# Grammar | | In linguistics, the **Grammar** of a natural language is its set of structural rules on speakers' or writers' usage and creation of clauses, phrases, and words. The term can also refer to the study of such rules, a subject that includes phonology, morphology, and syntax, together with phonetics, semantics, and pragmatics. There are, broadly speaking, two different ways to study grammar: traditional grammar and theoretical grammar. | |-|-| | | wikipedia:: [Grammar](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grammar) | [[Syntax]] [[Semantics|Semantic]] Meaning vs use ([[Ludwig Wittgenstein|Wittgenstein]]) [[Syntactic ambiguity]] [[Semantic ambiguity]] Morphology, morpheme [[Prescriptive Linguistics|Prescriptive Grammar]] vs [[Descriptive Linguistics|Descriptivism]] literal vs figurative diphthong Elements of Style by Strunk and White [[Inflection]] loan words borrowed words [[Cohesion (linguistics)]] [[Coherence (linguistics)]] ## [[Part of Speech]] (lexical category) > Linguists recognize that the above list of eight or nine word classes is drastically simplified.[17] For example, "adverb" is to some extent a catch-all class that includes words with many different functions. Some have even argued that the most basic of category distinctions, that of nouns and verbs, is unfounded,[18] or not applicable to certain languages.[19][20] Modern linguists have proposed many different schemes whereby the words of English or other languages are placed into more specific categories and subcategories based on a more precise understanding of their grammatical functions. Traditional classification vs functional classification of parts of speech Open vs closed function word vs content word prefix suffix Counterfactual (contrafactual) ### Structural, general - subject, [[Predicate (grammar)]] - [[Clause]] - coordinate clause - dependent clause - independent clause - phrase - noun phrase, verb phrase - referent - sense, reference, philo - complement - comparative - physical, abstract, concrete - conditional - antecedent ### Cross-cutting terms - [[Demonstrative]] - [[Gender and Sexuality Studies|Gender]] - Derivation - [[Declension]] - [[Quantifier (logic)]] - [[Agreement (linguistics)]] - compounds, compound word - [[Extension]] ### [[Noun]] (names) - [[Grammatical case]] - plural, singular - [[Grammatical modifier]] - [[Determiner]]s - [[Adjective]]s - [[Participles]] - Numerals - possessive - Proper - Common - Noun phrase - subject - object - distributive - [[Pronoun]] - [[Grammatical case]] - numeral - e.g. - each - every ### [[Verb]] ### [[Auxiliary verb]] - be - can - could ### Coverb, helper verb ### Contraction ### [[Adverb]] (describes, Limits (verbs)) ### [[Adjective]] (describes, Limits nouns) ### [[Article (grammar)]] (describes, limits) ### [[Preposition]] (relates), Postpositions, & circumpositions (adpositions) ### [[Pronoun]] ### [[Conjunction (grammar)]] (connects) ### Interjection (expresses feelings or emotions) - ahem - psst ### Expletive & profanity -[Expletive (linguistics) - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Expletive_(linguistics)) ### [[Determiner]] ### [[Grammatical particle]] ### [[Classifier (linguistics)]] Or measure words ### [[Cardinal number]]s ## Punctuation and types of sentences - Declarative - Imperative - Interrogative - Exclamation - Comma - [[Oxford Comma]] - comma splice - Period - Semicolon ## Interrogative words, wh-words, 5 W's - Who - What - Where - When - Why - Whether - Which - Whom - Whose ## Ill-advised, gradually antiquated, but still-ticking bullshit [[Prescriptive Linguistics|prescriptivist]]grammar rules bandied about by figurative grammar nazis who are sad they were born too late to be a literal nazi [English usage controversies - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_usage_controversies) [[Prescriptive Linguistics|Prescriptive Grammar]] - Don't end a sentence with a preposition - Ie, [[Preposition|Preposition stranding]] is bad. - [[This is just the sort of bloody nonsense up with which I will not put! (apocryphal)]] - But it is very common and natural and simply makes perfect sense in many cases - I think it was traced to one source that got carried over to future stylebooks without good reason - remember some explanation like that... - Rules are more important than communication or clarity or practicality - Avoid the passive voice - Avoid dangling modifiers even if there isn't ambiguity - Split infinitives - I vs me - Your vs one's - Double negatives - we don't need no education - Double modals - you might could do it (southern) - Ebonics - Double copula - "What has to happen is, is that the money has to come from somewhere" - Don't start a sentence with a conjunction > It is now generally agreed that a sentence may begin with a coordinating conjunction like and,[20] but,[21] or yet.[22] While some people consider this usage improper, Follett's Modern American Usage labels its prohibition a "supposed rule without foundation" and a "prejudice [that] lingers from a bygone time."[23] > Some associate this belief with their early school days. One conjecture is that it results from young children's being taught to avoid simple sentences starting with and and are encouraged to use more complex structures with subordinating conjunctions.[20] In the words of Bryan A. Garner, the "widespread belief ... that it is an error to begin a sentence with a conjunction such as and, but, or so has no historical or grammatical foundation",[24] and good writers have frequently started sentences with conjunctions.[23] > There is also a misleading guideline that a sentence should never begin with because. Because is a subordinating conjunction, and introduces a dependent clause. It may start a sentence when the main clause follows the dependent clause.[25] ## Inbox - [[Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo]] - [[Garden-path sentence]] - who whom - 1st person - 2nd person - 3rd person - Dangline modifier