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TYPES OF GRAMMAR - Coggle Diagram
TYPES OF GRAMMAR
Descriptive Grammar
Definition:
A descriptive grammar is a set of rules about language based on how it is actually used. In a descriptive grammar there is NO RIGHT OR WRONG language. It can be compared with a prescriptive grammar, which is a set of rules based on how people think language should be used.
Example:
- "I ain't going nowhere."
- "I am not going nowhere."
Descriptive grammar notes the word's use in the language, pronunciation, meaning, and even etymology—without judgment, but in prescriptive grammar, the use of "ain't" is just plain wrong—especially in formal speaking or writing.
Donald G. Ellis
- Descriptive grammars are essentially scientific theories that attempt to explain how language works.
- All languages adhere to syntactical rules of one sort or another, but the rigidity of these rules is greater in some languages.
- It is very important to distinguish between the syntactical rules that govern a language and the rules that a culture imposes on its language.
Rule for structure
Demonstratives agree in number with the nouns they modify: that and this go
with singulars; those and these go with plurals.
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Generative Grammar
Definition: Theory of grammar that holds that human language is shaped by a set of basic principles that are part of the human brain.
Simply put as: A basic premise that native speakers of a language will find certain sentences grammatical or ungrammatical and that these judgments give insight into the rules governing the use of that language.
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Principle
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Children learn the rules of grammar is proof, according to some linguists, that there is an innate language capacity that allows them to overcome the "poverty of the stimulus."
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Prescriptive Grammar
Definition:
A set of norms or rules governing how a language should or should not be used. An account of a language that sets out rules (prescriptions) for how it should be used and for what should not be used (proscriptions)
Example:
One never says "I is a student " but following prescriptive grammar rules, "I am a student". Explains that "I" will always be followed by "am"
Rules and Formulas
- Never use a preposition to end a sentence
"Who did you give the candy bar too?"
- Don't use double negatives
"I didn't go nowhere"
- Don't split infinitives
"To boldly go where no one has gone before"
Principle
Descriptive grammar takes the principle that language usage can vary according to varied speakers. Thus, it does not consider what is ‘correct’ or incorrect grammar whereas prescriptive grammar takes the principle that the long existed grammar rules created by the native speakers are the ‘correct’, and the variations are ‘incorrect.’
Described by Greenbaum, (1996)
View of language implies a distinction between “good grammar” and “bad grammar,” and its primary focus is on standard forms of grammar and syntactic constructions.
Functional Grammar
Definition: The approach is concerned with meaning, as opposed to formal grammar which focused on word classes such as nouns and verbs. These units of meaning is presented in various oral and written texts.
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Studies sentences, superphrasal unities and texts in terms of three functions:
- Ideational content function (for constructing experience)-action, event, process, quantity, time, place, etc
- Interpersonal function (enacting human diverse and complex social relations)-statements, questions, mood, commands, etc.
- Textual function (enabling these two kinds of meanings to come together)- voice, information structure, theme-rheme, etc.
How to teach using functional grammar by using 3 levels of language:
- Participants-Analyse the relationships in the text. known as tenor
-Who is doing it?
-Who is communicating with who?
E.g: Mary lives across the road from jack.
- Process- are most often verb groups: action, saying, sensing and etc. To find the process you must ask:
-What is happening?
-What is being done?
E.g: Sarah quickly ran after her dog.
- Circumstances-Most often adverbial. To find circumstances you must ask:
- when, where, how, why or with whom the actions happen?
E.g: Last weekend, we visited our grandparents.