Approaches to Grammar

Ed McCorduckEnglish 402--GrammarSUNY Cortland http://mccorduck.cortland.edu

• traditional grammaro a.k.a. prescriptive grammaro stresses “correctness,” the “proper” way to say or write

thingso Standard Englisho Edited American English

slide 2: traditional grammar

English 402: Grammar

• descriptive grammaro where prescriptive grammar is normative,

descriptive grammar is neutral (any variation in natural language is neither “wrong” nor “corrupt”)

o rigorous, scientific analysis of actual language

slide 3: descriptive grammar

English 402: Grammar

• transformational grammar (a.k.a. generative grammar, a.k.a. transformational/generative grammar)o a grammar is a model of native speakers’

competence—it should produce the grammatical sentences of a language and only the grammatical sentences

o rigorous, scientific analysis of actual language

slide 4: transformational grammar

English 402: Grammar

grammatical vs. ungrammatical in traditional grammar, “right” vs. “wrong,”

“correct” vs. “incorrect,” “proper” vs. “improper”

in descriptive and especially transformational grammar, “natural” vs. “unnatural,” “well formed” vs. “malformed” (or “ill formed”)

slide 5: explanation of grammatical vs. ungrammatical

English 402: Grammar

examples

We don’t have any bananas today.

• is “grammatical” in all the above senses of the term

slide 6: example of a “grammatical” evaluation

English 402: Grammar

We don’t have no bananas today.

• is “ungrammatical” in the traditional sense, but “grammatical” in the descriptive and transformational senses (may be produced naturally by some speakers)

We doesn’t have no bananas today.

• is maybe more “ungrammatical” in the traditional sense, but still “grammatical” in the descriptive and transformational senses because it may be produced by some speakers

Ain’t got none of them there bananas today.

• is even more “ungrammatical” in the traditional sense, but still naturally occurring and thus descriptively and transformationally “grammatical”

slide 7: examples of traditional “ungrammatical” evaluations

English 402: Grammar

*Has us doesn’t banana of today any.

• is “ungrammatical” (signified by *) in the descriptive and transformational senses

slide 8: example of a descriptive and transformational “ungrammatical” evaluation

English 402: Grammar