ROLE OF

GRAMMAR IN
ENGLISH

SUBMITTED TO : MRS
NEERJA SHARMA
DATE : 13NOVEMBER2010

1
 Contribution of Group Members
Lalit Sharma : contributed nearly one third
of the total content of the project report
Varun Mishra : Contributed another one
third of the report
Nitesh Chauhan:made the
acknowledgement,summary contribution
page,reference page etc.
Prashant Attrey : done the job of making
slides of the report
Mohd. Afroz Faarouqi : told about the
name of the sites from where the matter
related to the topic is taken
Mohd. Shahrukh Chaudhary ; searched the
history of grammar
Mrityunjay kumar Gaur : searched the
topic “development of grammar”
Mohd. Zafar Ansari : took out the print
outs and gave the report the final touch

2
Rohit Kocccher :took care of the mails of
the group members and finally mailed
them to the group members after
rearranging them
Nihas N : took the responsibility of
searching the group members

3
 Index
Topic Page
Acknowledgement
We wish to express our warm and
sincere thanks to our English teacher Mrs
Neeerja Sharma who showed us the way to
make our project report.She told us the basic
things which helped us a lot to complete our
report.It was a great pleasure to get involved
in making a report on such an interesting
topic.

4
 What is Grammar?
In linguistics, grammar is the set of
structural rules that govern the
composition of sentences, phrases, and
words in any given natural language. The
term refers also to the study of such rules,
and this field includes morphology, syntax,
and phonology, often complemented by
phonetics, semantics, and pragmatics.
Linguists do not normally use the term to
refer to orthographical rules, although
usage books and style guides that call
themselves grammars may also refer to
spelling and punctuation.

5
6
 The Importance of Grammar
Communication is the heart and soul of the
human experience. The process
communication mainly includes
speaking , listening, and writing. Nobody
actually learns grammar to learn his/ her
own mother tongue. It is a natural
phenomenon that we start speaking what
everybody speaks around us. We gradually
develop a better sense of understanding
with the passage of time.
We don't study grammar of our own
mother tongue to use it for daily speaking,
but when we need to polish our own
mother tongue, we have to study its
grammar and we usually do that. When we
come to learning a new language like
English language, we need to study its
grammar, the importance of grammar
cannot be neglected and before we do that
we need to understand what grammar is.

7
 Grammar is the study of words and the
ways words work together. An invisible
force that guides us as we put words
together into sentences. Any person who
communicates using a particular language
is consciously or unconsciously aware of
the grammar of that language.
To speak in a clearer and more effective
manner we study grammar. A person who
has unconscious knowledge of grammar
may be sufficient for simple language use,
but the ones who wish to communicate in
an artful manner and well, will seek
greater depth of understanding and
proficiency that the study of grammar
provides.

8
People communicate by speaking, through
written words, and through body language.
Each form of communication can be
uniquely different from the other. We all
use slang words and are lax on proper
grammar when casually speaking to close
friends and family members. Most young
people have now added a new form of
communication by way of texting, using
abbreviations decided upon by the users.
The use of body language enhances face to
face communication and can indicate
sarcasm, being facetious, or someone
being playful. The written word is a
permanent record that says much about the
person doing the writing.

9
 While it is okay to say, "Hey, y'all wanna
go get some ice-cream. And maybe watch
a movie later. We can even stay up late
cause it's friday night and none of us has to
git up early", when talking to your family
and close friends. It is not okay to write an
article about global warming using casual
conversation. Whatever you write on the
web will be there forever and speak for
itself as to the education and sophistication
of the writer.

10
 Whatever the subject, if the grammar is
consistently incorrect and the use of
English poor, the reader will find it
difficult to believe you are a credible
source of information. A reader may not
notice that a story, article, or ad is perfectly
written, but he will definitely notice when
it is not. Improper use of commas and the
omission of commas and other forms of
punctuation can drastically change the
meaning of a sentence. For example,
"June, Sue, and Tim will be speakers at the
conference this Friday", means something
entirely different when you omit a comma,
as in, "June, Sue and Tim will be speakers
at the conference this Friday". Misspelled
words, improperly used words, lack of
punctuation, and misused punctuation
cause confusion for the reader and reflect
poorly upon the writer.

