Introduction: Four Conceptions of Grammar
By the time students get to college, they have had some exposure to what most people call
"grammar." However, if you ask a random group of educated people what is meant by this
term, they come up with a widely divergent range of explanations and examples. For instance,
consider the following student responses to the question, "How would you define `grammar'?"
The responses were given on the first day of an upper-level college course in English grammar.
 "Grammar is a technical description of a language."
 "A standard of word order and punctuation. "
 "Unconscious rules that people follow when they speak."
 "A broad terminology used to encompass syntax, usage."
 "Grammar is what you use to decide how to talk to your parents versus how to talk to
your friends."
 "Grammar is the rules of writing correctly."
 "I see grammar as sort of the `government' of words. It contains rules and regulations that
help words get along with each other."
 "Grammar is the correct usage of the English language."
 "Grammatical sentences are easier to understand than ungrammatical ones. "
 "Grammar is the structure and content of language. It varies according to language
(English, Russian . . .), regions, individuals, and environments (workplace, home, bar).
Includes sounds, punctuation, word choice, word order, etc."
 "`Grammar' means the system by which we have chosen to write and speak. "
The variety in these responses is to be expected. According to one prominent American
grammarian writing in the 1950s,
When two people talk about grammar, they may actually be discussing two different areas of subject matter entirely; they may be as much at crosspurposes as a Russian and an American discussing democracy, or a fashion-designer and a literary critic discussing style. (Francis, p. 222)
The reason for this divergence is that at least four different conceptions of grammar contribute to our
modern understanding of this term. As a result, it is used in a number of different, and often mutually
exclusive, senses. Consider, for example, the following passages, each of which uses the term grammar
differently.
A. "Grammar exists mainly to clarify meaning.... There is ... a morality of language: an
obligation to preserve and nurture the niceties, the fine distinctions, that have been
handed down to us" (Simon, p. 91.).
B. "Since grammar is a science, it must describe and analyze the basic facts Of speech, and
explain and interpret the laws governing the behavior of language." (House & Harman, p.
11)
C. "Any interesting . . . grammar will be dealing . . . with mental processes that are far
beyond the level of actual or even potential consciousness . . . . Thus, ... grammar
attempts to specify what the speaker actually knows . . . " (Chomsky, 1965, p. 8).
D. "Structural units of clause or sentence are not necessarily the most important units for
language study .... beyond the tidy and wellpruned bonsai trees of syntax lies the jungle:
menus, road signs, advertisements, propaganda ... and the like .... [Grammar and] situation . . . are interrelated." (Stubbs, pp. 5-6).
The term grammar in passage (A) refers to a prescriptive and proscriptive system of rules-a
2
Grammar for
Grammarians
catalog of do's and don't's-that one
is expected to follow in speaking and writing the most
prestigious variety of a language. These rules arbitrate questions such as the acceptability of I t
i s me and between you and I. This conception of grammar originated in 18th-century England
and has come to be known as prescriptive grammar. It is also known in some circles as
"normative" grammar or "school" grammar. Prescriptive grammar is essentially linguistic
"etiquette"-the study of elegant or proper language use. The fundamental goal of the
prescriptive grammarian is to prescribe usage within a specific language.
The term grammar in passage (B) refers to a set of generalizations that describe the building blocks of sentence
structure. For example, a prepositional phrase consists of a preposition (e.g., in) followed by a noun phrase (e.g.,
the car). This conception of grammar began to take root in 19th-century Europe but did not become widespread in the
United States until the early 20th century. It has come to be known as descriptive grammar, but is also known as
"structural" grammar. This brand of grammar is essentially linguistic "botany"-the classification of phrase and
sentence types. The fundamental goal of the descriptive grammarian is to describe the various types of structures
found in a specific language.
The term grammar in passage (C) refers to the unconscious knowledge of language that humans are born with,
regardless of the language they eventually speak. For example, speakers seem to know without reflection or
instruction that a phrase can be moved rightward within a clause but not out of that clause. For instance, in the
following example, the prepositional phrase about Hillary can be moved within the clause marked off by brackets,
as in (lb), but not out of that clause, as in (1c).
1a.
1b.
[That a book about Hillary has just come out] is exciting.
[That a book has just come out about Hillary] is exciting.
1c. *[That a book has just come out] is exciting about Hillary.
(An asterisk preceding a form indicates that it is unacceptable for one reason or another.) This conception of grammar
began developing around 1950 and is known as generative grammar. It is also known as "transformational"
grammar and is essentially linguistic "biology"-the study of the representation of language in the mind. The
fundamental goal of the generative grammarian is to describe the unconscious linguistic knowledge of the speaker,
especially the knowledge common to speakers of all languages.
The term grammar in passage (D) refers to the effect of context and/or real-time limitations on the way speakers
process language. For example, consider the following discourse consisting of just two sentences: The haystack was
important. The cloth had ripped. This discourse is easier to understand and remember if you know that it occurs in a
passage entitled "Sky Diving." This conception of grammar developed as an alternative to generafive grammar
and might be termed contextual grammar. It is also known as "rhetorical" grammar or "discourse
analysis" and is essentially linguistic "psychology" - the study of language processing. The fundamental
goal of the grammarian working in this field is to describe the effect of context (lin guistic or nonlinguistic) on the way people produce and interpret language.
