GB1: What is Grammar?

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

  1. Understand the purpose of grammar.
  2. Learn why grammar is important.

Grammar is the study of how words and their component parts combine to form sentences, according to the Wikibook Rhetoric and Composition. Grammar is also the scientific study of language that includes morphology (also “accidence” or the forms that words take) and syntax (the relation of the words to other words). Grammar also involves the study of the different parts or elements of speech (for example nouns, verbs, adjectives, etc.) and the relations between those elements. A knowledge of grammar provides a vocabulary to discuss how the language works.

Grammar, magnifier, words on a page

But for our purposes, the first definition will do. And here’s a video from Khan academy that gives another explanation of what grammar is:

Introduction to Grammar | Grammar | Khan Academy

This webpage adapted from “What is Grammar?” from Rhetoric and Composition, used according to Creative Commons CC BY-SA 3.0

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