See Also: grammar(medicine)
grammar(dictionary)
grammar(encyclopedia)
grammar(dictionary)
generative grammar(encyclopedia)
grammar school(dictionary)
spelling and grammar checkers(encyclopedia)

grammar (iou)



grammar noun. LME.
[Anglo-Norman gramere, Old French gramaire (mod. grammaire) ult. from Latin grammatica from Greek grammatike use as noun (sc. tekhne art) of fem. of grammatikos relating to letters, from grammat-, gramma letter, written character.]
The branch of language study or linguistics which deals with the means of showing the relationship between words in use, traditionally divided into the study of inflections (or morphology) and of the structure of sentences (syntax) accidence, and often including also phonology. LME.
case grammar, comparative grammar, generative grammar, historical grammar, philosophical grammar, prescriptive grammar, transformational grammar, universal grammar, etc.
Latin. Cf. grammar school below. LME-L16.
A treatise or book on grammar. M16.
A person's manner of using grammatical forms; speech or writing judged as good or bad according as it conforms to or violates the rules of grammar. Also, what is correct according to these rules. L16.
Dryden Varium et mutabile semper Femina...the adjectives are neuter, and animal must be understood to make them grammar. J. Brodsky If her sayings were dark, it wasn't due to her grammar.
(Usu. Grammar.) (The name of) a class in a Roman Catholic school, college, or seminary, now only spec. the fourth class, immediately above Rudiments and below Syntax, in certain Jesuit schools. E17.
transf. The basic rules or principles of an art or science; a book embodying these. E17.
J. H. Newman An Essay in aid of a Grammar of Assent. Daily Telegraph The fact is that the grammar of television demands movement.
The system of inflections and syntactical forms characteristic of a language. M19.
have little grammar, have no grammar (of a language) be sparingly inflected.
= grammar school below. colloq. M20.
Computing. A set of rules governing what strings are valid or allowable in a language or text. M20.
Comb.: grammar-school (a) any of a class of (usu. endowed) English schools founded in or before the 16th cent. orig. for teaching Latin, later secondary schools with a 'liberal' curriculum which included languages, literature, history, and the sciences; after the Education Act of 1944, any of the secondary schools offering a similar curriculum and taking only pupils selected for their ability; (b) US = elementary school (b) s.v. ELEMENTARY adjective; formerly, a school intermediate between a primary school and a high school.
grammarless adjective ignorant of grammar; (of a language) not having a highly inflected structure: E19.