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01 Grammar

This document provides an introduction to syntax and applied grammar. It discusses key topics including: - What is linguistics and how it relates to grammar and syntax. Grammar refers to the system and structure of a language, including syntax, morphology, phonology and semantics. Syntax concerns how words combine to form sentences. - The difference between prescriptive and descriptive grammar. Prescriptive grammar establishes rules of "correct" usage, while descriptive grammar objectively describes patterns of language use. - Historical perspectives on grammar, tracing its roots to Greek and Latin studies and its traditional focus on categories of words and rules of language. - The nature of grammar and what makes language uniquely human - its complexity, productivity

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Naveed Anvar
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100 views31 pages

01 Grammar

This document provides an introduction to syntax and applied grammar. It discusses key topics including: - What is linguistics and how it relates to grammar and syntax. Grammar refers to the system and structure of a language, including syntax, morphology, phonology and semantics. Syntax concerns how words combine to form sentences. - The difference between prescriptive and descriptive grammar. Prescriptive grammar establishes rules of "correct" usage, while descriptive grammar objectively describes patterns of language use. - Historical perspectives on grammar, tracing its roots to Greek and Latin studies and its traditional focus on categories of words and rules of language. - The nature of grammar and what makes language uniquely human - its complexity, productivity

Uploaded by

Naveed Anvar
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Syntax and

Applied
Grammar
An Introduction
Topics
What is Linguistics?
Grammar and Linguistics
Difference between Grammar and Syntax
Grammar, Historical Perspectives
Prescriptive and Descriptive Approach to Grammar
Types of Grammar
This Lecture

Chapter 1
What is Ling uisti cs

Linguistics?
Linguistics

Hybrid Disciplines
Psycho-linguistics, Socio Linguistics, Forensic Linguistics
Question

What is the difference between Grammar and Syntax?


Difference Between Grammar and Syntax
Grammar and Syntax
Syntax Grammar
• A major component of the GRAMMAR of
a language • Grammar can be defined as the whole
system and structure that a language is
based on
syntax concerns the ways in which words • and usually consists of syntax and
combine to form sentences
morphology.
• Sometimes it is also taken as consisting of
and the rules which govern the formation of phonology and semantics.
sentences, • Grammar also refers to a set structure of
rules that governs how sentences, clauses,
making some sentences possible and others words, and phrases in a language are
not possible within a particular language constructed.

Longman Dictionary of Applied Linguistics Longman Dictionary of Applied Linguistics


Grammar, Historical Perspective
The term 'grammar' comes from the Greek word meaning 'to write', that grammar is
concerned with the written language. The Greek word for 'grammar' is grammatike or
grammatike techne, 'the art of writing’.
(Palmer, 1986, p.27)
.

From a descriptive point of view, however, there is no


reason at all why we should restrict the term to the written
language. Equally the spoken language has a grammar.
Indeed, there are still hundreds of languages in the world
that have no written form, yet they all have grammars in
the sense in which we are interested in the term
Grammar, Historical Perspective
Rhetoric
Citizens needed to speak persuasively and correctly if they were to guide the
ship of state. Power was linked to speaking ability, which was the result of
study and practice. Thus, the careful study of language, both grammatical and
rhetorical, grew to paramount importance and formed the basis of Greek
education. (Williams, 2005, p. 4)

The English Grammar: A Historical Perspective. Available from:


https://www.researchgate.net/publication/275968545_The_English_Grammar_A_Historical_Perspectiv
e
[accessed Feb 17 2023].
Grammar, Historical Perspective
• The establishment of grammar as a discipline seems to begin with Plato and the
Sophists, who had developed the schools of rhetoric.
• Plato appears to have used for the first time the word “grammar,” and he, together with
the Sophists, Aristotle, and the Stoics defined the basic notions of the discipline.
• Plato and the Sophists “made distinctions between nouns and verbs,”.
• Aristotle “refined their definitions and also distinguished the tenses of verbs,”
• the Stoic philosophers “organized the grammar and linguistics into a branch of
philosophy in its own right,” and refined grammar concepts that are still current at the
present time.

The English Grammar: A Historical Perspective. Available from:


https://www.researchgate.net/publication/275968545_The_English_Grammar_A_Historical_Perspective [accessed Feb
17 2023].
Grammar, Historical Perspective
In the middle ages Grammar was the study of Latin Language
Grammar

• Man is well defined as homo sapiens ('man with wisdom'). For what do we mean by
wisdom’?
• More recently anthropologists have talked about 'man the tool-maker' , but apes too can
make primitive tools. What sets man apart from the rest of the animal kingdom is the
ability to speak 'man the speaking animal’ .
• Based on Language he can make argument so homo loquens
• But it is grammar that makes language so essentially a human characteristic. For though
other creatures can make meaningful sounds, the link between sound and meaning is for
them of a far more primitive kind than it is for man, and the link for man is Grammar.
• Man is not merely homo loquens; he is homo grammaticus.
The main difference here is the enormous complexity of
language, and it is within this complexity that we must
look for grammar.
• A gibbon call has merely a meaning such as 'danger' or
'food', and there are only nine or so different calls.
• The bees can tell only the direction, the distance and
the amount of the nectar. The traffic lights can only
signal 'stop' , 'go' , etc.

• But in case of a language, case is different.

There are three characteristics of language that are


important for the understanding of the nature of
grammar:
it is complex, productive and arbitrary
Nature of Grammar
There is a highly complex system in their co
mp
construction, and this complex system differs from lex
language to language - that is why languages are it y
different.
• Within this system there is a complex set of
relations that link the sounds of the language (or its
written symbols) with the 'meanings' , the message
they have to convey.
• In the widest sense of the term, grammar is that
complex set of relations.
Nature of Grammar

Language is productive. We can


produce myriads of sentences that we
have never heard or uttered before.

