5 - Traditional Grammar and Modern Linguistics

TRADITIONAL GRAMMAR
AND MODERN LINGUISTICS

Traditional Grammar and Modern
Linguistics
Traditional Grammar and Modern Linguistics are two
schools of linguistics that reflect the scientific aspect
and non-scientificity of language.
Traditional Grammar developed as a result of Greek,
Roman and Arabo-Islamic scholarship, and continued
through the Middle Ages, the Renaissance, and into
modern times.
Traditional Grammar studied language in relation to
disciplines like logic, philosophy, literary criticism,
religion, history and language teaching and not as a
complex and a highly-organized system .
Traditional Grammar considered written
language more basic than spoken one to
preserve it from corruption.
For Traditional grammariens, spoken

language is subject to change because it always
brings about corrupt forms.
Traditional Grammar
Traditional Grammar emphasizes more on
grammar than any other aspect of language.
the speech forms are totally ignored only
because they are very different from the
written data.
For example:
The different pronunciations of the plural marker -
s are totally neglected. The rule doesn't hold for the
spoken language where the 's' is pronounced as [s] as
in "cats", [z] as in "bags", and [iz] as in "cases"
depending on the nature of the sound which precedes
it.
Modern Linguistics
Modern Linguistics considers spoken
language as basic.
It deals with all facets of language :
pronunciation, word-formation, sentence
formation and meaning.
Traditional Grammar treats only
pronunciation patterns of language ; stress and
rhythm.
Prescriptivism VS Descriptivism
Traditional • It formulates rules about

Grammar is how people should speak
prescriptive and write
Modern • It accounts for how people

speak and write language and
Linguistics is tries to discover, describe and
descriptive record these rules.
Presriptivisism
Presriptivisism consists basically of stating what is considered
right or wrong in language.
For instance, traditional grammarians impose rules such as :
Never split the infinitive verb form :
‘bad’ : We tried to consciously stop worrying about him.
‘good’: We tried to stop consciously worrying about him.
You mustn’t end a sentence with a preposition
Traditional teachers would correct sentences like :
`bad': Where did you just come from? Who did you go with?
‘good': From where did you just come? With whom did you go ?
Do not use double negation
`good': I don't know anything.
`bad': I don't know nothing.
Descriptivism
Modern Linguistics is descriptive; it
describes language as it is, rather than say how
it should be.
Modern Linguistics does not make statements
about how people ought to use a language; it
tries to make statements which are testable .
We must recognize that despite some
misconceptions Traditional Grammar had
about language, it has largely contributed to
the development of modern linguistics:
many concepts such as verb, noun, sentence,
syllable, letter and stem come from Traditional
Grammar.
Prescriptive studies of language can be useful.
When we standardize a particular language
rather than another, we preserve national unity
or consolidate literary standard.
Modern linguistics holds that language fulfils
many functions, of which literary function is
only one.
Modern linguistics is certainly more
objective and empirical than Traditional
Grammar in its principles, attitudes and views.
It's more based on observation and
inductive generalization. The data are taken
from everyday use and experience.
It's free from misconceptions and prejudices

about particular languages.
.
Modern linguistics makes use of specific terminology,
most of which originates from the Traditional Grammar
terms.
Specific notational conventions are introduced by
modern linguistics to clarify the detailed features of a
language; namely :
-The square brackets [ ] for phonetic represntation.
The obliques / /to distinguish the phonological form.
The curly brackets { } for parts of the words or
morphemes .
The parenthesis ( ) to refer to optionality.
Prescriptivism VS Descriptivism
PRESCRIPTIVSM
Traditional Grammar
Origin traced to 15th century
Written language
Grammar and pronunciation patterns (stress and rhythm)
Correctness of language
No use of notational conventions

Exercises
Suggested Questions.
1. Which School of linguistics doesn't
consider as correct the following sentence and
why?
Who is the man you are talking to?
2. What are the advantages of Traditional
Grammar?
3. How does descriptivism differ from
prescriptisism?
Thank you for your
attention

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TRADITIONAL GRAMMAR

AND MODERN LINGUISTICS

For Traditional grammariens, spoken

Traditional • It formulates rules about

Modern • It accounts for how people

It's free from misconceptions and prejudices

Origin traced to 15th century

Grammar and pronunciation patterns (stress and rhythm)

No use of notational conventions

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