Descriptive Grammar

Abstract

For purposes of space, this bibliography excludes works focusing only on descriptive phonology, although, strictly speaking, unlike phonetics, descriptive phonology is part of the grammar of a language. See also the article “Morphology,” since much of the American descriptivist tradition focused on morphological problems, as well as “Endangered Languages,” and “Language Documentation,” since much of the present-day interest in descriptive grammar has to do with the documentation and description of endangered languages. There are recurring terminological issues regarding “descriptive grammar.” For language teachers who are less interested in linguistics, the term “descriptive grammar” is contrasted with “prescriptive grammar.” A descriptive grammar simply describes the actual grammatical facts, whereas a prescriptive grammar tells the learner which grammatical constructions should be used; in other words, it suggests some value judgments (see the article “Linguistic Prescriptivism.” Linguists who are not language teachers might prefer the term “reference grammar” over “prescriptive grammar,” since reference grammars tend to be descriptive, albeit sometimes with prescriptive advice. Other terms preferred over “prescriptive grammar” are “pedagogical grammar” or “teaching grammar,” both of which are intended as less comprehensive aids to the less linguistically sophisticated language learner. More relevant to linguistics are the oppositions between “descriptive,” “formal,” and “functional” grammars, and, more recently, between “descriptive linguistics” and “documentary linguistics,” both of which are important enough to warrant their own sections in this bibliography.