, or subject
a book treating such elements
(Flexner 1987:828—9)
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grammar noun
1 a : a branch of linguistic study that deals with the classes of words,
their inflections or other means of indicating relation to each other, and
their functions and relations in the sentence as employed according to
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Descriptive Grammar 1
established usage and that is sometimes extended to include related
matter such as phonology, prosody, language history, orthography,
orthoepy1, etymology, or semantics
b : linguistics
[…]
(Gove 1963: 986)
Sources
Flexner 1987
Flexner, Stuart Berg (ed. in chief). Random House dictionary of the English language. 2nd ed. New
York : Random House, 1987. ISBN 0-394-50050-4
Gove 1963
Gove, Philip Babcock (ed. in chief). Webster’s third new international dictionary of the English
language. Unabridged. Springfield (Mass.) : G. & C. Merriam Company, 1963, ©1961. 56, 2662 p.
Huddleston 1993
Huddleston, Rodney. Introduction to the grammar of English. Reprinted. Cambridge : Cambridge
University Press, 1993. xv, 487 p. (Cambridge textbooks in linguistics)
Karmiloff and Karmiloff-Smith 2001
Karmiloff, Kyra and Karmiloff-Smith, Anette. Pathways to language : from fetus to adolescent.
Cambridge (Massachusetts) ; London (England) : Harvard University Press, 2001. 256 p. (The
developing child)
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1: the customary pronunciation of a language
2: the study of the pronunciation of a language
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