The word grammar comes from the Greek, meaning "craft of letters." It's an apt description.

In
any language, grammar is:
• The systematic study and description of a language (as compared with usage).
• A set of rules and examples dealing with the syntax and word structures (morphology)
of a language.

The grammar of a language includes basic axioms such as verb tenses, articles and adjectives
(and their proper order), how questions are phrased, and much more.
Language cannot function without grammar. It would simply make no sense—people require
grammar to communicate effectively.
Speakers and listeners, authors and their audiences must function in like systems in order to
understand one another.
In other words, a language without grammar is like a pile of bricks without mortar to hold them
together.
While the basic components are present, they are, for all intents and purposes, useless.

Real-World Uses of Gramma

There are several applications of grammatical study:
(1) A recognition of grammatical structures is often essential for punctuation.
(2) A study of one's native grammar is helpful when one studies the grammar of a foreign
language.
(3) A knowledge of grammar is a help in the interpretation of literary as well as nonliterary
texts, since the interpretation of a passage sometimes depends crucially on grammatical
analysis
(4) A study of the grammatical resources of English is useful in composition: in particular, it can
help you to evaluate the choices available to you when you come to revise an earlier written
draft.

Types of Grammar
Comparative Grammar
The analysis and comparison of the grammatical structures of related languages is known as
comparative grammar. Contemporary work in comparative grammar is concerned with "a
faculty of language that provides an explanatory basis for how a human being can acquire a first
language . . .. In this way, the theory of grammar is a theory of human language and hence
establishes the relationship among all languages
Generative Grammar
Generative grammar includes the rules determining the structure and interpretation of
sentences that speakers accept as belonging to the language. "Simply put, a generative
grammar is a theory of competence: a model of the psychological system of unconscious
knowledge that underlies a speaker's ability to produce and interpret utterances in a language
Mental Grammar
The generative grammar stored in the brain that allows a speaker to produce language that
other speakers can understand is mental grammar. "All humans are born with the capacity for
constructing a Mental Grammar, given linguistic experience; this capacity for language is called
the Language Faculty (Chomsky, 1965). A grammar formulated by a linguist is an idealized
description of this Mental Grammar
Pedagogical Grammar
Grammatical analysis and instruction designed for second-language students. "Pedagogical
grammar is a slippery concept. The term is commonly used to denote
(1) pedagogical process--the explicit treatment of elements of the target language systems
as (part of) language teaching methodology;
(2) pedagogical content--reference sources of one kind or another that present information
about the target language system; and
(3) combinations of process and content
Performance Grammar
A description of the syntax of English as it is actually used by speakers in dialogues.
"[P]erformance grammar . . . centers attention on language production; it is my belief that the
problem of production must be dealt with before problems of reception and comprehension
can properly be investigated"
Reference Grammar
A description of the grammar of a language, with explanations of the principles governing the
construction of words, phrases, clauses, and sentences
Theoretical Grammar
The study of the essential components of any human language. "Theoretical grammar or syntax
is concerned with making completely explicit the formalisms of grammar, and in providing
scientific arguments or explanations in favour of one account of grammar rather than another,
in terms of a general theory of human language"
Traditional Grammar
The collection of prescriptive rules and concepts about the structure of the language. "We say
that traditional grammar is prescriptive because it focuses on the distinction between what
some people do with language and what they ought to do with it, according to a pre-
established standard. . . . The chief goal of traditional grammar, therefore, is perpetuating a
historical model of what supposedly constitutes proper language
Transformational Grammar
A theory of grammar that accounts for the constructions of a language by linguistic
transformations and phrase structures. "In transformational grammar, the term 'rule' is used
not for a precept set down by an external authority but for a principle that is unconsciously yet
regularly followed in the production and interpretation of sentences. A rule is a direction for
forming a sentence or a part of a sentence, which has been internalized by the native speaker
Universal Grammar
The system of categories, operations, and principles shared by all human languages and
considered to be innate. "Taken together, the linguistic principles of Universal Grammar
constitute a theory of the organization of the initial state of the mind/brain of the language
learner--that is, a theory of the human faculty for language"

Prescriptive vs descriptive
Prescriptive grammar refers to a set of norms governing how sentences should or should not be
formed rather than describing how language is really used.

