|Left Menu StudyVisaUK.com|
|
English Grammar, Learn English Grammar, Definition of English Grammar
|
English
Grammar, Learn English Grammar
What
is English Grammar? Definition
of Grammar? What is Grammar?
Some Important Definitions of English Grammar
by Famous Linguists are:
English grammar is a description of the usages
of the English Language by good speakers and writers
of the present day. (Whitney)
A description of account of the nature, build,
constitution, or make of a language is called
its grammar. (Meiklejohn)
Grammar teaches the laws of language, and the
right method of using it in speaking and writing.
(Patterson)
Grammar is the science of letter; hence the science
of using words correctly. (Abbott)
The English word grammar relates only to the laws
which govern the significant forms of words, and
the construction of the sentence. (Richard
Grant White)
Grammar is the system of a language. People sometimes
describe grammar as the "rules"
of a language; but in fact no language has rules.
If we use the word "rules",
we suggest that somebody created the rules first
and then spoke the language, like a new game.
But languages did not start like that. Languages
started by people making sounds which evolved
into words, phrases and sentences. No commonly-spoken
language is fixed. All languages change over time.
Then what we call "grammar"
is simply a reflection of a language at a particular
time.
Do people need to study
grammar to learn a language?
The short answer for this question is "People
don't need". Many people in the world speak
their own, native language without having studied
its grammar. Children start to speak before they
even know the word "grammar".
But if you are serious about learning a foreign
language, the long answer is "yes, grammar
can help you to learn a language more quickly
and more efficiently." It's important to
think of grammar as something that can help us,
like a friend. When we understand the grammar
or system of a language, we can understand many
things ourself, without having to ask a teacher
or look in a book.
Grammar is a field of linguistics
that involves all the various things that make
up the rules of language. Subfields of linguistics
that are considered a part of grammar include
syntax, phonetics, morphology,
and semantics.
Grammar is also used
as a term to refer to the prescriptive rules of
a given language, which may change over time or
be open to debate.
Categories of Grammar
Grammar may be separated into two common broad
categories: 1: Descriptive
2: Prescriptive
Both views of grammar are in wide use, although
in general, linguists tend towards a descriptive
approach to grammar, while people teaching a specific
language – such as English – might tend towards
a more prescriptive approach. Usually, there is
a bit of give and take in any approach, with a
prescriptivist being at least somewhat descriptive,
and a descriptivist having some prescriptivist
tendencies.
A Descriptive Grammar
tries to look at the grammar of any spoken language
or dialect as it actually exists, judging whether
a sentence is grammatical or not based on the
rules of the speech group in which it is spoken,
rather than an arbitrary set of rules.
A Prescriptive Grammar
looks at the norms of speech as given by authoritative
sources, such as an upper-class or academic subculture,
and creates strict rules by which all speech within
that language must abide to be considered grammatical.
Few linguists take a prescriptive approach to
grammar in the modern age, preferring to describe
language as it exists in a given speech community.
Prescriptive grammar is also used to some extent
in teaching a language to non-native speakers.
When teaching English, for example, it can be
useful to employ a “standard” form of English
as a baseline to teach from, to help reduce confusion
among students.
Thus think of grammar as something good, something
positive, something that we can use to find our
way - like a signpost or a map.
Reference:
http://www.googleurdu.com/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FD9U0AjBBQk
|
|
|
