Approaches To Grammar

Approaches to Grammar

The attitude to grammatical rules will vary according to the general approach to grammar. Several contrasting approaches to grammar are as follows:  The difference between prescriptive and descriptive grammar. A prescriptive grammarian specifies what is right and what is wrong.  Sweet in Morris (1994: 61) defines: “In considering the use grammar as a corrective of what are called ‘ungrammatical’ expressions, it must be borne in mind that the rules of grammar have no value except as statement of facts: whatever is in general use in a language is for that very reason grammatically correct.”It can be said that grammar tells us only how the language is used, not how it ought to be used. This attitude is considered as a classical tradition which: (1) is based on English Latin, considered the written; (2) tends to present language as a logical system of  ordinate parts; (3) interprets rules as linguistic laws; (4) sets up standards of propriety which require inflexible adherence to establish forms; (5) is inclined to discourage deviations from standard literary forms by denouncing them as ungrammatical, illogical or breaches of propriety; and (6) treated the subject of grammar on deductive lines- stating the rules and citing examples. A descriptive grammar tries to avoid making judgments about correctness, and concentrates on describing and explaining how the people actually use language. Descriptive linguists who research grammar are concerned with describing how the language is used rather than prescribing how it should be used. It is based on the following foundations: (1) It treats English independently of classical forms, on the assumption that English has followed its own lines of development; (2) It considers the spoken language to be the foundation of English as a living language; (3) It recognizes different standards of usage for formal and informal speech and writing; (4) It assumes that a living language is in the state of instability, its forms susceptible of modification; (5) its liberal approach inclines it to subordinate form to notional purpose; and (6) its approach is inductive, that is, collecting the data from which true inferences alone may be drawn.

Traditional, transformational, and functional approaches to grammar           Traditional grammar is a cover name for the collection of concepts and ides about the structure of language that Western societies have received from ancient Greek and roman sources. Traditional grammar analyzes about the different word classes that can be found in a language and how these word classes function grammatically at the level of the sentence. The focus of attention is on surface structure, not meaning. In English, there are word classes of Nouns, Verbs, Adjectives, Adverbs, Articles, and Prepositions. Within the sentence, those word types have five different grammatical roles: Subject, Verb, Object, Complement and adverbial. There are seven basics English clause types according to the Traditional Grammar:       

Clause Type	Example
Type 1: Subject + Verb	Maria sang
Type 2: Subject + Verb + Object	William saw a UFO
Type 3: Subject + Verb + Complement	I became wary
Type 4: Subject + Verb + Adverbial	I’ve been in the office
Type 5: Subject + Verb+ Object+ Object	Malcom bought his wife a diamond
Type 6: Subject + Verb + Object+ Complement	We think traditional analysis is rather pointless.
Type 7: Subject + Verb + Object+ Adverbial	We had to take our relatives home

There are many problems with traditional approach to grammar terminology. Many of these problems stem from the fact that traditional grammatical descriptions and terms were inherited from the grammars of classical languages such as Greek and Latin, and did not really suit the analysis of English. Furthermore, traditional grammar also fails to distinguish between the way word is formed and how it functions within a sentence. However, the main benefit of traditional grammar is that it gives learners a basic understanding of the building blocks of language, which can help in improving the students’ writing skill.  Functional grammar deals with each fact of language by reference to the concrete example rather than to the abstract principle or rule. It concentrates on the practice of correct forms and avoids the use of technical terminology.  The primary aim of a functional grammatical analysis is to understand how the grammar of a language serves as a resource for making and exchanging meanings. A functional grammar is therefore the kind of grammar most likely to have useful things to say to language learners and teachers.