5.3 What is Grammar?
Erin Kelly; Sara Humphreys; Natalie Boldt; and Nancy Ami
It’s difficult to come up with a definition of the term grammar because people use it to mean different things. As we explained in section 5.2 Grammar as a Situated Practice, grammar is situated or contextual, and so grammar as a concept changes meaning depending on where, when, and how it’s used. The most basic distinctions are as follows:
Grammar includes the rules for putting together words, phrases, clauses, and sentences that speakers and writers of a language should follow. This type of grammar can be called prescriptive—it indicates what is good and bad, what is correct and incorrect, what is right and what counts as a mistake.
Grammar is a description of the patterns and structures that speakers and writers of a language actually use. This type of grammar can be called descriptive—it attempts to capture what is going on in the real world without judgement about right or wrong. Although folks interested in the academic study of descriptive grammar are often delighted when they come across unexpected patterns.
Clearly, these two areas of concern with grammar aren’t the same, so it’s important to know which is being stressed before you start working through a lesson on grammar or reading a textbook chapter like this one.
Here we are taking a descriptive approach to prescriptive grammar. We are trying to describe the rules about “right and wrong” you are likely to encounter in academic writing contexts, rather than assuming there are absolute right and wrong ways to use language. We recognize that language rules aren’t exactly the same in all situations. They aren’t fixed across time. Not to mention these rules might even be broken strategically and to good effect.
The rules for correctness in academic writing aren’t natural. That is, they need to be learned by all speakers of English. If you are going to familiarize yourself with the conventions of academic writing, you need to learn a bit about grammar—and everyone has something to learn about this topic.
Most importantly, we want to stress that what counts as “good” or “correct” or “right” in the context of academic writing isn’t the best or only way to use language. Back in 1974, the Conference on College Composition and Communication (often called the 4 Cs) passed a resolution entitled “Students’ Right to Their Own Language.”[1] This set of principles has since been refined and re-ratified. Its key points can be summarized as follows:
- Students have always entered educational settings (schools, colleges, and universities) speaking various forms of English. This could include, but is not limited to, a dialect like that spoken by some Black Canadians and Americans that is known as Black English;[2]
- It is not the job of educational institutions to erase all of these differences and impose on students one “best” or “correct” way of using the English language.
- Instead, the goal of writing teachers should be to