1. Approaches to Grammar Ed McCorduck English 402--Grammar SUNY Cortland

2. 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

3. 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

4. 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

5. 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

6. 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

7. 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

8. *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