The "Approaches to Grammar" lecture I delivered in my English 402--Grammar course at the State University of New York College at Cortland.

1. Approaches to Grammar
Ed McCorduck
English 402--Grammar
SUNY Cortland
http://mccorduck.cortland.edu

2. • traditional grammar
o a.k.a. prescriptive grammar
o stresses “correctness,” the “proper” way to say or write things
o Standard English
o Edited American English
slide 2: traditional grammar
English 402:
Grammar

3. • descriptive grammar
o where prescriptive grammar is normative, descriptive
grammar is neutral (any variation in natural language is
neither “wrong” nor “corrupt”)
o rigorous, scientific analysis of actual language
slide 3: descriptive grammar
English 402:
Grammar

4. • transformational grammar (a.k.a. generative grammar, a.k.a.
transformational/generative grammar)
o a grammar is a model of native speakers’ competence—it
should produce the grammatical sentences of a language
and only the grammatical sentences
o rigorous, scientific analysis of actual language
slide 4: transformational grammar
English 402:
Grammar

5.  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”)
slide 5: explanation of grammatical vs. ungrammatical
English 402:
Grammar

6. examples
We don’t have any bananas today.
• is “grammatical” in all the above senses of the term
slide 6: example of a “grammatical” evaluation
English 402:
Grammar

7. 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”
slide 7: examples of traditional “ungrammatical” evaluations
English 402:
Grammar

8. *Has us doesn’t banana of today any.
• is “ungrammatical” (signified by *) in the descriptive and
transformational senses
slide 8: example of a descriptive and transformational “ungrammatical” evaluation
English 402:
Grammar