Grammar courses cover traditional, prescriptive, descriptive, and contemporary linguistics, as well as pedagogical, theoretical, and reference grammar. Traditional grammar covers basic sentence structure and rules, while prescriptive grammar deals with socially acceptable language use. Descriptive grammar examines language patterns, and contemporary linguistics studies language evolution. Pedagogical grammar compares sentence structure in different languages, and reference and theoretical grammar cover grammar rules and similarities between languages.
The different types of grammar courses are related to various forms of grammar theory. Traditional grammar, prescriptive grammar, descriptive grammar and contemporary linguistics are considered to be the four main areas that grammar courses cover. Other grammar categories include pedagogical, theoretical, and reference grammar.
Grammar courses related to traditional grammar generally cover sentence structure, rules regarding certain structural elements, and how to improve rote writing. These are the types of courses most high school English classes cover. They deal with issues like where to put commas in sentences, pronouns, adjectives and adverbs. Traditional grammar courses are considered basic and provide knowledge on how to build proper written communication.
Prescriptive grammar theory was developed in the early 20th century and deals with how to use language appropriately or socially acceptable. Courses build on concepts learned in traditional grammatical theory, but cover more advanced mechanical forms of writing. Some of the courses tend to give students additional practice with mechanical and structural concepts in order to reinforce the ideas behind them.
Descriptive grammar examines how the grammar is structured and does not take into account what is considered socially acceptable or not. It looks for patterns and how language is used to fulfill certain functions. For example, exclamation points are often used to indicate excitement, emphasis, importance, or verbal shouting.
Contemporary linguistics is a field of study that examines how traditional sentence structures need to be modified to reflect evolutions in language development. A main area of contemporary linguistics is called morphology. This study deals with how individual words are structured, including roots. Another area of contemporary linguistics is the study of syntax, which examines how words are ordered in a sentence.
Semantics, which is the study of how words and sentences convey meaning, is another area covered by contemporary linguistics. As language has evolved, there are certain words and phrases that can be interpreted in a variety of ways. These interpretations are often unrelated and can confuse individuals who are not familiar with the language. Other words and phrases are discarded in favor of less formal or confusing words that retain the same intended meaning.
Pedagogical grammar refers to the basics of different foreign languages. It is often used in introductory language courses to compare sentence structure and meaning from one language to another. For example, sentence structure in the German language often places verbs in a different part of the sentence than is common in English. Reference grammar covers the various grammar rules, while theoretical grammar compares the similarities between sentence structures in various languages.
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