Grammar in the Classroom (Part 2): What is Grammar?
As it turns out, the answer to this question is not so clear.
Usually, when English teachers refer to "grammar", they are referring to the rules that you read in books that claim to teach grammar. This definition includes rules like third person singular conjugation of verbs and how to construct past tense verbs, as well as their exceptions. It is what linguists refer to as prescriptive grammar because it makes a prescription for the proper use of the language. It creates the kind of situation you probably experienced in grade school with your teacher giving your endless pages of paper telling you how you should speak English and asking you to correct incorrect sentences.
This definition turns out to be extremely problematic. Language usage is not a recipe book. In the lifetime of people still living, English usage has changed considerably. A more significantly is that these so-called grammar rules tell us nothing about how people actually talk. The rules of grammar that you find in these prescriptive books do not even describe the way we use English today. I'll go even further. I'll say that if you spoke only the rules of prescriptive grammar as it is found in grammar textbooks, you would have trouble being understood.
I will be writing much more on these points in the postings to come. Suffice it to say to say that the contents of "grammar" or even the "grammar of the English language" are that simply defined. If you're willing to accept this fact, what then is grammar?
Grammar is regularity in language usage. Using a definition of regularity makes "grammar" a very different thing than just a set of rules to fit words into. Of course, regularity can be based on rules, but there are other concepts that create regularity.
6:51:00 PM 
Grammar in the Classroom (Part 2): What is Grammar?
As it turns out, the answer to this question is not so clear.
Usually, when English teachers refer to "grammar", they are referring to the rules that you read in books that claim to teach grammar. This definition includes rules like third person singular conjugation of verbs and how to construct past tense verbs, as well as their exceptions. It is what linguists refer to as prescriptive grammar because it makes a prescription for the proper use of the language. It creates the kind of situation you probably experienced in grade school with your teacher giving your endless pages of paper telling you how you should speak English and asking you to correct incorrect sentences.
This definition turns out to be extremely problematic. Language usage is not a recipe book. In the lifetime of people still living, English usage has changed considerably. A more significantly is that these so-called grammar rules tell us nothing about how people actually talk. The rules of grammar that you find in these prescriptive books do not even describe the way we use English today. I'll go even further. I'll say that if you spoke only the rules of prescriptive grammar as it is found in grammar textbooks, you would have trouble being understood.
I will be writing much more on these points in the postings to come. Suffice it to say to say that the contents of "grammar" or even the "grammar of the English language" are that simply defined. If you're willing to accept this fact, what then is grammar?
Grammar is regularity in language usage. Using a definition of regularity makes "grammar" a very different thing than just a set of rules to fit words into. Of course, regularity can be based on rules, but there are other concepts that create regularity.
6:51:00 PM [Macro error: Can't evaluate the expression because the name "commentLink" hasn't been defined.]
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