11
 Even with the tools we use on our
computers to check for misspelled words
and other errors, nothing is as good as
proof reading. Your computer will not alert
you if you have spelled the word correctly,
but used the wrong word. Only a thinking
person can read and decide an article is too
wordy, sentences are too short or too long,
or notice that something is missing,
causing confusion for the reader. When
your name is the byline, you want your
story to be compelling and a credit to your
ability.

12
 If the object of the website is to draw
returning traffic, the importance of good
grammar and good English will soon be
apparent to the owner or host of the
website. Without well-written articles,
stories, reporting, etc., the website will not
be taken seriously. Anyone who takes the
time to post on websites should also take
the time to edit. The return on your
investment will be greatly multiplied and
knowing that you have done your best will
increase your self-esteem.
To assist people to communicate
accurately, words and word groups with
similar function in a language (e.g. Greek,
Latin and English) have been grouped
together into distinct categories that are
often referred to as “classes of speech.’’

The main categories or classes are called

parts of speech.

13
In English, there are eight traditional parts
of speech.
1. Noun
2. Verb
3. Adjective
4. Adverb
5. Pronoun
6. Preposition
7. Conjunction
8. Interjection
9. Interrogative

Words belonging to these different parts of

speech categories perform distinct roles.
Other classes of speech and grammatical
terminology that will be encountered in
this column series include:

14
 • Affix
• Anagram
• Antonym
• Article
• Auxiliary
• Case
• Clause
• Connective
• Demonstrative
• Descriptive
• Determiner
• Exclamation
• Gerund
• Infix
• Mood
• Particle

15
 • Participle
• Phrase
• Prefix
• Proverb
• Punctuation
• Suffix
• Synonym
• Tense
• Voice

ADVANTAGES

16
Having an accurate knowledge about the
classes of speech is advantageous
particularly when one is endeavouring to
use alternative words and phrases to raise
the quality of a statement. i.e. the Art of
the Alternative techniques.

When a speaker publicly uses an incorrect

part of speech or a word that has a wrong
meaning, it may result to personal
embarrassment.

While the attainment of a high level of

functional grammar proficiency should be
the primary goal of an individual, having
an understanding of at least the more
common classes of speech defined in
formal grammar also is of significant
benefit.

17
There are advantages when both functional
and formal grammar are taught and
mastered together as both facets contribute
positively in their own different ways to
the goal of achieving acceptable
levels of proficiency in English. This
contention is based also on the fact that it
is the specific function of a word or word
group in a sentence that determines what
its formal class of speech or definitional
category is.
Similarly, the traditionally defined purpose
or definition of words or word groups can
determine whether the particular way they
are used in speech and writing is
grammatically correct.

18
19
 FORMAL AND FUNCTI ONAL
GRAMMAR

Often, just knowing some of the basic

formal rules of grammar can be a clue to
whether or not a word is being used
correctly.
For example, being aware that one purpose
of an adverb is to tell “how” about the
action that is being performed by a verb, –
and that numerous adverbs are spelt with
an “ly” ending – sends a mental clue to a
speaker that it is correct to say: “The
dancers performed splendidly.” but Not
“The dancers performed splendid.”

20
Knowing also that one of the grammatical
attribute of many words is that they can be
used as different parts of speech -
depending on their function in a sentence –
can significantly boost one’s ability to
communicate in English with greater
variety and proficiency.
For example, the word “fast” can be used
as a:
• Verb: I fast during navratri.
• Adverb: Hold fast onto that rope.
• Adjective: That was a very fast race.
• Noun: When will you begin your fast?
The moment someone opens their mouth
and speaks, grammatical-related signals
are sent to a listener indicating as to
whether or not that speaker is a competent
communicator

21
Most listeners would know that a speaker
lacked basic grammatical skills if they
heard someone say: “Me is so sick!” or
“My sisters is helping me with my
homework.” or “That teacher talks too
quick.” or “Mica is totally absorbed with a
book about Napoleon.”

Competency in grammar can open new

occupational doors especially when one
has a high level of proficiency in both the
formal and functional aspects.

