grammar

English Online Dictionary. What means grammar‎? What does grammar mean?

English

Alternative forms

• grammary (archaic)
• grammer (obsolete)

Etymology

From Middle English gramere, from Old French gramaire (“classical learning”), from unattested Vulgar Latin *grammāria, an alteration of Latin grammatica, from Ancient Greek γραμματική (grammatikḗ, “skilled in writing”), from γράμμα (grámma, “line of writing”), from γράφω (gráphō, “write”), from Proto-Indo-European *gerbʰ- (“to carve, scratch”). Displaced native Old English stæfcræft; a doublet of glamour, glamoury, gramarye, and grimoire. Piecewise doublet of grammatic.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation, General Australian) IPA^(key): /ˈɡɹæm.ə(ɹ)/
• (General American, Canada) enPR: grăm'ər, IPA^(key): /ˈɡɹæm.ɚ/, [ˈɡɹɛəm.ɚ]
  • (Canada) IPA^(key): [ˈɡɹæːm.ɚ], [ˈɡɹam.ɚ]
• Rhymes: -æmə(ɹ)
• Hyphenation: gram‧mar

Noun

grammar (countable and uncountable, plural grammars)

2. (linguistics) A system of rules and principles for the structure of a language, or of languages in general.
   1. (linguistics) The study of such a system.
4. Actual or presumed prescriptive notions about the correct use of a language.
5. A book describing the grammar (sense 1 or sense 2) of a language.
6. (Can we verify⁽⁺⁾ this sense?) (computing theory) A formal system specifying the syntax of a language.
   • 2006, Patrick Blackburn · Johan Bos · Kristina Striegnitz, Learn Prolog Now!, §8.2

     Because real lexicons are big and complex, from a software engineering perspective it is best to write simple grammars that have a simple, well-defined way, of pulling out the information they need from vast lexicons. That is, grammars should be thought of as separate entities which can access the information contained in lexicons. We can then use specialised mechanisms for efficiently storing the lexicon and retrieving data from it.

7. (computing theory) A formal system defining a formal language.
8. (figurative) The basic rules or principles of a field of knowledge or a particular skill.
9. (British, archaic) A book describing these rules or principles; a textbook.
10. (British) A grammar school.
11. (cellular automata) A set of component patterns, along with the rules for connecting them, which can be combined to form more complex patterns such as large still lifes, oscillators, and spaceships.

Usage notes

Colloquially, grammar (sense 1) is often used to refer specifically to the internal structure of words (morphology) and the structure of phrases and sentences (syntax) of a language (which are subsumed in linguistics under the label morphosyntax), without reference to other aspects of grammar, such as the sounds of the language.

Synonyms

• (study & field of study in medieval Latin contexts): glomery

Hyponyms

• context-sensitive grammar
• finite-state grammar
• Turing-complete grammar
• normative grammar

Derived terms

Related terms

• glamour
• gramarye

Translations

Verb

grammar (third-person singular simple present grammars, present participle grammaring, simple past and past participle grammared)

1. (obsolete, intransitive) To discourse according to the rules of grammar; to use grammar.

See also

• grammar on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• Appendix:Glossary of grammar
• Category:Grammar

Further reading

• grammar at The Septic's Companion: A British Slang Dictionary