Unit 1: Traditional Grammar
1.1 Overview
The Greeks and the Indians are the firsts to have started speculations about language and contributed terminologies to linguistic studies. The term 'traditional grammar' usually refers to the tradition of linguistic analysis and theory originated in Greece, further developed in Rome and Medieval Europe and eventually expanded to the study of vernacular languages at the Renaissance and afterwards.
According to John Lyons (1968), traditional grammar, like so many others of our academic traditions, goes back to Greece of the fifth century before Christ. For the Greeks, ‘grammar’ was a part of philosophy. This grammatical tradition has been varied and differed in various periods. The major periods include the following:
1) Greek period (5th century BC to 2nd century AD)
The period between 3rd century BC to 2nd century AD is the golden period of Greek Grammar. For Greek grammarians, the Greek word 'grammatike' for grammar meant simply the understanding of letters. At that period grammar was not treated as separate, autonomous discipline; it was a part of philosophy. Thus, it was a part of Greek philosopher’s general investigation into the nature of its universe and its social structure. Such analysis was based on meaning.
Protagoras (thinker and teacher), the first and famous Greek Sophist contributed on the distinction of three genders in Greek. One of the major linguistic issues during the Greek period was about the relation between the sound of a word and its meaning. That is to say, there are entities (such as ‘a very common four-legged animal often kept by people as a pet or to guard or hunt) existing in the universe on the one hand and on the other, there are words (such as dog) to name or refer to these entities. The major works done at this Greek period are:
a) Phonetic observations were made on the pronunciation values of the letters of the Greek alphabet and on the accent signs.
b) Some theory of the syllabus as the structural unit was developed.
c) Within grammar morphology held a place of pride.
d) Word class (parts of speech) was established in great detail.
e) Dionysius Thrax was regarded as the best grammarians of the Greek.
Features/ Characteristics of this period:
· inception phase of language/grammar
· grammar was just the part of philosophy but not autonomous
· focused on the purity of language
· for Greek people, grammar was just the art of writing (grammatike – understanding the letters)
· speculative (telling something without evidences)
· full of debate between the scholars between naturalist versus conventionalist, analogist versus anomalist
· naturalist – cuckoo (because the sound is correspondence to the symbol)
· conventionalist – opposite to naturalist (following the tradition/convention) arbitrariness
· analogist – believed in regularity, e.g., dog – dogs, eat – eats
· anomalist: - child – children, goose – geese
· grammar was taken as the part of general inquiry about the nature of God and human
· scholastic (academic) tradition of language
· linguistic analysis was based only on semantics
· major scholars: Plato, Aristotle, Dionysius Thrax, Protagoras (made distinction three gender types), of them Dionysius Thrax was regarded as the best grammarian of the Greek
· major linguistic issue – relation between sound and the meaning
(Note: Stoics- group of scholars)
Short notes on:
i) Analogists; - In Greek language, 'analogy' refers to 'regularity'. The supporters of this view try to assert that language was essentially systematic and regular. Those who maintained that language was systematic and regular are generally called analogists. They searched for the system of rules that were regular. For example, book – books, cat – cats, boy – boys, etc.
The main objective of analogists was to discover these kinds of regularities in language.
ii) Anomalists: - Anomalists didn't deny the view that regular properties of language but they pointed out many irregularities of language. They claimed that creating words by analogical reasoning is not enough. So, they pointed out the irregular features of language. For example, child – children, go – went, good – better, etc.
iii) Naturalists: - the naturalists believe that there is natural relation between entities and words. In other words, they view that there is relationship between the object and its name (words). A particular object is addressed with its particular name because of the relationship of the name and the object it refers to. They tried to establish this view giving some examples of onomatopoeic words and by sound symbolism. For examples bleat, hoot, splash, hiss, etc. They claimed that language is the imitation of the natural phenomenon. Some of them opined on sound symbolism. That is to say, the sounds of words echo the sense.
iv) Conventionalists: - The supporters of conventionalist school assert that there is no relationship between the objects and its name. It is due to the custom and tradition, we say particular object with its particular name but not due to the relationship between the object and the word it suggests but due to the custom and tradition. There is arbitrary relationship between the object and its name.
The relationship between the objects and word is quite arbitrary, purely matter of convention except some onomatopoeic words. There is no sound sense relationship. There is no natural or inherent relationship between sounds of words and meaning.
2) Roman period (2nd century to 13th century AD)
The Romans were very much influenced by the Greeks. Grammars of Latin were fitted in a Greek framework. They borrowed the Greek grammatical system and modified it slightly to suit the Latin language. Latin grammar by Donatus and Priscian were used as standard text books. The Roman grammars criticized the misconception that only the language of the best writers was the best language.
· major scholars: Julius Caesar, Priscian, Donatus, etc.
· nothing special developed
· just copied the Greek ideas (highly influenced by Greek)
· based on Greek ideology
· Latin dominated period and Greek overlapping
· gave birth to pedagogical grammar
· around 1st century AD, Varro identified parts of speech on the basis of formal analysis
· Romans used Greek terminologies with slight change
· introduced speculative grammar
3) Medieval period (13th century to 1700 AD)
During the medieval period, Latin became the medium of education, scholarship, culture and religion. All opportunities were based on the sound proficiency in Latin. It was, therefore, necessary to study grammar in order to read and write Latin.