Prescriptive grammar is concerned with what the grammarians think to be right or wrong, that
is, it differentiates between good and bad language users.
Descriptive grammar focuses on describing the language as it is actually used, not as it should
be used. It is based on the language used by its speakers.

Descriptive linguists try to analyze real language data so that they can formulate rules
governing its use. The aim is not to distinguish good from bad language users. Many forms of
language that prescriptive grammarians think are not grammatical may be included in the data
the descriptive linguists analyze.

Descriptive grammar focuses on describing the manner how either native or non-native
speakers use the language on a daily basis. Therefore, it includes a set of rules about language
based on how it is actually used, not how it should be used. Linguists often follow this approach
to grammar, where they can study the rules or patterns that underlie the speaker’s use of
words and sentences.
Since this approach basically focuses on identifying and explaining the varied use of the
language according to the user, this grammar discipline does not explain what is correct and
what is incorrect. In other words, one can also describe this grammar approach as an ‘objective
description of the grammatical constructions of the language’.
Descriptive grammarians examine the principles and patterns that underlie the use of words,
phrases, clauses, and sentences of the particular speakers or the users of the language.
Furthermore, according to the definition provided by Edwin L. Battistella “Descriptive grammar
is the basis for dictionaries, which record changes in vocabulary and usage, and for the field of
linguistics, which aims at describing languages and investigating the nature of language.”
Another definition of descriptive grammar is that “A descriptive grammar is a study of a
language, its structure, and its rules as they are used in daily life by its speakers from all walks
of life, including standard and nonstandard varieties

Prescriptive grammar explains or rather prescribes rules on how a language should or ought to
be used by the speakers. As a result, prescriptive grammar consists of a set of rules that teach
the speaker the most accurate and the correct manner to use the language, highlighting what
should be used and what should be avoided so that he can achiev

The root of prescriptive grammar dates back to the 18th century, where the social elites
needed to prescribe what is the standard form of language. Therefore, prescriptive grammar in
a way attempts to enforce rules concerning “correct” or “incorrect” language usage, unlike
descriptive grammar. In brief, this approach to grammar specifies how a language should be
used and what rules should be followed as derived from a particular model of grammar.
Prescriptive grammars are often employed for teaching those who use nonstandard or non-
native language forms. The terms ‘prescriptivism’ and ‘normative grammar’ also refer to this
approach to grammar.

History of Grammatical Study

The study of grammar began with the ancient Greeks, who engaged in philosophical
speculation about languages and described language structure.
This grammatical tradition was passed on to the Romans, who translated the Greek names for
the parts of speech and grammatical endings into Latin; many of these terms (nominative,
accusative, dative) are still found in modern grammars.
But the Greeks and Romans were unable to determine how languages are related.
This problem spurred the development of comparative grammar, which became the dominant
approach to linguistic science in the 19th century.
Early grammatical study appears to have gone hand in hand with efforts to understand archaic
writings.
Thus, grammar was originally tied to societies with long-standing written traditions.
The earliest extant grammar is that of the Sanskrit language of India, compiled by the Indian
grammarian Panini (flourished about 400 BC).
This sophisticated analysis showed how words are formed and what parts of words carry
meaning. Ultimately, the grammars of Panini and other Hindu scholars helped in the
interpretation of Hindu religious literature written in Sanskrit.
The Arabs are believed to have begun the grammatical study of their language before medieval
times. In the 10th century the Jews completed a Hebrew lexicon; they also produced a study of
the language of the Old Testament.

The Greek grammarian Dionysius Thrax wrote the Art of Grammar, upon which many later
Greek, Latin, and other European grammars were based.
With the spread of Christianity and the translation of the Scriptures into the languages of the
new Christians, written literatures began to develop among previously nonliterate peoples.
By the Middle Ages, European scholars generally knew, in addition to their own languages and
Latin, the languages of their nearest neighbors.
This access to several languages set scholars to thinking about how languages might be
compared.
The revival of classical learning in the Renaissance laid the foundation, however, for a
misguided attempt by grammarians to fit all languages into the structure of Greek and Latin.

