Last modified on May 4, 2024, at 14:31

Grammar

Grammar is the study of the rules governing use of language. As such, it is part of the discipline of linguistics.

A "Grammar" (from a linguistic point of view) catalogs the various parts of speech in use by the language, including: verbs, nouns, pronouns, prepositions; it catalogs how actions are described, almost exclusively through use of verbs, and how those verbs are conjugated within a sentence; it catalogs how a language codifies for both mode and tense; and it attempts to quantify other less precise aspects of written or oral communication like metaphors, enclitics, onomatopoeia, and others.

Some Grammar Concepts

See also: Writing

Syntax

Syntax is the study of the rules for forming grammatical sentences.[1] When linguists describe sentence structure in languages, they typically look at the relationship between the Subject, the Object and the Verb and classify the language by the order of those words.

  • Subject is the agent of the action (such as a person).
  • Verb is the action being undertaken (the thing being done e.g. buying).
  • Object is the item, person or thing that has the action done to it (e.g. the paper).

SVO refers to subject, verb, object. An English example of this is I (s) buy (v) the book (obj). In German this would be rendered Ich (s) kaufe(v) das Buch(o).

Besides SVO, the two most common are SOV (subject, object, verb), as used in Japanese (hon(s) wo katta (v)), and VSO (verb, subject, object), as used in Biblical Hebrew. Some languages have free word order because the subject and the object have different case endings.

Gender

Gender is an attribute of nouns, pronouns, and adjectives in some languages. Languages like French and Spanish use different articles (e.g., le and la in French, el and la in Spanish) to indicate that certain nouns are masculine or feminine. Remembering which words are masculine or feminine is a substantial feat for foreign learners. While words specific to male and female people are easy (El Señor vs. La Señorita), a word's grammatical gender may or may not indicate the sex of what the word describes. For example, le chateau or la maison. In Spanish and some other languages, the ending of the noun often, but not invariably, corresponds to the gender.

Depending on the language, typical gender distinctions include masculine/feminine, masculine/feminine/neuter, masculine singular/feminine singular/neuter singular/genderless plural, and animate/inanimate. Not all languages have grammatical gender; for example, some languages have a single pronoun corresponding to the English "he," "she," and "it." In Hebrew, the word for "it" is the same as the word for "this", so "I like it" would literally translate as "I like this”. Depending on the language, gender and number may or may not be encoded separately, i.e., represented by separate morphemes.

Online grammar checkers

Books on grammar

See also: Books on writing, grammar and usage

  • The Hodges Harbrace Handbook by Cheryl Glenn and Loretta Gray, Wadsworth Publishing; 18th edition (January 1, 2012)
  • The Blue Book of Grammar and Punctuation: An Easy-to-Use Guide with Clear Rules, Real-World Examples, and Reproducible Quizzes by Lester Kaufman and Jane Straus, Jossey-Bass; 12th edition (May 4, 2021)
  • High School English Grammar and Composition Book (Multicolour Edition) by V, Prasada, Rao N D, S Chand & Company (December 1, 2015) - Revision of a popular book by Wren and Martin (Separate answer key book is available)
  • Write Right!: A Desktop Digest of Punctuation, Grammar, and Style by Jan Venolia. Ten Speed Press; 4th edition (August 21, 2001)
  • The Best Punctuation Book, Period: A Comprehensive Guide for Every Writer, Editor, Student, and Businessperson by June Casagrande. Ten Speed Press; First Edition (April 15, 2014)
  • Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation by Lynne Truss. Avery; Reprint edition (April 11, 2006)
  • The Grouchy Grammarian: A How-Not-To Guide to the 47 Most Common Mistakes in English Made by Journalists, Broadcasters, and Others Who Should Know Better 1st Edition by Thomas Parrish. Wiley; 1st edition (September 24, 2002)
  • Grammar for a Full Life: How the Ways We Shape a Sentence Can Limit or Enlarge Us by Lawrence Weinstein, Lexigraphic Publishing (November 17, 2020)
  • Handbook of Grammar & Composition, A Beka Book, 5th Edition. A BEKA BOOK; 5th edition (January 1, 1970)

See also

External links

References

  1. ↑ Syntax