In the middle age, a number of scholars made the most notable contributions to the study of language. The grammarians of this age, inspired by the scholastic ideal of science as a search for universal and invariant causes, deliberately attempted to derive the categories of grammar from the categories of logic, epistemology (the part of philosophy that deals with Knowledge) and metaphysics (the branch of philosophy that deals with nature of existence, truth and knowledge) or rather to derive the categories of all the four sciences from the same general principles. The speculative grammarians held that all languages manifest the same grammatical categories.
· Latin language was dominant
· Latin dominated period
· Most of the manuals (handbooks) were written to assist in mastering over Latin.
· only to read write in Latin was taken as grammar
· grammar used for scholastic/academic/ purpose rather than speculative.
· notion of UG was started/developed thinking that all the natural human languages are the same.
· major achievement – the concept of speculative grammar was emerged.
· 'speculum' (Latin word) means 'reflection of reality via language".
· medieval education included seven liberal arts (philosophy, music, rhetoric, geometry, astronomy (study of physical universe beyond the earth), dialectic (logic) and arithmetic).
4) Renaissance and afterwards (1700 to development of formal approaches/ early twentieth century)
The era of discovery and exploration brought new knowledge about the languages of the world. Travelers and missionaries wrote grammar and dictionaries of languages they found in America, Africa and other parts of the world. The Renaissance scholars thought they were making a radical break with the scholastic tradition of the Middle Ages. Grammar became an aid to understanding of literature and to the writing of good. The vernacular languages of Europe also attracted the attention of the scholars.
In the 17th century, grammar remained as the art of speaking and writing correctly. Its objective was to discover the relations existing between the elements of language whether the relations is natural or conventional, the grammarian's task was to describe 'good usage' and prescribe rules.
· Renaissance refers to reincarnation, enlightenment, rebirth in the history of language study.
· It brought radical change in the primitive model of Latin and Greek. So, it is called the period of discovery.
· It was the period of new knowledge for language of the world.
· reincarnation of vernacular languages (minor languages, non-standard language)
· Grammar and dictionaries of vernacular language were studied.
· Studied vernacular languages of the world including Hebrew, Chinese, Arabic, etc.
· Major scholars were Otto Jesperson, Joseph, Priestly Whitney, Port Royal school's scholars. Made radical break in the scholastic tradition of medieval Europe.
· Major achievement: gave new life for classical text.
· Grammar of this age was, in fact, an instrument to understand literature and the art of writing.
· Revised the idea of speculative grammar.
· Emphasis to both speaking and writing.
· All linguistic attempts were imaginative, authoritative and prescriptive
· Argument between rationalist and empiricist also emerged.
(Traditional grammar – Indo – European)
(Panini's:– Asthadhyai – first formal grammar of Sanskrit
1.2 General Characteristics of Traditional Grammar
· Traditional grammar has long rooted history.
· It took place for around 2000 years.
· Summary of linguistic knowledge and attitudes of pre-linguistic era.
· focus on the study of written forms of language
· more focus on morphology than that of syntax.
· based on Indo-European, Greco-Latin model and classical model.
· Aesthetic aspect was emphasized (gave priority to purity)
· Grammar was not autonomous (it was just the part of philosophy/art of writing)
· study of parts of speech in detail (still valid)
· introduction of speculative, universal and pedagogical grammar.
· period of full of linguistic debate between the scholars of different grammar (scholastic grammar)
· diachronic study of language
· Literary form of language was focused.
Strengths of traditional grammar
· made prestigious contribution to the development of language analysis, study of both classical as well as vernacular language.
· provided foundation for modern grammar
· According to Allen and Corder (1978), traditional grammar has so many virtues for the teachers for grammar to pupils.
· Greek parts of speech, notions of hierarchy, universal features and word classifications are the outlets of traditional grammar.
Criticism
Despite the remarkable contributions made in the study of language and grammar, traditional model or grammatical description has been criticized to the great extent by modern grammarians. Some of them are:
· prescriptive in nature
· Emphasis on written form
· unscientific, intuitive and based on personal judgment
· Grammar as the philosophy.
· it is not adequate and full of short comings
· Grammatical terminologies are defined only on the basis of notion which is misleading.
· It ignores the fact that grammar of language should also change as the language changes
1.3 Limitations of Traditional Grammar
The traditional grammar has, no doubt, made significant contributions in the development of linguistic. But it was the period when structuralism was fast growing as a scientific discipline. The structural grammarians sharply reacted against the weakness of the traditional grammar, or what they called its 'fallacies'.
i) Traditional grammar inadequate and full of short-comings.
ii) It does not adequately distinguish between all the linguistic levels (phonetic, morphological, syntactic and descriptive)
iii) It was based on personal judgments and intuition (the ability to know by using your feeling rather than considering the facts). So, it lacks scientific accuracy.
iv) Traditional grammarians do not describe the appropriate use of rules that they prescribe.
v) Grammatical terminologies are defined on the basis of notion only which is misleading.
vi) Only written form of language is regarded as correct and pure.
vii) There was dominance of Latin and Greek over the whole period.
viii) It ignores the fact that grammar of language should change as the language changes.