22
Use of the term

23
 Every speaker of a language has in his or
her head a set of rules for using that
language. This is a grammar, and—at least
in the case of one's native language—the
vast majority of the information in it is not
acquired by conscious study or instruction,
but by observing other speakers; much of
this work is done during infancy. Language
learning later in life, of course, may
involve a greater degree of explicit
instruction. The term "grammar" can also
be used to describe the rules that govern
the linguistic behaviour of a group of
speakers. The term "English grammar,"
therefore, may have several meanings. It
may refer to the whole of English grammar
—that is, to the grammars of all the
speakers of the language, which means
including a great deal of variation.
Alternatively, it may refer only to what is
common to the grammars of all, or of the
vast majority of, English speakers (such as
subject-verb-object word order in simple
24
 declarative sentences). Or it may refer to
the rules of a particular, relatively well
defined variety of English (such as
Standard English).
"An English grammar" is a specific
description, study or analysis of such rules.
A reference book describing the grammar
of a language is called a "reference
grammar" or simply "a grammar". A fully
explicit grammar exhaustively describing
the grammatical constructions of a
language is called a descriptive grammar.
Linguistic description contrasts with
linguistic prescription, which tries to
enforce rules of how a language is to be
used.

25
Grammatical frameworks are approaches
to constructing grammars. The standard
framework of generative grammar is the
transformational grammar model
developed in various ways by Noam
Chomsky and his associates from the
1950s onwards.

26
 History
The first systematic grammar originated in
Iron Age India, with Yaska (6th c. BC),
Pāṇini (4th c. BC) and his commentators
Pingala (ca. 200 BC), Katyayana, and
Patanjali (2nd c. BC). In the West,
grammar emerged as a discipline in
Hellenism from the 3rd c. BC forward with
authors like Rhyanus and Aristarchus of
Samothrace, the oldest extant work being
the Art of Grammar attributed to
Dionysius Thrax (ca. 100 BC). Latin
grammar developed by following Greek
models from the 1st century BC, due to the
work of authors such as Orbilius Pupillus,
Remmius Palaemon, Marcus Valerius
Probus, Verrius Flaccus, and Aemilius
Asper.
Tamil grammatical tradition also began
around the 1st century BC with the
Tolkāppiyam.

27
 A grammar of Irish originated in the 7th
century with the Auraicept na n-Éces.
Arabic grammar emerged from the 8th
century with the work of Ibn Abi Ishaq and
his students.

28
 The first treatises on Hebrew grammar
appeared in the High Middle Ages, in the
context of Mishnah (exegesis of the
Hebrew Bible). The Karaite tradition
originated in Abbasid Baghdad. The
Diqduq (10th century) is one of the earliest
grammatical commentaries on the Hebrew
Bible.[5] Ibn Barun in the 12th century
compares the Hebrew language with
Arabic in the Islamic grammatical
tradition. Belonging to the trivium of the
seven liberal arts, grammar was taught as a
core discipline throughout the Middle
Ages, following the influence of authors
from Late Antiquity, such as Priscian.
Treatment of vernaculars began gradually
during the High Middle Ages, with
isolated works such as the First
Grammatical Treatise, but became
influential only in the Renaissance and
Baroque periods. In 1486, Antonio de
Nebrija published Las introduciones
Latinas contrapuesto el romance al Latin,
29
 and the first Spanish grammar, Gramática
de la lengua castellana, in 1492. During the
16th century Italian Renaissance, the
Questione della lingua was the discussion
on the status and ideal form of the Italian
language, initiated by Dante's de vulgari
eloquentia (Pietro Bembo, Prose della
volgar lingua Venice 1525).
Grammars of non-European languages
began to be compiled for the purposes of
evangelization and Bible translation from
the 16th century onward, such as
Grammatica o Arte de la Lengua General
de los Indios de los Reynos del Perú
(1560), and a Quechua grammar by Fray
Domingo de Santo Tomás.

30
 In 1643 there appeared Ivan Uzhevych's
Grammatica sclavonica and, in 1762, the
Short Introduction to English Grammar of
Robert Lowth was also published. The
Grammatisch-Kritisches Wörterbuch der
hochdeutschen Mundart, a High German
grammar in five volumes by Johann
Christoph Adelung, appeared as early as
1774. From the latter part of the 18th
century, grammar came to be understood
as a subfield of the emerging discipline of
modern linguistics. The Serbian grammar
by Vuk Stefanović Karadžić arrived in
1814, while the Deutsche Grammatik of
the Brothers Grimm was first published in
1818. The Comparative Grammar of Franz
Bopp, the starting point of modern
comparative linguistics, most of the former
German dialects are nearly extinct.

