Grammar Flashcards
prescriptive (normative) grammar
grammar that ‘prescribes’ what people should or should not say; how you should use the language
a way of telling people what they ought to say rather than reporting what they do say
traditional grammar
‘school’ grammar concerned with labelling sentences with parts of speech, and so on
a system for describing sentence structure used in English schools for centuries, based on grammars of classical languages such as Latin
structural grammar
grammar concerned with how words go into phrases, and phrases into sentences
a system for describing sentences based on the idea of smaller structures built up into larger structures
grammatical (linguistic) competence
the knowledge of language storied in a person’s mind
the knowledge of the structural regularities of language in the minds of speakers
descriptive grammar
how you actually use the language
pedagogical grammar
the learning of grammar in context through use; reduction of descriptive grammar, more prescriptive than descriptive
content words
have meaning that can be found in dictionaries and consist of nouns, verbs, adjectives…
structure (function) words
limited in number; exist to form part of phrases and structures and so have meanings that are difficult to capture in the dictionary
morpheme
the smallest unit of grammar, consisting either of a word or part of a word
morphology
the branch of linguistics that deals with the structure of morphemes
syntax
the branch of linguistics that deals with the structure of phrases above the level of the word
grammatical morphemes
e.g., ‘-ing’, ‘the’, they play a greater part in structure than content words
order of difficulty
the scale of difficulty for particular aspects of grammar for L2 learners
sequence of acquisition
the order in which L2 learners acquire the grammar, pronunciation…
