Traditional grammar ppt

1. TRADITIONAL GRAMMAR May C. Montemayor

2. Traditional Grammar was initially based on European languages, particularly on Latin and Greek. It is the most widespread and elaborate grammar and is widely used in language teaching, thus termed pedagogic grammar .

3. What is Pedagogic Grammar? (Teaching English British Council BBC) A pedagogic grammar is a description of how to use the grammar of a language to communicate, for people wanting to learn the target language. It can be compared with a reference grammar, which just describes the grammar of the language. Pedagogic grammars contain assumptions about how learners learn, follow certain linguistic theories in their descriptions, and are written for a specific target audience.

4. Traditional Grammar is the collection of prescriptive rules and concepts about the structure of language that is commonly taught in schools. Traditional English grammar (also known as school grammar) is largely based on the principles of Latin grammar, not on current linguistic research in English. In linguistics, a traditional grammar is a framework for the description of the structure of language. Traditional grammars are commonly used in language education .

5. Why prescriptive? James D. William in his book ( The Teacher's Grammar Book . Routledge , 2005) "We say that traditional grammar is prescriptive because it focuses on the distinction between what some people do with language and what they ought to do with it, according to a pre-established standard. . . . The chief goal of traditional grammar, therefore, is perpetuating a historical model of what supposedly constitutes proper language."

6. Subject Noun Predicate Adjective Object Determiner Predicative Verb Adverbial and adjunct Adverb Sentence Preposition Clause Conjunction Phrase Pronoun Concepts treated in traditional grammars include:

7. Advantages of Traditional Grammar The primary purpose of speaking and writing is to communicate with others. Grammar is simply the commonly accepted methods of organizing and expressing words and phrases so that the intended meaning is easily and successfully communicated. As long as accepted grammar rules are followed, the communication can be successful. However, when the grammar rules are not followed fairly closely, it can become awkward for the listener to hear the intended message. It is as if they are having to walk through a verbal obstacle course to reach the destination, the meaning of the communication. Misuse of grammar can also convey to the reader or listener that the communicator is not educated or not intelligent. Improper use of grammar is used by writers when they are attempting to show a lack of refinement in their characters.

8. Disadvantages of Traditional Grammar   Firstly, it is prescriptive in nature, attempting to lay down rules for speakers of a language.     Secondly, its grammatical categories are merely based on European languages and are found inadequate in describing other languages. Thirdly , it lacks a theoretical framework and thus fails to account for the nature of language.   It has given a distorted view of what language is, placing priority on rules rather than on functions of communication. Language is not a math. (Is there such a thing a 'traditional grammar'?) Though grammar can help, in the same way maths can help in Biology or other sciences.          The grammar of English is constantly changing (oxymoronically). Though, one could argue that there is a universal grammar, as was thought in the Baroque and Classical eras, more esp. with music.

9. Comparative Study of Traditional and Functional Grammar

10. Uses of Traditional Grammar and reason

11. Conclusion In spite of focusing on functional grammar Traditional grammar being full of short comings is still in use because of our system being based on it and. To sum up I would like to quote Fries who says about Traditional grammarians thus: “Not insightful, prescientific , prescriptive and having a literary bias, they are full of inadequacies there may be about 200 definitions of a sentences yet they are not able to differentiate between “The dog is barking and The barking dog.”

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13. References James D. Williams, The Teacher's Grammar Book . Routledge , 2005. David Crystal, The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the English Language . Cambridge University Press, 2003. George Hillocks, Research on Written Composition: New Directions for Teaching . National Council of Teachers, 1986. Brian Brooks, James Pinson, and Jean Gaddy Wilson, Working with Words . Macmillan, 2005. Microsoft ® Encarta ® 2009. © 1993-2008 Microsoft Corporation. Grammar Code 5657 AIOU Islamabad.