Reference Grammar
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A reference grammar is a prose-like description of the major grammatical constructions in a language, illustrated with examples. |
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Here are the parts of a reference grammar:
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Here is a table that contrasts reference grammars with pedagogical grammars: |
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A reference grammar is … |
A pedagogical grammar is … |
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Designed to teach someoneabout the language and to give readers a reference tool for looking up specific details of the language. |
Designed to teach someonehow to use a language. |
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Organized according touniversal structural categories. |
Organized according tousefulness and ease of learning. |
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Contains chapters which tend to be longer than those in a pedagogical grammar. |
Contains chapters which tend to be short and contain very brief grammatical explanations. |
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Contains chapters which consist mostly of explanationplus one or two examples of every point mentioned. |
Contains chapters which consist mostly of exercisesthat help the reader practice and internalize the various structures as well as vocabulary and pronunciation. |
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Written for individuals who have some understanding of language as a universal phenomenon and who wish to learn how the particular language described fits into universal understandings of human language. |
Written for anyone who is interested in learning a language. |
Here is a table that describes the two kinds of reference grammars based on their organization and intended users:
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Intended Users |
Organization |
Example |
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Mother-tongue speakers of the language who want to understand more about their language |
Organized in terms of the forms that the readers already know how to use, but are not aware of their significance to the grammar as a whole |
In a reference grammar of English for English speakers there may be sections on theand a. |
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Linguists who want information on the language for comparative purposes |
Organized in terms of a universal outline designed to help the reader make meaningful comparisons between the language described and other languages |
In a reference grammar of English, the and amay be treated in a section on 'identifiability'. (Reference grammars of other languages may treat the order of nouns in a sentence or some bound morphological markers under this same heading.) |
This page is an extract from the LinguaLinks Library. Version 5.0 published on CD-ROM by SIL International, 2003.