| 释义 |
▪ I. grammar, n.|ˈgræmə(r)|
Forms: 4–5 gram(m)ere, 4–6 gramer, 4–7 grammer, (4 gramaire, 5 gramayre, -eer), 6– grammar.
[ad. OF. gramaire (F. grammaire), an irregular semipopular adoption (for the form of which cf. OF. mire repr. L. medicum, artimaire repr. L. artem magicam or mathematicam) of L. grammatica, ad. Gr. γραµµατική (scil. τέχνη art), fem. of γραµµατικός adj., of or pertaining to letters or literature, f. γράµµατα letters, literature, pl. of γράµµα letter, written mark, f. root of γράϕειν to write. Cf. Pr. gramaira (prob. from Fr.). Old Fr. had also a learned adoption of the L. word, gramatique, parallel with Sp. gramática, Pg., It. grammatica, G. grammatik, Welsh gramadeg.
In classical Gr. and L. the word denoted the methodical study of literature (= ‘philology’ in the widest modern sense, including textual and æsthetic criticism, investigation of literary history and antiquities, explanation of allusions, etc., besides the study of the Greek and Latin languages. Post-classically, grammatica came to be restricted to the linguistic portion of this discipline, and eventually to ‘grammar’ in the mod. sense. In the Middle Ages, grammatica and its Rom. forms chiefly meant the knowledge or study of Latin, and were hence often used as synonymous with learning in general, the knowledge peculiar to the learned class. As this was popularly supposed to include magic and astrology, the OF. gramaire was sometimes used as a name for these occult sciences. In these applications it still survives in certain corrupt forms, F. grimoire, Eng. glamour, gramarye.]
1. a. That department of the study of a language which deals with its inflexional forms or other means of indicating the relations of words in the sentence, and with the rules for employing these in accordance with established usage; usually including also the department which deals with the phonetic system of the language and the principles of its representation in writing. Often preceded by an adj. designating the language referred to, as in Latin, English, French grammar.
In early Eng. use grammar meant only Latin grammar, as Latin was the only language that was taught grammatically. In the 16th c. there are some traces of a perception that the word might have an extended application to other languages (cf. quot. 1530 under grammatical 1); but it was not before the 17th c. that it became so completely a generic term that there was any need to speak explicitly of ‘Latin grammar’. Ben Jonson's book, written c 1600, was app. the first to treat of ‘English grammar’ under that name.
As above defined, grammar is a body of statements of fact—a ‘science’; but a large portion of it may be viewed as consisting of rules for practice, and so as forming an ‘art’. The old-fashioned definition of grammar as ‘the art of speaking and writing a language correctly’ is from the modern point of view in one respect too narrow, because it applies only to a portion of this branch of study; in another respect, it is too wide, and was so even from the older point of view, because many questions of ‘correctness’ in language were recognized as outside the province of grammar: e.g. the use of a word in a wrong sense, or a bad pronunciation or spelling, would not have been called a grammatical mistake. At the same time, it was and is customary, on grounds of convenience, for books professedly treating of grammar to include more or less information on points not strictly belonging to the subject.
Until a not very distant date, Grammar was divided by Eng. writers (following the precedent of Latin grammarians) into Orthography, Etymology, Syntax, and Prosody, to which Orthoëpy was added by some authors. All these terms (except Syntax) were used more or less inaccurately (see the several words). The division now usual is that into Phonology, treating of the sounds used in the language, Accidence, of the inflexional forms or equivalent combinations, and Syntax, of the structure of sentences; the branch of grammar dealing with the functions of the alphabetic letters is usually treated along with the phonology.
1362Langl. P. Pl. A. xi. 131 Gramer for gurles, I gon furste to write. 1398Trevisa Barth. De P.R. xvii. iii. (1495) 604 Holy wrytte wol not al way be subget to the rules of gramer. c1400Lanfranc's Cirurg. 8 He muste studie..in gramer, þat he speke congruliche. 1485Caxton Chas. Gt. 29 After that Charles was Instructe in gramayre & other scyences. 1577tr. Bullinger's Decades (1592) 161 Dionysius..set vp a schoole and taught children their Grammer. 1605Bacon Adv. Learn. ii. xvi. §4 (1873) 168 Concerning speech and words, the consideration of them hath produced the science of Grammar. 1619M. Fotherby Atheom. ii. xiii. §1 (1622) 346 The naturall, and..homogeneall parts of Grammer, be two, Orthology, and Orthography. 1620Granger Div. Logike 8 That part of every proposition that goeth afore in reason..is the Theme. In grammar it is called the nominative case. a1637B. Jonson Eng. Gram. i. i. (1640) 35 Grammar is the art of true and well speaking a Language: and writing is but an Accident. 1669Milton Accedence (1847) 457 Latin Grammar is the Art of right understanding, speaking or writing Latin. 1741Watts Improv. Mind xx. Wks. (1813) 164 Grammar is nothing else but rules and observations drawn from the common speech of mankind in their several languages. 1752Hume Ess. & Treat. (1777) I. 95 Men..had no relish for the seemingly minute observations of grammar and criticism. a1774Pearce Serm. I. xii. 250 If a man, who professes himself a master of grammar, is always found to be speaking improperly. 1824L. Murray Eng. Gram. (ed. 5) 25 English grammar is the art of speaking and writing the English language with propriety. 1869Farrar Fam. Speech iv. 120 Grammar consists in accidence, syntax and analysis.
