Types
of Grammar
English Varieties
Glossary
Constitutive
Rules describe how our grammatical system operates. They are the rules that are the
same for all the speakers of English.
Descriptive Grammar
Tradition aims at recording facts, at describing the actual language as
comprehensively as possible.
Descriptive linguists distinguish between a word's form and its function.
Focal
Knowledge: the ability to list the steps to be followed in order to produce a result.
Form
(of a word): what kind of word it is.
Function
(of a word): what it is doing in a particular phrase or sentence.
Prescriptive
Grammar Tradition: the belief in an absolute standard of correctness.
Prototype
Theory suggests that concepts are not clear-cut categories to which members belong on
an all-or-none basis. (Some members are better examples of the class than others).
Regulative
Rules govern the version of English considered appropriate for use by educated
speakers, the version designated as standard American English.
Structural
Grammatical System: grammatical system which analyzes sentence structures and their
parts through the Immediate Constituent (IC) Analysis tool.
Tacit
Knowledge: information about how to produce a result at the unconscious level.
Traditional
Grammatical System: grammatical system which employs Reed-Kellogg diagrams to display
the structure of sentences.
Transformational
Grammatical System: system that shows grammatical relationships through the use of
phrase structure tree diagrams (phrase markers).
Dr. Carol Jamison
Gamble Hall 202B
Armstrong Atlantic State University
11935 Abercorn Street
Savannah, GA 31419
Phone: 912.927.5237