31
 Standard Mandarin has official status as
the standard spoken form of the Chinese
language in the People's Republic of China
(PRC), the Republic of China (ROC) and
the Republic of Singapore. Pronunciation
of Standard Mandarin is based on the
Beijing dialect of Mandarin Chinese, while
grammar and syntax are based on modern
vernacular Chinese. Modern Standard
Arabic is directly based on Classical
Arabic, the language of the Qur'an. The
Hindustani language has two standards,
Hindi and Urdu.
In the United States, the Society for the
Promotion of Good Grammar designated
March 4 as National Grammar Day in
2008.

32
33
Development of Grammar

34
 Grammars evolve through usage and also
due to separations of the human
population. With the advent of written
representations, formal rules about
language usage tend to appear also. Formal
grammars are codifications of usage that
are developed by repeated documentation
over time, and by observation as well. As
the rules become established and
developed, the prescriptive concept of
grammatical correctness can arise. This
often creates a discrepancy between
contemporary usage and that which has
been accepted, over time, as being correct.
Linguists tend to view prescriptive
grammars as having little justification
beyond their authors' aesthetic tastes,
although style guides may give useful
advice about Standard English based on
descriptions of usage in contemporary
writing. Linguistic prescriptions also form
part of the explanation for variation in
speech, particularly variation in the speech
35
 of an individual speaker (an explanation,
for example, for why some people say "I
didn't do nothing", some say "I didn't do
anything", and some say one or the other
depending on social context).
The formal study of grammar is an
important part of education for children
from a young age through advanced
learning, though the rules taught in schools
are not a "grammar" in the sense most
linguists use the term, particularly as they
are often prescriptive rather than
descriptive.
Constructed languages (also called planned
languages or conlangs) are more common
in the modern day. Many have been
designed to aid human communication (for
example, naturalistic Interlingua,
schematic Esperanto, and the highly logic-
compatible artificial language Lojban).
Each of these languages has its own
grammar.
36
 Syntax refers to linguistic structure above
the word level (e.g. how sentences are
formed)—though without taking into
account intonation, which is the domain of
phonology. Morphology, by contrast, refers
to structure at and below the word level
(e.g. how compound words are formed),
but above the level of individual sounds,
which, like intonation, are in the domain of
phonology. No clear line can be drawn,
however, between syntax and morphology.
Analytic languages use syntax to convey
information that is encoded via inflection
in synthetic languages. In other words,
word order is not significant and
morphology is highly significant in a
purely synthetic language, whereas
morphology is not significant and syntax is
highly significant in an analytic language.
Chinese and Afrikaans, for example, are
highly analytic, and meaning is therefore
very context-dependent. (Both do have
some inflections, and have had more in the
37
 past; thus, they are becoming even less
synthetic and more "purely" analytic over
time.) Latin, which is highly synthetic,
uses affixes and inflections to convey the
same information that Chinese does with
syntax. Because Latin words are quite
(though not completely) self-contained, an
intelligible Latin sentence can be made
from elements that are placed in a largely
arbitrary order. Latin has a complex
affixation and simple syntax, while
Chinese has the opposite.

38
39
 Education
Prescriptive grammar is taught in primary
school (elementary school). The term
"grammar school" historically refers to a
school teaching Latin grammar to future
Roman citizens, orators, and, later,
Catholic priests. In its earliest form,
"grammar school" referred to a school that
taught students to read, scan, interpret, and
declaim Greek and Latin poets (including
Homer, Virgil, Euripides, Ennius, and
others). But see the British kind of
grammar school.

40
A standard language is a particular dialect
of a language that is promoted above other
dialects in writing, education, and broadly
speaking in the public sphere; it contrasts
with vernacular dialects, which may be the
objects of study in descriptive grammar
but which are rarely taught prescriptively.
The standardized "first language" taught in
primary education may be subject to
political controversy, since it establishes a
standard defining nationality or ethnicity.
Recently, efforts have begun to update
grammar instruction in primary and
secondary education. The primary focus
has been to prevent the use outdated
prescriptive rules in favor of more accurate
descriptive ones and to change perceptions
about relative "correctness" of standard
forms in comparison to non standard
dialects.

