What are the four primary types of grammar—descriptive, prescriptive, transformational, and generative—and how do they differ in their approach to understanding and analyzing language structure and usage?
Sign Up to our social questions and Answers Engine to ask questions, answer people’s questions, and connect with other people.
Login to our social questions & Answers Engine to ask questions answer people’s questions & connect with other people.
Lost your password? Please enter your email address. You will receive a link and will create a new password via email.
Please briefly explain why you feel this question should be reported.
Please briefly explain why you feel this answer should be reported.
Please briefly explain why you feel this user should be reported.
What are the four primary types of grammar—descriptive, prescriptive, transformational, and generative—and how do they differ in their approach to understanding and analyzing language structure and usage?
Descriptive, prescriptive, transformational, and generative grammar are the four primary types of grammar.
1. Descriptive Grammar: Descriptive grammar involves the scientific study and analysis of the structure of a language as it is actually used by speakers. It aims to describe the rules and patterns that govern language use based on how people naturally speak and write.
2. Prescriptive Grammar: Prescriptive grammar, on the other hand, involves laying down rules and guidelines for the ‘correct’ use of language. It focuses on norms, standards, and conventions that are often taught in schools and followed in formal writing and speaking.
3. Transformational Grammar: Transformational grammar, developed by Noam Chomsky, focuses on the underlying structures and rules that generate sentences in a language. It explores how sentences can be transformed and altered through various rules to convey different meanings.
4. Generative Grammar: Generative grammar is closely related to transformational grammar and emphasizes the creative aspect of human language. It seeks to explain how an infinite number of meaningful sentences can be generated from a finite set of rules in a language.
These four types of grammar differ in their approaches to understanding and analyzing language. Descriptive grammar focuses on observation and analysis of language use, prescriptive grammar on setting norms and standards, transformational grammar on underlying structures and transformations, and generative grammar on the creative aspect of language generation. Each type plays a crucial role in linguistic research and language teaching.