Traditional grammar

A traditional grammar is a framework for the description of the structure of a language. Traditional grammars are commonly used in language education. They may be contrasted with theories of grammar in theoretical linguistics, which grew out of traditional descriptions of grammar. While grammar frameworks in contemporary linguistics often seek to explain the nature of language knowledge and ability, traditional grammars seek to describe how particular languages are used, or to teach people to speak or read them.

The formal study of grammar, based on the work of classical Greek and Latin philologists, became popular during the Renaissance. The use of traditional grammars has gone in and out of fashion in language teaching over the ensuing centuries.

Traditional grammars generally classify words into parts of speech. They describe the patterns for word inflection, and the rules of syntax by which those words are combined into sentences.

Among the earliest studies of grammar are descriptions of Sanskrit, called vyākaraṇa. The Indian grammarian Pāṇini wrote the Aṣṭādhyāyī, a descriptive grammar of Sanskrit, sometime between the 4th and the 2nd century BCE. This work, along with some grammars of Sanskrit produced around the same time, is often considered the beginning of linguistics as a descriptive science. Although Pāṇini's work was not known in Europe until many centuries later, it is thought to have greatly influenced other grammars produced in Asia, such as the Tolkāppiyam, a Tamil grammar generally dated between the 2nd and 1st century BCE.

The formal study of grammar became popular in Europe during the Renaissance. Descriptive grammars were rarely used in Classical Greece or in Latin through the Medieval period. During the Renaissance, Latin and Classical Greek were broadly studied along with the literature and philosophy written in those languages. With the invention of the printing press and the use of Vulgate Latin as a lingua franca throughout Europe, the study of grammar became part of language teaching and learning.

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