GRAMMAR EXPERTISE

What is Grammar?

Grammar is the system of a language. People sometimes describe grammar as the "rules" of a language; but in fact no language has rules*. If we use the word "rules", we suggest that somebody created the rules first and then spoke the language, like a new game. But languages did not start like that. Languages started by people making sounds which evolved into words, phrases and sentences. No commonly-spoken language is fixed. All languages change over time. What we call "grammar" is simply a reflection of a language at a particular time.

Do we need to study grammar to learn a language? The short answer is "no". Very many people in the world speak their own, native language without having studied its grammar. Children start to speak before they even know the word "grammar". But if you are serious about learning a foreign language, the long answer is "yes, grammar can help you to learn a language more quickly and more efficiently." It's important to think of grammar as something that can help you, like a friend. When you understand the grammar (or system) of a language, you can understand many things yourself, without having to ask a teacher or look in a book.

So think of grammar as something good, something positive, something that you can use to find your way - like a signpost or a map. So Grammar is:-

Ø A feeling that some sounds or arrays of sounds belong to English while others do not.
Ø A feeling that some words go together while others do not.
Ø A feeling for the word classes of the language, the parts of speech.
Ø A feeling that certain sentences are structurally related to others while others are not.
Ø A feeling for structural differences.
Ø A feeling that some sentences have more than one meaning.

So the Grammar is defined as follows:-

“Grammar is the business of taking a language to pieces, to see how it works.” (David Crystal)

“Grammar knows better how to control, even king.” (Pascal)

Aims of the Grammar Knowledge:-

Familiarity with the basic principles of the structure of English phrases, clauses and texts will give:-

Ø Awareness of the relationship between grammatical form and meaning
Ø Improved command of English
Ø Sensitivity to different styles of English
Ø Mastery of grammatical terminology

CLASSIFICATION OF GRAMMAR

Descriptive and Prescriptive Grammar
usage – how language is used
correctness – how language should be used

Contrastive Grammar
The grammar of English compared to the grammar of Norwegian
Knowing how vs. knowing about
How to produce English sentences and texts
How to describe the structure of a sentence or a text

CHARACTERISTICS OF MODERN ENGLISH

PHONOLOGY: the sound system

MORPHOLOGY: the inflection and formation of words
singular/plural form of nouns: book – books
singular/plural form of verbs: she reads – they read
present/past tense verb forms: talk – talked, think – thought
adverbs from adjectives: interesting – interestingly
verbs from nouns: computer – computerize
nouns from adjectives: slow – slowness
adjectives from nouns: sand -- sandy, sun - sunny

SYNTAX:
(1) the combination of words into phrases and sentences
car --a black car
a black car with a powerful engine.
Peter hit Steven.
Steven hit Peter.
Did Steven hit Peter?
We painted the house red.
We painted the red house.
The house was painted red.
(2) the choice of linguistic forms
I have been watching that series. I have watched that series.
He read the poem very well. His reading of the poem was very good.

SEMANTICS: the meaning of words and sentences
Woman (definition): human, adult, female
Woman (synonyms): lady, female, girl, mother, wife …

PRAGMATICS: the meaning of a sentence in context
They were bothering me.
You are bothering me.
Do you know Fred?
Do you know what time it is?