The point is that "grammar" is not a simple, unified subject. Rather, it is a cover term for at least four
different, and sometimes mutually exclusive, conceptions of grammar: prescriptive, descriptive,
generative, and contextual.
Each of these theories of grammar investigates different questions. Pre scriptive grammar is primarily
interested in constructing rules of usage for the prestige variety of a language. Descriptive grammar is
primarily interested in describing the basic sentence patterns of all varieties of a language. Generative
grammar is primarily interested in discovering those principles of sentence formation that are part of the
human biological endowment. Contextual grammar is primarily interested in the effects of context and
real-time limitations on language use. These differences are s ummarized in the following table.
Grammar
Synonyms
Purpose
Analogy
Domain
Prescriptive
Descriptive
Generative
Contextual
normative; school
prescribe
language
describe
structural
language
describe
transformational
speaker
(static)
rhetorical; discourse describe
speaker
analysis
(dynamic)
etiquette
botany
prestige
dialect
all dialects
biology
all
languages
psychology
language
in context
The purpose of this book is to explain how these different conceptions o grammar arose , how they
relate to each other today, and how they can best be used to analyze Modern English. Accordingly , this
book consists of fou parts, each devoted to one of these brands of grammar.
1. Consider the following statements about language. What understanding of grammar does each one represent:
prescriptive, descriptive, generative, or contextual?
a. "Each language has its own scheme. Everything depends on the formal demarcations which it recognizes."
b. "The language faculty is a component of the mind/brain, part of the human biological endowment.
Presented with data, the child .. . forms a language, a computational system of some kind that provides
structured representations of linguistic expressions that determine their sound and meaning."
c. "In colloquial speech, like is sometimes used as a conjunction ... , but cultured speakers prefer as, as if, or
as though."
d. "Linguists have increasingly realized that the context of an utterance plays an important part in determining
its meaning, as do beliefs that are shared by a speaker and a hearer."
e. "The material in the exercises in correcting substandard English comes from ..." (Preface to grammar book).
f. "Someone who says `he don't' for `he doesn't' has a systematic way of relating sound and meaning."
g. "In keeping with all these excellent qualities would you please see that the grammar used in describing your
clothing is of equal quality. I am sure you are quite aware that a garment doesn't `wash easy.' Is this use of
adjectives in the place of adverbs an affectation or is it a stylistic quirk?" (Letter to the editor of a mail-order
catalog)
2. Consider the following student definitions of grammar (repeated here from earlier in the chapter). For each
definition, try to determine if it illustrates a basically prescriptive, descriptive, generative, or contextual. (Suggestion: If you can't pin a definition down to a single approach, try to at least eliminate one of the four.)
a. "Grammar is a technical description of a language."
b. "A standard of word order and punctuation."
c. "Unconscious rules that people follow when they speak."
d. "A broad terminology used to encompass syntax, usage."
e. "Grammar is what you use to decide how to talk to your parents versus how to talk to your friends. "
f. "Grammar is the rules of writing correctly."
g. "I see grammar as sort of the `government' of words. It contains rules and regulations
that help words get along with each other."
h. "Grammar is the correct usage of the English language."
i. "Grammatical sentences are easier to understand than ungrammatical ones."
j. "Grammar is the structure and content of language. It varies according to language
(English, Russian ...), regions, individuals, and environments (workplace, home, bar).
Includes sounds, punctuation, word choice, word order, etc."
k. "`Grammar' means the system by which we have chosen to write and speak. " 5.. c.r..,
3. Consider the following quotation.
"You get a picture of this gallant little band of the last literates going down to defeat with
`Warriner's Grade Four Grammar' in one hand and `Best-Loved Poems of College English
Departments' in the other.... Though our popularizers of good grammar ... think they are
defending standards and traditions, they keep attacking idioms that are centuries old."
(Quinn, p. 9)
a. What theory of grammar is the author talking about? Explain.
b. What theory of grammar does the author most likely adhere to? Explain.
4. In the movie Running on Empty, one character says of his mother, "I said `I wish it was easier'
and she said: `You wish it were easier!' She's correcting my grammar like one of the kids she
teaches." What type of grammar doe; the mother teach: prescriptive, descriptive, generative, or
contextual?
5. Consider the following three sentences.
A. John hurt himself.
Introduction • Four Conceptions of Grammar
5
B.
C.
a.
b.
John hurt hisself.
John hurt heself.
What would a prescriptive grammarian say about these sentences, i anything?
What would a descriptive grammarian say about these sentences, i anything? What would a generative
grammarian say about these sentences, if anything?
c. What would a contextual grammarian say about these sentences, if anything?
6. Consider the following quotation.
"Professor Lasher adduced two sentences-'we was at the ball game last night' and `Mary
had five card'-calling them . . . logical attempts to simplify the language.... [This] is a
benighted . . . catering to mass ignorance under the supposed aegis of democracy." (Simon,
pp. 90-91)
a. What theory of grammar does Professor Lasher adhere to? Explain.
b. What theory of grammar does the author adhere to? Explain .