We explain what grammar is, its parts, levels of analysis and what types exist. Also, relationship between grammar and spelling.
What is grammar?
Grammar is the set of rules of language that regulate the use of a given language, as well as the composition and syntactic organization of prayers. It is also called a grammar science which is dedicated to the general study of these elements. The term comes from the Greek grammatiké or "art of letters."
Generally, the term grammar applies only to the syntactic and morphological aspects of the language, but it is common that it also involves lexical, semantic and even phonetic-phonological elements. Each language has its own grammar, in turn endowed with a logic own, that is, their way of organizing linguistic signs and, therefore, to organize reality.
Grammar as a field of study occupied the philosophers of classical antiquity such as Socrates and Aristotle, although the first treatise on Greek grammar as such was the work of Crates de Malos in the second century BC. C.
Then during the medieval, the prevailing grammatical study model was that of the Ars grammar by Elio Donato, from the 4th century. It was replaced in 1492 by the first Castilian grammar, the work of Antonio Nebrija, once Latin had given way to his descendant languages, such as Spanish, French, Italian, Catalan, Galician and Portuguese, among others.
Grammar and orthography
We don't talk about the same thing when mentioning grammar and spelling, although they are often taught together, especially in school. But if by grammar we understand the formal logic of each language, spelling is the correct way to write words and accompany them with punctuation marks, that is, the normative part of the language.
A good grasp of grammar allows you to handle the rules of the language and to be able to express yourself with greater fluency, beauty or complexity. On the other hand, spelling allows us to adequately capture said thought written. However, only the handling of the two things allows a completely correct expression, free of spelling errors and grammatical errors.
Types of grammar
The main approaches to studying grammar are as follows:
- Prescriptive or normative grammar. As its name indicates, it starts from an ideal and a sense of what is correct in the language, to suggest to its speakers the appropriate or recommended way to formulate and organize their sentences.
- Descriptive grammar. Unlike the previous one, it does not judge as "correct" or "incorrect" the way in which different speakers make use of the language, but rather seeks to understand what the actual use of language norms is like within a community or certain communities.
- Traditional grammar. It is about the historical set of documents and ideas inherited from previous civilizations about what grammar is.
- Functional grammar. It aspires to be a general grammar of natural language, that is, a set of basic rules applicable to different languages endowed with different grammars.
- Formal grammars. These are the names of abstract grammars, which can apply their logic to non-verbal languages, such as programming languages IT.
Parts of grammar
Grammar comprises four clearly differentiated branches or parts, which serve different aspects of the language. These are:
- Phonetics. The one that deals with the ordering of the sounds that make up the words, as well as their changes in realization depending on their specific position or grammatical context.
- Morphology. The one that deals with the mode of construction of words, that is, with the way in which we join their roots or main fragments, endowed with lexical meaning, with other fragments that modulate, change or determine the final meaning of what is said.
- Syntax. The one that deals with the internal organization of the sentence, according to a sequential logic established in the grammatical laws and in the logic of the language.
- Semantics. The one that deals with the meaning of words and their role within the set of dynamics and patterns that constitute a language.
Levels of grammar
Just as there are branches or parts of grammar, they determine the levels of grammatical analysis, that is, which of these branches we pay attention to when observing or studying the language. For example:
- Syntactic-morphological level. From the combination of morphology and syntax morphosyntax is born, which is the approach to verbal language from a formal-functional point of view, that is, in the way in which words are constructed and organized to form a spoken chain endowed with a logical meaning.
- Lexical-semantic level. At this level we only care about the meaning and its correlation with the words, or what is the same, the way in which a word can refer to different senses or vice versa.
- Phonetic-phonological level. For its part, at this level we will deal with the sounds that make up the language, that is, of the sounds and signs that we use to represent them.
- Pragmatic level. At this level we deal with the language in its communicative context, taking into account elements and uses that are not canonical, that is, they are not contemplated in the grammatical "norms" of the language, but that serve as support when expressing their contents.