The term grammar

So first things first let's look at what the term grammar means. Grammar - rules of a language
governing the sounds, words, sentences, and other elements, as well as their combination and
interpretation. The term grammar is derived from the Greek word grammatikē, where gram meant
something written. The part tikē derives from technē and meant art. SO it meant the art of writing.
The word grammar also denotes the study of these abstract features or a book presenting these
rules. In a restricted sense, the term refers only to the study of sentence and word structure (syntax
and morphology), excluding vocabulary and pronunciation.
Conceptions of grammar
A common contemporary definition of grammar is the underlying structure of a language that any
native speaker of that language knows intuitively. The systematic description of the features of a
language is also a grammar. These features are the phonology (sound), morphology (system of word
formation), syntax (patterns of word arrangement), and semantics (meaning).
Ancient and medieval grammars
In Europe the Greeks were the first to write grammars, focusing on literary language. In the 1st
century BC, Alexandrians refined Greek grammar to preserve the purity of the language, and later
Dionysius Thrax analyzed texts in The Art of Grammar, identifying 8 parts of speech (nouns,
pronouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, prepositions, conjunctions, and interjections.).
The Romans adopted the grammatical system of the Greeks and applied it to Latin.
In medieval Europe, Latin grammar became the foundation of education. The modistae (13th–14th
century) sought a universal grammar to explain language as a reflection of reality, while 17th-century
Port-Royal grammarians focused on identifying common elements in grammatical categories across
all languages. They emphasized studying spoken language over literary forms. Their focus on
linguistic universal principles influenced modern linguistics, and Noam Chomsky later called them the
first transformational grammarians.
Modern and contemporary grammars
By 1700, grammars of 61 vernacular languages had been printed, mainly to standardize, refine, or
reform language for teaching. These grammars focused on formal written language rather than
everyday speech. This prescriptive approach dominated schools, where grammar was taught through
sentence diagramming and strict rules. However, by the mid-20th century, opposition to this rigid
teaching style grew as scholars recognized the complexity of language.
In the 19th and early 20th centuries, historical linguists studied written records, dialects, and
spoken languages to understand how languages evolved. Unlike earlier prescriptive grammarians,
they focused on where languages came from.
This led to the distinction between
● diachronic (language change over time)
● synchronic (language at a particular moment) studies.
Swiss linguist Ferdinand de Saussure and other descriptivists began analyzing spoken language by
collecting and classifying examples from native speakers.
In the late 20th century, generative grammarians like Noam Chomsky studied how native speakers
unconsciously form and understand sentences. Unlike descriptivists, they focused on deep language
structures, distinguishing between a speaker’s knowledge (competence) and its use in speech
(performance).
The most basic types of grammar are:
● prescriptive (i.e., provide rules for correct usage)
● descriptive (i.e., describe how a language is actually used)
But there are a lot more types like:
● Theoretical Grammar
The study of the essential components of any human language.
 ● Comparative Grammar
The analysis and comparison of the grammatical structures of related languages
● Generative Grammar
Provides instructions for the production of an infinite number of sentences in a language.
● Mental Grammar
The generative grammar stored in the brain that allows a speaker to produce language that other
speakers can understand
● Pedagogical Grammar
Grammatical analysis and instruction designed for second-language students.
● Performance Grammar
A description of the syntax of English as it is actually used by speakers in dialogues.
● Reference Grammar
A description of the grammar of a language, with explanations of the principles governing the
construction of words, phrases, clauses, and sentences.
● Traditional Grammar
The collection of prescriptive rules and concepts about the structure of the language.
● Transformational Grammar
A theory of grammar that accounts for the constructions of a language by linguistic transformations
and phrase structures.
● Universal Grammar
The system of categories, operations, and principles shared by all human languages and considered
to be innate.
Those are just the most known ones and i couldn’t possibly name all of them because new grammars
are emerging all the time.
So, today grammar is a key field within linguistics. While many still see grammar as a set of rules
for correct speech and writing, a more thoughtful approach has emerged since the late 20th century.
In some countries, such as Australia and the United Kingdom, new English curricula have been
introduced. It encourages students to explore grammar as an evolving system rather than a fixed set
of rules.