What is language?
English is a language. Language is a system of arbitrary vocal symbols used for human communication. English is such a system adopted and used by the English native speakers or non-English speakers. English can be divided into three periods: The old English period (A.D 450—1066), The Middle English Period(10661500), The Modern English Period(1500-present).
The Development of English Grammar (the groups of grammar)
1.What is language? 2.What is grammar? 3. The Development of English Grammar . The earliest grammars of English Traditional grammar (prescriptive grammar) Prescriptive grammar Descriptive grammar Structural grammar Transformational-generative grammar Case grammar Functional grammar
The Development of English Grammar
B. Traditional grammar(prescriptive grammar) It includes traditional parts of speech, sentence parsing, sentence diagramming and the like.Troditional grammar was used to be schoolroom grammar.
The Development of English Grammar
G.Case grammar H.Functional grammar I.systematical grammar
Grammatical terms
1.morpheme 2.word 3.phrase 4.clause 5.sentense 6.sentense group 7.text 8.specific reference 9.generic reference 10.sentence elements:subject(S), predicate(P), predicative(P) object(O),attribute(A),adverbial(A),complement,appostive,parthenthesi s operator(操作词),predication(述谓成分) 11.NP=noun phrase ; VP=verb phrase ;Prep=prepositional phrase ;Adv P=adverb phrase; 12.determiners: pre-determiner; central determiner;post determiner 13. voices: active voice; passive voice 14;parts of speech 15. clauses: nominal clause, relative clause, adverbial clauses( of cause,concession,condition,condition, manner,place,purpose,result,time). The other terms can seen in the book in page 794-809)
The Development of English Grammar
E. Structural grammar It was raised in 1906—1911. It is based on the assumption that grammatical categories should be defined not in terms of meaning but in terms of distribution, and that the structure of each language should be described without reference to the alleged universality of such categories as tense, mood and parts of speech.
The Development of English Grammar
Lowth’s grammar: works: A Short Introduction to English Grammar. His grammar followed on the heels of Dr.Johnson, and it was authoritarian and prescriptive, and remained the most influential grammar of English for decades
What is grammar?
That part of the study of language which deals with the forms and structure of words (morphology), with their customary arrangement in phrases and sentences (syntax), and now often with language sounds (phonology).

The systematical characteristics of A New English Grammar Course book 1. the method of grammatical hierarchy 1.1 A language hierarchy is composed of 5 ranks which go from the low to the high, morpheme, word, phrase, clause and sentence. (in grammar) 1.2 A language hierarchy is composed of 3 ranks: sentence, sentence-group and text. (in text) 1.3 the differences between previous grammar and A New English Grammar Course book
The Development of English Grammar
C. Prescriptive grammar works----The English Grammar(1640 Ben Johnson). Characters: Latin grammar is wholly used. Rules how to use English correctly are determined. using period:17th---19th century
The Development of English Grammar
D. Descriptive grammar It began in the late 19th century. Works---A New English Grammar(1891),Logical and Historical(1898) H.Sweet. Views: Language is changeable. Different language has different characters. It is against copying Latin grammar. It thinks that we should describe English language scientificof English Grammar
F. Transformational-generative grammar It was raised by N. Chomsky in the book Syntactic Structure in 1957.It has four development periods: a. basic rules(1957-65),b. standard theory(11965—1972), Aspects of the Theory of Syntax. C. extended standard theory (1972—1977)d. revised expanded standard theory.
The Brief Introduction to English Grammar
The Development of English Grammar (the groups of grammar) Grammatical terms The systematical characteristics of A New English Grammar Course book Introduction to Grammatical Hierarchy
The Development of English Grammar
A. The earliest grammars of English English grammar study began during the late 17th and early 18th centuries. One of the earliest of these studies was a large work, written in Latin by John Wallis in 1653. His dictatorial “rules” of English grammar significantly influenced the earliest English native grammar, such as those written by Lowth and Johnson.