Sunday, September 30, 2018

What is grammar?


Photo source: Wikimedia Commons, Gb89.2

What is grammar? Here is my definition:
Grammar is a system of rules for the combination and formation of words
I believe that humans are not born with pre-wired grammar rules. If you compare languages from around the world, you will not find a universal commonality in the way words are ordered. The only syntactic consistency you will find is the subject-predicate pair.

I believe that babies learn language primarily through example. Over time, children are able to catch onto the patterns of how nouns, adjectives and verbs relate to each other. They also figure out the way certain words are used. In this regard, grammar is something that is imitated.

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