There are three types of grammar: mental, descriptive, and prescriptive.
Mental grammar makes up half of linguistic competence, which is what one knows about their language. The other half constitutes of mental lexicon, or knowing the words of a language. Linguistic competence is unconscious but can be observed through an individual’s linguistic performance.
Descriptive grammar describes what people do or can say in their language. It is known intuitively and doesn’t need to be taught.
Prescriptive grammar dictates what people should or shouldn’t say to be considered correct or proper. It is unnatural and arbitrary, yet is taught in school and reflects societal value judgments.
modules of grammar
- Phonetics/phonology: the study of the system of speech sounds in a language
- Morphology: the study of the formation of meaningful units into words
- Prefix, infix, suffix
- Syntax: the study of the structure of phrases and sentences
- e.g. big red rubber ball
- “-ass intensifier suffix”
- Semantics: the study of the meanings of words and sentences
- Homophones: words that sound the same but have different (unrelated) meanings
- Polysemy: when a word has different meanings that are (usually historically) related to each other