Types of Grammar

Joy Ann A. Mendoza, MAED, LPT

Types of Grammar

a.Descriptive Grammar
b.Prescriptive Grammar
✓ A descriptive grammar is a study of a language, its structure
and its rules as they are used in daily life by its speakers
from all walks of life including standard and nonstandard
varieties.
✓ A descriptive study of grammar is non-judgmental, and it
does not have a goal of determining what represents good
or bad language, correct or incorrect structures, or
grammatical or ungrammatical forms (Leech, Deuchar &
Hoogenraad, 2006).
✓ A prescriptive grammar, on the other hand, specifies how
a language should be used and what grammar rules should
be followed.
✓ A prescriptivist view of language implies a distinction
between “good grammar” and “bad grammar”, and its
primary focus is on standard forms of grammar and
syntactic constructions.
Typical Examples of Prescriptive English Grammar Rules
1. A sentence cannot end with a preposition; often called “stranded
preposition”.
Example:
Who are you talking to?-incorrect
Whom are you talking?- correct
Typical Examples of Prescriptive English Grammar Rules
2. Singular subject nouns can have only singular pronoun
reference.
Example:
Every employees needs to go through their year book. –
incorrect
Every employee needs to go through his/her year book. -
correct
Typical Examples of Prescriptive English Grammar Rules
3. “who” should be used only in the subject position and if it
comes in the object position “whom” should be used.
Example:
Who did you see there? – incorrect
Whom did you see there? – correct
Typical Examples of Prescriptive English Grammar Rules
4. “little” or “less” should be used with uncountable
nouns and “few” or “fewer” should be used countable
nouns.
Example:
There are less than 30 students in the class.
Typical Examples of Prescriptive English Grammar Rules
5. Don’t use double negative.
Example:
I didn’t go nowhere. -incorrect
I didn’t go anywhere. -correct
Typical Examples of Prescriptive English Grammar Rules
6. Don’t split infinitives
Example:
….to boldly go where no one has gone before. –
incorrect
….to go boldly where no one has gone before. -correct
Traditional Grammar
Functional Grammar
Traditional Grammar
• Traditional grammar refers to the type of grammar
study done prior to the beginnings of modern
linguistics.
• Grammar, in this traditional sense, is the study of the
structure and formation of words and sentences, usually
without much reference to sound and meaning. In the
more modern linguistic sense, grammar is the study of
the entire interrelated system of structures— sounds,
words, meanings, sentences—within a language.
What do you know about this?
• Subject • Adverb • Prepositional
• Predicate • Pronoun Phrase
• Noun • Conjunction • Noun Phrase
• Determiner • Preposition • Verb Phrases
• Verb • Interjection
• Adjective • Phrases
Prepositional Phrase
• The prepositional phrase, the most common type of
phrase in English, begins with a preposition and is
followed by a noun or pronoun, called the object of
the preposition, and any modifiers of the object.
Example: Much of his money was made in Europe.
Noun Phrase
• A noun phrase is a group of two or more words that
is headed by a noun (a person, place, or thing) that
includes modifiers (e.g., 'the,' 'a,' 'of them,' 'with
her’).
Example: Singing in the bath relaxes me.
Verb Phrase
• the gerund
• the participle
• the infinitive
Gerund
• A gerund can be recognized by the ending -ing, either
on a simple form (reading), or on an auxiliary (having
read, being read, having been read). To be a gerund,
one of these forms must be used as a noun within the
sentence--as a subject, direct object, subject
complement, object of the preposition, appositive, etc.
Examples: Swimming is fun.
He fears being failed.
Participle
• The participle is identical in form with the gerund forms (-
ing ending); in addition, there is a past participle form
(studied, broken) and a progressive form (having been
studying). The difference between the gerund and the
participle is in use, or how it functions within the
sentence: the gerund is always used as a noun while the
participle is used as an adjective modifier. Example: The
injured bird clung to the swaying branch.
Infinitive
• An infinitive is a verbal consisting of the simple stem of
the verb, generally preceded by to (which is called the
sign of the infinitive).
Examples: to study, to have studied, to be studying, to be
studied, to go, to dance.