3. History of Grammar development. Historical and contemporary views on Grammar as a science

Grammars evolve through usage and also due to separations of the human population. With the advent of written representations, formal rules about language usage tend to appear also. Formal grammars are codifications of usage that are developed by repeated documentation over time, and by observation as well. As the rules become established and developed, the prescriptive concept of grammatical correctness can arise. This often creates a discrepancy between contemporary usage and that which has been accepted, over time, as being correct. Linguists tend to believe that prescriptive grammars do not have any justification beyond their authors' aesthetic tastes; however, prescriptions are considered in sociolinguistics as part of the explanation for why some people say "I didn't do nothing", some say "I didn't do anything", and some say one or the other depending on social context.

It is well known that language, whether it is English, or Ukrainian or any other, is a historical phenomenon. As such it does not stay unchanged for any considerable period of time or for any time at all, but it is constantly changing throughout its history.

The changes affect all the spheres of the languages: grammar and vocabulary, phonetics and spelling. The changes that any language undergoes are gradual and very slow but pronounced enough if you compare the stages of its development within a century or even half of a century.

You can imagine that with the passage of time the difference between certain stages of the language development grows. And also you can easily deduce that if you speak English (which history embraces over fifteen centuries) you will have to analyze and explain a great number of linguistic data characterizing the language at different stages of history.

The first systematic grammars originate in Iron Age India, with Yaska (6th c. BC. In the West, grammar emerges as a discipline in Hellenism from the 3rd c. BC forward with authors like Rhyanus and Aristarchus of Samothrace, the oldest extant work being the Art of Grammar, attributed to Dionysius Thrax (ca. 100 BC). Latin grammar developed by following Greek models from the 1st century BC, due to the work of authors such as Orbilius Pupillus, Marcus Valerius Probus. Belonging to the trivium of the sevens liberal arts, grammar wasn't taught as a core discipline throughout the Middle Ages, following the influence of authors from Late Antiquity, such as Priscian. Treatment of vernaculars begins gradually during the High Middle Ages, with isolated works such as the First Grammatical Treatise, but becomes influential only in the Renaissance and Baroque periods. Grammars of non-European languages began to be compiled for the purposes of evangelization and Bible translation from the 16th century onward. In 1643 there appeared Ivan Uzhevych's Grammatica sclavonica and, in 1762, the Short Introduction to English Grammar of Robert Lowth was also published. From the latter part of the 18th century, grammar came to be understood as a subfield of the emerging discipline of modern linguistics. The Comparative Grammar of Franz Bopp, the starting point of modern comparative linguistics, came out in 1833.

The English that was used a few hundred years ago was different in very many ways from modern English. Grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation and spelling have all changed greatly since Shakespeare’s time. Some of the most striking differences are in the way verbs are used. For example, older English had distinct second-person singular verb form ending in –st, with the corresponding second-person singular pronoun thou (object form thee, possessive thy, thine). There were also third-person singular verb forms ending in –th, and ye could be used as a second-person plural pronoun. Tell me what thou knowest. How can I help thee? The gold that is here is thine (O.Wilde). Hamlet, thou hast thy father much offended. (Shakespeare). Where thy master goeth, there goeth thou also. Abandon hope all ye who enter here (Dante). Older forms of be included art and wert. I fear thou art sick. Wert thou at work today?

These forms were not only common in older literature; some of them continued to be used by 19^th-century writers (particularly in poetry) long after they had died out of normal usage. Modern writers of historical novels, films or plays often make their characters use some these older forms in order to give a ‘period’ flavour to the language. And forms also survive in certain special contexts where tradition is especially valued – for example the language of religious services, public ceremonies and the law. Some dialects, too, preserve forms which have disappeared from the rest of the language – second-person pronouns thou, etc. are still used by many people in Yorkshire.

It is well known that English belongs to the Germanic subdivision of the Indo-European family of languages. The long and controversial history of the people is reflected in the language vocabulary and grammar. So, the notions expressed by native roots and stems, their regularity and frequency of occurrence, lack of restrictions to their use in written and oral speech of different functional styles, proves that Germanic element still holds a fundamental place, and the English vocabulary should be called Germanic.

Talking about the contemporary state of the language, it is necessary to say that with the rapid advance of linguistic science, there were dramatic changes at the beginning of XX century within approaches to language study. Linguists used to study separated elements and isolated cases. But ‘traditional’ grammar is now considered to be obsolete, to have been forced into a mould originally intended for Latin, and to be dominated by dogma about what should and should not be said. New theories or ‘models’ of grammar are constantly being developed. Systemic and functional approaches to linguistic studies prevail in contemporary linguistics, when any linguistic phenomena are researched in connection with their status within the entire system and their function in a context, as grammar is largely a matter of sentence construction.

In this course there is also information you can apply, consciously or unconsciously, to form sentences that are acceptable as a whole or in detail. You will find out how an English sentence built up. In the process, it will be briefly described the grammatical system as a whole and its terminology as well. The description will include much that is still valid in the old style of grammar, as well as innovations that seem likely to last.

Task. What do you think? Do you agree or not?

Say, if you agree or disagree with the following statements. Explain why.

1. Grammar is the most important part of learning a foreign language.

2. There is a lot of grammar to teach.

3. Grammar is the ‘heart’ of a language because it is the framework upon which the vocabulary sits.

4. Grammar is easy to teach.

5. Grammar is easy to learn.

6. Students should worry about their grammar mistakes.

7. High school teachers have to teach a lot of grammar because that is what is tested on university entrance tests.

8. Vocabulary is more important than grammar and we should spend more time on it.

Lecture 2

NOTIONS OF MORPHOLOGY, ITS TYPOLOGICAL CONSTANTS