Any piece of human creation or human endowment gets its glamour from its structure, system and functional value. The internal grammar of a language is captured properly only when the linguist-grammarian or the teacher-grammarian first understands the ingredients that give grammar its glamour. We need not forget that
‘glamour’ is actually an alternate spelling of grammar
Whether we are dealing with the architecture of synchronic grammar (Halliday and Mathiessen 2004) or the architecture of diachronic grammar (Vesser 1973) or the genesis of Syntactic Complexity (Givon 2009) or even the neurological bases of language (Ramachandran 2010), we do need to handle all the three ingredients of glamour/grammar: STRUCTURE, SYSTEM and FUNCTION. If someone says or said that meaning is not within the purview of linguistics, then that theory is defective because it ignores the real function of language.
Any piece of human creation or human endowment becomes presentable and is considered as having glamour only when its structure, system and functional value are perceived holistically. This holistic perception is in other words the grammar of the given endowment or creation. Incidentally the word glamour is considered Scottish English alteration of grammar meaning enchantment, spell. Any one who delves deep into the grammar of a languge we really find it enticing and enchanting. There is a sanskrit saying which goes as follows :
A grammarian feels more delighted when he can save half a syllable in a grammatical formula than when he begets a son.
Ancient Indians treated grammar as a sacred subject because it helped them retain the authenticity of a sacred text. They included in gramma...
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First, a brief background in the three dimensions of language discussed throughout this paper. The functional, semantic, or thematic dimensions of language as previously mentioned are often used in parallel with each other. Due, to this fact it is important to be able to identify them as they take place and differentiate between these dimensions i...
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1. In his chapter “On the Need of Some Grammar” found in Modern American Usage, Wilson Follett argues that we need grammar to govern our language.
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In respect to the distinction of voice, Turner uses the example of a Gullah speaker saying, “they beat him” instead of the English syntactic phrase, “he was beaten” (Turner, 209). Thus, distinctive voice is eliminated by the use of the objective case as opposed to passive verbs in English. This syntactical framework can be found in the African languages of Ewe, Yoruba, Twi, Fante, and Ga (Turner, 209). Similarly to the languages of Ewe and Yoruba, the verb /de/ is the Gullah language is used as a prepositional verb. Also, in the Gullah language verbs are often used in pairs or phrases, which is reflective of the languages of the Ewe and Twi people (Turner,
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-Theorists such as Noam Chomsky believe that humans have a natural and universal ability to acquire language. The theory of universal grammar refers to young children knowing syntactic structure without learning it, therefore the ability to acquire grammar and language unconsciously. Furthermore, diversity is apparent primarily in specific phonological, semantic, syntactic and pragmatic features of multiple languages. However, children from different language contexts achieve milestones at similar ages.
Next, we shall evaluate the key features of language which are; communicative, arbitrary, structured, generative, and dynamic. Communicative, language can allow one to interact with another. According to Willingham (2007), the bond found with the elements in language and what they mean is arbitrary. The way language is set up shows how the symbols are not arbitrary. The set up language shows precisely how intricate it can be. Generative, one is able to build countless number of meanings from words. Dynamic, language never stays the same, therefore it can be known as sporadic. According to Willingham (2007), changes are being made all the time as new words get added and as the ways of grammar change. These elements can be quite critical when it comes to language.
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Language, according to Owens (2012, p. 6), “can be defined as a socially shared code or conventional system for representing concepts through the use of arbitrary symbols and rule-governed combinations of those symbols”. Language is thought to be a complex system; however, it can be broken down into three different components. These three components consist of content, form, and use. Within these three components, language has five main components which includes semantics, morphology, phonology, syntax, and pragmatics (Owens, 2012, p. 18).
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