transf.1644Bulwer Chiron. 99 Amongst which Grammars by gestures, the postures of the Fingers..have been contrived into an Alphabet. 1678Cudworth Intell. Syst. 5 They who are skilled in the Grammar of the Heavens may be able from the several Configurations of the Stars, as it were Letters to spell out future Events.
b. general grammar, philosophical grammar or universal grammar: the science which analyses those distinctions in thought which it is the purpose of grammatical forms more or less completely to render in expression, and which aims to furnish a scheme of classification capable of including all the grammatical categories recognized in actual languages. historical grammar: the study of the historical development of the inflexional forms and syntactical usages of a language. comparative grammar: the comparative treatment of the phenomena of two or more related languages, with the object of determining the nature and degree of their relationship.
1751Harris Hermes Wks. (1841) 117 These different analysings or resolutions constitute what we call ‘philosophical or universal grammar’. 1872Morris Hist. Outlines Eng. Accid. i. §4 b, Comparative Grammar informs us that the radical part of the verb is lov (or luf). 1892Sweet Eng. Gram. i. §6 General grammar (philosophical grammar)..is..concerned with the general principles which underlie the grammatical phenomena of all languages.
2. A treatise or book on grammar.
1530Palsgr. Ep. Ded. v, Folowyng the order of Theodorus Gaza, in his grammer of the Greke tonge. 1588Shakes. Tit. A. iv. ii. 23, I read it in the Grammer long agoe. c1620Hume Brit. Tongue (1865) 2 You wald cause the universities mak an Inglish grammar to repres the insolencies of sik green heades. c1645Howell Lett. v. 31 You desired me lately to procure you Dr. Davies Welsh Grammer. 1693Dryden Juvenal p. lxxxvj, We have yet no English Prosodia, not so much as a tolerable Dictionary, or a Grammar. 1751Harris Hermes Wks. (1841) 169 We are taught in common grammars that verbs active require an accusative. 1894V. Henry (title) A short comparative Grammar of English and German.
transf. and fig.a1617P. Bayne Comm. Coloss. i. 16 (1634) 82 The booke of the Creatures: though it be not so good as the Grammar of the Scripture which doth describe Him plainely, yet it is a good primmer for us to spell in. 1836Emerson Nature, Language Wks. (Bohn) II. 152 Did it need..this host of orbs in heaven, to furnish man with the dictionary and grammar of his municipal speech? 1865Tylor Early Hist. Man. ii. 16 Ideas which do not come within the scope of the very limited natural grammar and dictionary of the deaf and dumb.
3. An individual's manner of using grammatical forms; speech or writing judged as good or bad according as it conforms to or violates grammatical rules; also speech or writing that is correct according to those rules.
a1586Sidney Arcadia iii. (1598) 366 An answer farre out of all Grammer. 1657Trapp Comm. Ps. xvi. 4 It was the Serpents grammar that first taught men to decline God in the plurall number. 1672Dryden Almanzor ii. Def. Epilogue Wks. 1883 IV. 231 The sense is here extremely perplexed; and I doubt the word they is false grammar. a1700― (J.), Varium et mutabile semper femina, is the sharpest satire that ever was made on woman; for the adjectives are neuter, and animal must be understood to make them grammar. 1842Macaulay Fredk. Gt. Ess. (1865) III. 209 He had German enough to scold his servants..but his grammar and pronunciation were extremely bad. 1855― Hist. Eng. IV. xviii. 245 The letter may still be read with all the original bad grammar and bad spelling.
4. The phenomena which form the subject-matter of grammar; the system of inflexions and syntactical usages characteristic of a language.
Languages not possessing an elaborate system of inflexions and concords are often said to have ‘little’ or ‘no grammar.’ This seems to have been partly the meaning of the reproach against the English language quoted by Sidney Apol. Poetrie (Arb.) 70, ‘that it wanteth Grammer’; though it may also have meant that English had not been refined and improved, as the classic tongues were supposed to have been, by the labours of grammarians.
