Approaches to Grammar Ed McCorduck English 402--Grammar SUNY Cortland http://mccorduck.cortland.edu

slide 2: traditional grammar a.k.a. prescriptive grammar stresses “correctness,” the “proper” way to say or write things Standard English Edited American English English 402: Grammar

slide 3: descriptive grammar where prescriptive grammar is normative, descriptive grammar is neutral (any variation in natural language is neither “wrong” nor “corrupt”) rigorous, scientific analysis of actual language English 402: Grammar

slide 4: transformational grammar transformational grammar (a.k.a. generative grammar, a.k.a. transformational/generative grammar) a grammar is a model of native speakers’ competence—it should produce the grammatical sentences of a language and only the grammatical sentences rigorous, scientific analysis of actual language English 402: Grammar

slide 5: explanation of 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”) English 402: Grammar

slide 6: example of a “grammatical” evaluation examples We don’t have any bananas today. is “grammatical” in all the above senses of the term English 402: Grammar

slide 7: examples of traditional “ungrammatical” evaluations 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” English 402: Grammar

*Has us doesn’t banana of today any. slide 8: example of a descriptive and transformational “ungrammatical” evaluation *Has us doesn’t banana of today any. is “ungrammatical” (signified by *) in the descriptive and transformational senses English 402: Grammar