More positively, medieval Christianity and Renaissance learning led to 16th- and 17th-century
surveys of all the then-known languages in an attempt to determine which language might be
the oldest.
 On the basis of the Bible, Hebrew was frequently so designated. Other languages – Dutch, for
example – were also chosen because of accidental circumstances rather than linguistic facts.
In the 18th century less haphazard comparisons began to be made, culminating in the
assumption by the German philosopher Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz that most languages of
Europe, Asia, and Egypt came from the same original language – a language referred to as Indo-
European.
In the 19th century scholars developed systematic analyses of parts of speech, mostly built on
the earlier analyses of Sanskrit.
The early Sanskrit grammar of Panini was a valuable guide in the compilation of grammars of
the languages of Europe, Egypt, and Asia.
This writing of grammars of related languages, using Panini’s work as a guide, is known as Indo-
European grammar, a method of comparing and relating the forms of speech in numerous
languages.

The Renaissance approach to grammar, which based the description of all languages on the
model of Greek and Latin, died slowly, however. Not until the early 20th century did
grammarians began to describe languages on their own terms.
Noteworthy in this regard are the Handbook of American Indian Languages (1911), the work of
the German-American anthropologist Franz Boas and his colleagues; and the studies by the
Danish linguist Otto Jespersen, A Modern English Grammar (pub. in four parts, 1909-31), and
The Philosophy of Grammar (1924). Boas’s work formed the basis of various types of American
descriptive grammar study.
Jespersen’s work was the precursor of such current approaches to linguistic theory as
transformational generative grammar.
Boas challenged the application of conventional methods of language study to those non-Indo-
European languages with no written records, such as the ones spoken by Native North
Americans. He saw grammar as a description of how human speech in a language is organized.
A descriptive grammar should describe the relationships of speech elements in words and
sentences. Given impetus by the fresh perspective of Boas, the approach to grammar known as
descriptive linguistics became dominant in the U.S. during the first half of the 20th century.

Jespersen, like Boas, thought grammar should be studied by examining living speech rather
than by analyzing written documents, but he wanted to ascertain what principles are common
to the grammars of all languages, both at the present time (the so-called synchronic approach)
and throughout history (the diachronic approach).
Descriptive linguists developed precise and rigorous methods to describe the formal structural
units in the spoken aspect of any language. The approach to grammar that developed with this
view is known as structural.
A structural grammar should describe what the Swiss linguist Ferdinand de Saussure referred to
by the French word langue – denoting the system underlying a particular language – that is,
what members of a speech community speak and hear that will pass as acceptable grammar to
other speakers and hearers of that language.
Actual speech forms (referred to by the structuralists by the French word parole) represent
instances of langue but, in themselves, are not what a grammar should describe.
The structuralist approach to grammar conceives of a particular language such as French,
Swahili, Chinese, or Arabic as a system of elements at various levels – sound, word, sentence,
meaning- that interrelate.
A structuralist grammar therefore describes what relationships underlie all instances of speech
in a particular language; a descriptive grammar describes the elements of transcribed
(recorded, spoken) speech.

By the mid-20th century, Chomsky, who had studied structural linguistics, was seeking a way to
analyze the syntax of English in a structural grammar.
This effort led him to see grammar as a theory of language structure rather than a description
of actual sentences.
His idea of grammar is that it is a device for producing the structure, not of langue (that is, not
of a particular language), but of competence – the ability to produce and understand sentences
in any and all languages.
His universalist theories are related to the ideas of those 18th- and early 19th-century
grammarians who urged that grammar be considered a part of logic—the key to analyzing
thought. Universal grammarians such as the British philosopher John Stuart Mill, writing as late
as 1867, believed rules of grammar to be language forms that correspond to universal thought
forms.