1846Wright Ess. Mid. Ages I. i. 8 To know the grammar of a language it is necessary to know the reasons of the grammar. 1860Marsh Lect. Eng. Lang. i. 13 In English, having no grammar, we have till lately possessed no grammars, and we still want a dictionary. 1886T. Le M. Douse Introd. Gothic Prelim, ch. §6 The distinctive features of Teutonic Grammar.
5.
†a. Used for Latin, or the Latin language. by grammar: in Latin. (Cf. grammar-school.)
c1320Seuyn Sag. (W.) 106 He made the boke of Catoun clere, That es biginyng of gramere. c1460Towneley Myst. xii. 387 Virgill in his poetre sayde in his verse, Even thus by gramere as I shall reherse [a Lat. quot. follows]. 1532More Confut. Tindale Wks. 723/1 In our owne time, of al that taught grammer in England, not one vnderstode y⊇ latine tongue. 1546Eng. Gilds (1870) 198 A scolemaster of Gramer. 1576Gascoigne Steele Gl. (Arb.) 77 That grammar grudge not at our english tong Bycause it stands by Monosyllaba And cannot be declind as others are.
†b. Scholarship generally, literature.
c1500Melusine lxii. 370 For as I fele & vnderstand by the Auctours of gramaire & phylosophye they repute..this present hystorye for a true Cronykle & thinges of the fayry.
c. The name of a class in certain Jesuit schools or colleges.
1629J. Wadsworth Pilgr. iii. 13 Father Lacy, the Reader of Poetry, and Master of the Syntax. Father Henry Bentley and Father Iohn Compton of Grammer. 1667in Cath. Rec. Soc. Publ. III. 63 He was newly entered into grammer. Ibid. 69 Answering to hard and intrecat questions publickly in our Refectory even the first week he was in grammer. 1773in Mem. Stonyhurst Coll. (1881) 22 The former Master of Poetry, the latter of Grammar, at Bruges. 1837J. C. Fisher in Ushaw Mag. (1904) Dec. 262–3. 1904 Ibid. June 201 On Tuesday, May 17th, Syntax played Grammar.
d. Short for grammar school. Also attrib.
1950J. Cannan Murder Included iv. 62 He won a scholarship to Harborough Grammar, but his father wouldn't let him take it up. 1959I. & P. Opie Lore & Lang. Schoolch. xvi. 356 The home-work toilers are called ‘Grammar grubs’. Ibid., At Caistor, in Lincolnshire, the Moderns chant: Grammar fleas, [etc.]. 1964A. Prior Z Cars Again xv. 147 A ‘girl in the Grammar’ meant much to a family in that neighbourhood. 1965Listener 22 July 125/1 ‘Grammar grubs,’ the secondary school⁓boys shouted at us, and we passed by, noses lifted, precociously dignified.
6. transf.
a. The fundamental principles or rules of an art or science.
b. A book presenting these in methodical form. (Now rare; formerly common in the titles of books.)
1642Fuller Holy & Prof. St. iii. xiii. 185 Manly sports are the Grammer of Military performance. 1792A. Duncan Mariner's Chron. (1804) II. 33 A small geographical grammar. 1796W. Taylor in Monthly Rev. XIX. 551 It forms a most valuable grammar of antient geography. 1809J. Goldsmith (title) A brief Grammar of the Laws and Constitution of England. 1835E. Newman (title) The Grammar of Entomology. 1856O. Jones (title) Grammar of Ornament. 1870J. H. Newman (title) An Essay in aid of a Grammar of Assent. 1882W. Sharp Rosetti v. 315 The young poet may be said to have reached the platform of literary maturity while he was yet learning the grammar of painting. 1894Daily News 23 Nov. 7/1 He might..have studied the pure grammar of his art for a longer time. 1958Listener 18 Sept. 441/2 Reizenstein's dissonances do not make one ‘sit up’ in the way Haydn's do if we attend to his musical grammar. 1963Times 5 Mar. 15/1 The grammar of the film was established.
7. attrib. and Comb., as grammar-book, grammar-construction, grammar-learning, grammar-monger, grammar-pamphlet, grammar-pedant, grammar-rule, grammar-shop (humorous), grammar-tree, grammar-word; grammar-ridden adj. Also † grammar-boy, a pupil at a grammar-school, a boy still learning his (Latin) grammar; † grammar-castle, ? humorously for a grammar-school; grammar-child, ? = grammar-boy; † grammar-college, a school for teaching Latin attached to a college (cf. glomerel, glomery); grammar-figure (see figure n. 22); grammar-grinding, instruction in grammar, pedantic instruction generally (cf. gerund-grinding); grammar-lad = grammar-boy; grammar-learning, † (a) the subjects taught in a grammar-school, Latin and Greek; (b) the learning of grammar; grammar-scholar = grammar-boy.