41
 The pre-eminence of Parisian French has
reigned largely unchallenged throughout
the history of modern French literature.
Standard Italian is not based on the speech
of the capital, Rome, but on the speech of
Florence because of the influence
Florentines had on early Italian literature.
Similarly, standard Spanish is not based on
the speech of Madrid, but on the one of
educated speakers from more northerly
areas like Castile and León. In Argentina
and Uruguay the Spanish standard is based
on the local dialects of Buenos Aires and
Montevideo (Rioplatense Spanish).
Portuguese has three official written
standards, respectively Brazilian
Portuguese , European Portuguese and
Galician Portuguese.

42
Norwegian has two standards, Bokmål and
Nynorsk, the choice between which is
subject to controversy: Each Norwegian
municipality can declare one of the two its
official language, or it can remain
"language neutral". Nynorsk is endorsed
by a minority of 27 percent of the
municipalities. The main language used in
primary schools normally follows the
official language of its municipality, and is
decided by referendum within the local
school district. Standard German emerged
out of the standardized chancellery use of
High German in the 16th and 17th
centuries. Until about 1800, it was almost
entirely a written language, but now it is so
widely spoken that most of the former
German dialects are nearly extinct.

43
 Standard Mandarin has official status as
the standard spoken form of the Chinese
language in the People's Republic of China
(PRC), the Republic of China (ROC) and
the Republic of Singapore. Pronunciation
of Standard Mandarin is based on the
Beijing dialect of Mandarin Chinese, while
grammar and syntax are based on modern
vernacular Chinese. Modern Standard
Arabic is directly based on Classical
Arabic, the language of the Qur'an. The
Hindustani language has two standards,
Hindi and Urdu.
In the United States, the Society for the
Promotion of Good Grammar designated
March 4 as National Grammar Day in
2008

44
 Why do we teach Grammar?
Changing reasons: Academic theories and
applications change, but practice is slow to
change. How much of what we used to do
is still suitable in the communicative
classroom? Grammar study began in
Ancient Greece two and a half thousand
years ago. The principle was to promote
good style, grace and accuracy: a standard
model of good usage. These days, the
model is outdated, and the reasons have
changed.

45
How do we teach Grammar?

46
Grammar provides the rationale – the why
and how - of language.
- Relevance: Grammar practice books are
still with us. Why are they so like the
1950’s grammars? – Because drills became
unfashionable, and learners still need to
practice low-level skills before they can
take part in an open-ended conversation.
Are these written grammar practice
exercises more ‘communicative’ than oral
drills? No. Are they as useful as oral drills?
No.
- Clarity: serious problem in English
Language Teaching with confusing and
inaccurate rules. Two myths: one, that
English has no grammar, and two, that
English is full of exceptions. This is
nonsense. English is as consistent as any
other language. There are no exceptions.
There are only larger and smaller
categories.
- Accurate information is simple
information. When we find that our
47
explanations are not simple, we must look
deeper, until we get at the truth.

48
 SUMMARY
grammatical understanding is a process of
putting words into categories: singular,
plural, uncountable,

49
 attributive, predicative, past, present,
future, stative, dynamic, general reference,
specific reference, classifying, defining.
The understanding of these categories is
built up slowly. Grammatical insights
develop slowly, along with the language
items the student has learned. One thing is
essential: students must be able to classify
what we ask them to learn in relation to
what they already know. ‘He must take
knowledge with him who would bring
knowledge home.’ (Dr. Samuel Johnson)
It is pointless to teach everything the
students need to know about a grammatical
category at once. It is the wrong kind of
learning. It belongs to the ‘talking about
language’, the ‘grammar translation’
tradition.
Teaching grammar for communication
means giving enough information about
the items of study so that the student sees
that there is a pattern, and what that pattern
is. That’s it. The process of giving that
50
information should always be subordinate
to the process of getting students to do
things with language.

REFERENCES

51
All the information presented in the project
report have been taken and referred from
the following:-

HINDUSTAN TIMES
TIMES OF INDIA
WWW.ASK.COM
WWW.GOOGLE .COM
WWW.SIRIU.EDU.COM

52