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Questions tagged [grammar]

A body of rules, features, or generalizations which reliably differentiate between grammatical and ungrammatical constructions.

542 questions
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Why are there grammars in languages in the first place?

I recently took an interest in linguistics and is currently working through the various interesting phenomenon like x bar theory, wh-movement, binding theory, etc. It all sounds very fascinating to me. It amazes me that simple speeches are governed…
jxhyc
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Why are there such things as 'time adverbs'?

Words like yesterday, today, and tomorrow are defined as adverbs. However, an adverb is a word modifying an adjective or verb (or another adverb). Words such as yesterday do not seem to modify anything of the sorts. In reading a book about grammar,…
Jim Jam
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Grammar framework features that are not supported cross-linguistically

There are quite a lot of grammar frameworks postulated since the last century, like MP, LFG, RRG, RCG, MTT to name a few. I like reading about languages, but a lot of publications about languages are couched along such grammar frameworks, and for…
Noble_Bright_Life
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Paradigmatic vs syntagmatic relationship

I was exploring some various aspects of corpus linguistics and studying different approaches to corpus research on the internet when I came across these phinomena of paradigmatic and syntagmatic relations. Can I get a satisfactory elucidation of…
AbdurRehman
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How broad should the corpora be to describe the grammar of a proficient speaker?

What's the minimum size of a corpus that you need to cover substantially the grammar of a language? I know that the limits of 'substantial' might be open to speculation. But imagine you wanted to describe the grammar of a speaker at the C2 level…
Pakalu Intra
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Types of questions and questioning "ordinality"

I would like to know if there is a system for classifying the types of questions that can be asked in languages. In other words, how are sentences that query the why, where, what, who, when, and how classified? I guess whence, whither, etc. also…
coleopterist
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Will my child learn incorrect grammar from me?

I'm not a native English speaker so my grammar isn't perfect. I make some of mistakes especially when I'm speaking fast. I would like my child to have the cognitive advantage that comes from being bilingual so her father and I decided we would…
Anon
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What's the use of Grammar?

There's a question that bothered me for a long time when I am learning another language. English is not my first language, so when I was being taught, they told me all these grammars like like the tenses, single/plural and so on. I got confused all…
FindingNemo
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Behaviour of attributive nouns in foreign languages

A common construction in some foreign languages, but seemly not in English, is to use a noun where we would use an adjective. The two forms are: A: PRONOUN "BE" ADJECTIVE B: PRONOUN "HAVE" ∅-DETERMINER ATTRIBUTIVE-NOUN I have used "PRONOUN" for…
CJ Dennis
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Are the to infinitives, gerunds and bare infinitives objects?

Are the to infinitives, gerunds and bare infinitives objects? I see that everyone says different things. For example: I agreed to give him the money Some people will say that here "to give" is a catenative complement to "agree". Other people will…
BoSsYyY
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What are some grammatical features found only in modern languages?

By modern language I mean a language spoken since less than two thousands years. By grammatical feature I mean for example passive voice, which doesn't exist in PIE but is found in its descendants
huehuehue
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What accounts for grammatical gender classifications?

Has there been any account given for what causes grammatical gender classifications to be used in languages? Is there a purpose in associating a gender to a word? Does this type of classification system help with comprehension or specificity?
user2924
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Defining an 'unexpressed antecedent'?

I think I understand that an expressed antecedent is the word or set of words, actually stated, which provide meaning to a pronoun or pro-form. That is, the pronoun or pro-form refers to the same entity as was referred to by the antecedent. However,…
Karas Ielder
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Are there a finite number of noun phrase rules for nlp?

For example, a noun phrase might break up into these ways: You should eat [noun phrase] You should eat fish You should eat the fish You should eat the fresh fish You should eat NP(N) You should eat NP(Det, N) You should eat NP(Det, Adj, N) Is…
Lance
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Coreferentiality of relative pronoun and its antecedent explanation

I am struggling with the intuition behind understanding an antecedent as that part of speech which is 'referred back to' and coferential with a relative pronoun. In the case 'Tom is kind, so I like him', I have an intuitive sense that both 'Tom' and…
Karas Ielder
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