English grammar
English grammar is the body
of rules that describe the structure of
expressions
in the
English language. This includes the structure
of
words,
phrases,
clauses
and
sentences.
The
grammar
of a language is approached in two ways:
descriptive grammar
is based on analysis of
text corpora and describes grammatical
structures thereof, whereas
prescriptive grammar
attempts to use the identified rules of a given language as a tool to govern
the linguistic behaviour of speakers. This article predominantly concerns
itself with descriptive grammar.
There are historical, social and regional variations of English. Divergences
from the grammar described here occur in some
dialects of English. This
article describes a generalized present-day
Standard
English, the form of speech found in types of public discourse
including broadcasting, education, entertainment, government, and news
reporting, including both formal and informal speech. There are certain
differences in grammar between the standard forms of
British
English,
American English and
Australian English, although these are
relatively inconspicuous compared with the
lexical
differences and differences in
pronunciation.
Grammar is divided into
morphology, which describes the formation
of words, and
syntax,
which describes the construction of meaningful phrases, clauses, and sentences
out of
words.