Thirdly, language is arbitrary. There is


no one-to-one relation between sound·
and meaning.
Grammar

• Grammar can be defined as the whole


system and structure that a language is
based on and usually consists of syntax and
morphology. Sometimes it is also taken as
consisting of phonology and semantics.
Grammar also refers to a set structure of
rules that governs how sentences, clauses,
words, and phrases in a language are
constructed.
Grammar Definitions

According to Palmer, 1971, P. 11

the grammar of a language


'is a device that . .. specifies
the infinite set of well-formed
sentences and assigns to each
of them one or more
structural descriptions'.
Overview

There is a great deal of confusion about the term 'grammar'. Most people
associate with it a book written about a language. In fact, there are
various manifestations of this traditional term:
• Prescriptive grammar
• Descriptive grammar
• Reference grammar
• Formal Grammar

In theoretical linguistics, grammars are theory-based coherent systems of


rules and principles which model a speaker's knowledge of language.
These formal grammars combine insights from all branches of linguistics,
with syntax in the center.
The most important formal grammar model is generative grammar.
Traditional Grammar

• Grammar derived from Latin or Greek roots

• Latin is an organized language which can be


broken down into clear classes or categories,
the earlier Latin teachers started a system of
analyzing languages by these categories.
• The books they wrote to explain their
analysis of the structure of Latin were called
grammars.
Traditional Grammar continued….

• They introduced the system of classifying words into parts of


speech according to their meaning (e.g., Nouns, verbs,
adjectives, adverbs, prepositions and conjunctions.

• This traditional approach is the foundation of all other


approaches to language analysis which build on it.
PRESCRIPTIVE GRAMMAR
• "prescribes" how speakers should use the language.
• rules about the structure of a language.
• deals with what the grammarian believes to be right and wrong,
good or bad language use;

not following the rules will


generate incorrect language
Prescriptive grammars
• Most people first encounter grammar when they study
their own or a second language at school. There, they
experience grammar as a collection of rules concerning
what counts as 'correct' and 'incorrect' language use.
• This kind of grammar is called normative, or prescriptive,
because it seeks to establish norms of 'correct' grammatical
usage.
• Prescriptive grammars lay down rules as to how words and
sentences are to be put together in a language so that the
speaker or writer will be perceived as having "good
grammar". This makes them similar to books on etiquette,
which recommend certain types of conduct.

Robert Lowth, a 17th century writer of an English prescriptive grammar


Descriptive Grammar
• Another approach, which became popular in the early
20th century, is to write grammars of rules that do not
prescribe, but rather describe how people actually
speak, whether or not they are speaking 'correctly'.
• These descriptive rules have the status of scientific
observations, and they are intended as generalizations
about the way language is used in fact. A descriptive
grammar thus seeks to give a precise account of the
actual grammatical state of a language, which may also
shed light on how the human language capacity as such
works.
Ferdinand de Saussure.
Prescriptive vs
Descriptive Grammar

• Prescriptive = Thinking about language as


incorrect/correct as good or bad etc.

• Descriptive = Concerned with describing and


understanding the linguistic behavior of
community, without judging.
Descriptive Grammar
• Linguistics, the scientific study of language, is hence essentially descriptive
in character. This was first emphasized by Ferdinand de Saussure.
• When linguists study a language to develop a grammar for it, they adopt a
scientific method that involves iterating through the following steps:
• Gather and observe data from various sources (e.g. corpora).
• Make generalizations about patterns in the data (e.g. "In simple English
declarative sentences, teh subject precedes the verb.")
• Develop hypotheses (rules, principles) that account for these
generalizations.
• Test the hypotheses against more data and (if necessary)
refine or revise them.
Reference Grammar

• One special type of descriptive grammar is the reference grammar. Designed


as a book for reference rather than for teaching, it aims at a complete
description of all grammatical aspects of a language. Hence, a reference
grammar is similar to a dictionary (the reference book of all words).

• The best known reference grammar of the English language is the one
written under the supervision of Randolph Quirk. It has almost 1800 pages
and includes, apart from the syntactic description of English, some aspects of
morphology as well as of phonology. It has been published as a student's
grammar in a more handy version.
Dastoor-e Jame Zaban-e-Farsi by Homayoun Farrokh
Formal Grammar
• A formal grammar is a systematic and explicit description of the structure of a
particular language or of human language in general, which is based on a specific
linguistic theory (e.g. GB, GPSG, HPSG). It is a model of the linguistic knowledge
developed in the minds of the speakers of a language.

• Traditionally, the domain of formal grammar was word and sentence formation
(i.e. morphology and syntax). In contrast, linguistics today commonly takes
grammar to encapsulate the whole range of knowledge possessed by speakers
(phonological, morphological, syntactical and semantic knowledge). However,
debates over different models of grammar tend to concentrate largely on syntax.
Formal Grammar
Various kinds of formal grammar with
different underlying theoretical
frameworks have been developed, among
them:

 Structural Grammar

 Functional grammar

 Generative grammar
• The structuralist school
Ferdinand de Saussure, Leonard Bloomfield.
language is a structure that can be studied
independently from other aspects of human
behavior.
• The functionalist school
M.A.K Halliday, John Searl Both structure and
function must be taken into account to
understand the nature of language.
• The mentalist school
Noam Chomsky“ Primarily ,I am intrigued by
the possibility of learning something From
the study of language ,that will bring to light
inherent properties of the human mind”.
Noam Chomsky.
Thank You

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