1503Bury Wills (Camden) 229 Myn portoose and all my *gramer bokys. 1578R. Ascham Scholem. (Arb.) 27 Let the Master..teach his Scholer, to ioyne the Rewles of his Grammer booke, with the examples of his present lesson. 1820W. Cobbett Grammar (1847) §233 The loose and imperfect definitions of my grammar-book yielded me no clue to a disentanglement.
1590Nashe Pasquil's Apol. i. C iij, A rodde for the *Grammer boy, he dooth nothing but wrangle about words. a1641Bp. R. Montagu Acts & Mon. (1642) 188 For Grammar boyes know, that she [Cassandra] in love to virginitie, deceived Apollo her Suiter. 1895Rashdall Univ. Europe I. v. §5. 482 It was only when the students were mere Grammar-boys that they were governed like schoolboys.
1670Eachard Cont. Clergy 14 Whose parts and improvements duely considered will scarce render them fit governours of a small *grammar-castle.
1557Order Hospitalls G viij, Such a one of the *Grammer children as can redilest write.
1886Willis & Clark Cambridge I. Introd. 58 Bingham was establishing his modest *grammar-college in connection with Clare Hall.
1605Jas. I Sp. in last Session B iv, I did..interpret..some darke phrases therein, contrary to the ordinary *Grammar construction of them.
1657J. Smith Myst. Rhet. 176 Transposition is a *Grammar figure whereby one letter is put for another.
1898Daily News 3 Feb. 6/2 The preliminary *grammar-grinding of the old method is enough to destroy love for the classics.
1644Milton Areop. (Arb.) 56 As if they were no more then the theam of a *Grammar lad under his Pedagogue.
1628T. Spencer Logick 59 Aptnes vnto laughing, and *Grammar-learning, is predicated of man. 1709Lond. Gaz. No. 4533/3 Persons of eminent Ability in teaching Grammar Learning. 1845R. W. Hamilton Pop. Educ. iv. (ed. 2) 69 Our ambition is to base all upon Grammar learning.
1833J. C. Hare in Philol. Mus. II. 215 A *grammar monger's language would be like a sluggish monotonous canal. 1864W. Cory Lett. & Jrnls. (1897) 114 After all I was to be nothing but a third-rate grammar-monger.
1716M. Davies Athen. Brit. I. 23 The forementioned John Stanbridge wrote also several *Grammar-Pamphlets.
1726Amherst Terræ Fil. xxxi. 165 The tyranny of a school is nothing to the tyranny of a college, nor the *grammar-pedant to the academical one.
1906Westm. Gaz. 28 Aug. 1/3 Opportunities for experiment are not often forthcoming in our much-examined and *grammar-ridden schools. 1935R. Paget This English 7 English..is much less grammar-ridden than most other languages.
1565Jewel Def. Apol. (1611) 625 Some Popes be so voide of Learning, that they vnderstand not the *Grammar Rules. 1693C. Dryden in D.'s Juvenal (1697) 183 Be sure he knows exactly Grammar-Rules.
1580Sir R. Manwood in Boys Sandwich (1792) 224 note, There be not so many *grammer-schollers as do furnish the school-house. 1654S. Ashe Funeral Serm. 6 June (1656) 53 While he was a Grammar-Scholar, this calling he chose. 1774–81Warton Hist. Eng. Poetry (1840) II. xxxv. 552 Grammar scholars.
c1836Syd. Smith in Cornh. Mag. Feb. (1865) 224 You may call it an university, it will only be a *grammar-shop.
1693Dryden Juvenal (1697) 146 Who climbs the *Grammar-Tree, distinctly knows Where Noun, and Verb, and Participle grows.
1685Cotton tr. Montaigne I. 597 Metaphors and allegories and other *grammer words.
▪ II. grammar, v. rare.|ˈgræmə(r)|
[f. the n.]
†a. intr. To discuss grammar. Obs.—1
†b. trans. To ground in something as in the rudiments of grammar. Obs.
c. To classify, as the parts of speech in grammar.
1593G. Harvey Pierces Supererog. Wks. (Grosart) II. 246 When I am better grammered in the Accidents of his proper Idiotisme. a1616Beaum. & Fl. Laws of Candy ii. i, Erot. I can, I doe, I will. Gonz. She is in her Moods and her Tences: Ile Gramer with you. And make a triall how I can decline you. 1682Bunyan Holy War 32 These two..did much more Grammer and settle the common people in hurtful ways. 1883R. H. Busk in N. & Q. Ser. vi. VIII. 51 Groups of phenomena which have been gathered, and grammared, and ranged into sciences. |