Why study grammar?
Nowadays:
mastering the grammar of the native language is an unconscieus process
the way the English language actually works
A negative reaction
mastering the grammar of a foreign language is a conscious reflective process
religious texts for analysis-subject-distant and unreal
categories and terminology of Latin Grammar
History of English Grammar
Prescientific grammar - the 16th century - 1900
2) Scientific grammar
historical grammar - tries to explain the phenomena of a language by studying their history
Comparative grammar - compares the grammatical phenomena of a language with those of related languages
general grammar - concerned with the general principles which underlie the grammatical phenomena of all languages
Descriptive grammar - merely described language phenomena
Prescriptive grammar - stated strict rules of grammatical usage
2) structural, transformational, communicatively-semantically-pragmaticaly oriented
1) prescriptive and explanatory
Main branches of grammar
morphology - studies the grammatical structure of words and the categories realized by them
syntax - studies the grammatical relations between words and other units within the sentence
Objects and Tasks of Grammar
the object of practical grammar is to help the student acquire mastery of the native or foreign language
the task of the theoretical grammar is to study the structure of the language in the light of the general principles of linguistics