grammaticaladj.
/ɡrəˈmatɪkəl/ 1.
a. Of or pertaining to grammar. grammatical gender: the kind of gender (found in the great majority of Indo-European and Semitic languages) which is not determined by the real or attributed sex; opposed to natural gender.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > language > linguistics > study of grammar > [adjective]
grammatical1530
grammatic1599
1530 J. Palsgrave Lesclarcissement Ep. Ded. v The accidentes..and other preceptes grammaticall.
a1586 Sir P. Sidney Arcadia (1590) ii. vii. sig. S2 The beautie of vertue..taught them with far more diligent care, then Grammatical rules.
1591 R. Percyvall Bibliotheca Hispanica Gram. sig. B I haue taken in hand to deale with this Grammaticall treatise.
1603 J. Florio tr. M. de Montaigne Ess. ii. xii. 305 Most of the occasions of this worlds troubles are Grammatical. Our sutes and processes proceed but from the canvasing and debating the interpretation of the Lawes.
1620 T. Granger Syntagma Logicum 127 Grammaticall comparison: which hath two degrees, comparative, and superlative.
1644 J. Bulwer Chirologia 98 Glancing at the same Grammaticall expressions.
1781 T. Warton Hist. Eng. Poetry III. Diss. iii. sig. m2v Berchorius probably compiled this work for the use of his grammatical pupils.
1804 S. Horsley Serm. on Christ's Descent 13 It is of great importance to remark, though it may seem a grammatical nicety, that the prepositions..have been supplied by the translators.
1841 G. Borrow Zincali II. iii. 140 The pure Gypsy language, with all its grammatical peculiarities.
1875 W. D. Whitney Life & Growth Lang. iii. 39 The Anglo-Saxon had grammatical gender.
b. Logic. Of or relating to the mere arrangement of words in the sentence or proposition, in contrast to its logical structure. So esp. grammatical form, grammatical subject. (opposed to logical form, etc.)
ΘΚΠ
the mind > mental capacity > philosophy > logic > [adjective] > relating to systems or characteristics of
habitual1526
material1628
systematic1666
regulative1798
methodological1849
formala1856
grammatical1874
multivalued1934
fuzzy1964
the mind > language > linguistics > study of grammar > syntax or word order > [adjective]
syntactical1577
syntaxical1592
syntactic1688
tactical1698
synthetic1778
compositional1815
grammatical1874
taxis1885
syntagmatic1937
lexotactic1966
1874 W. S. Jevons Princ. Sci. vi. 137 Another..difficulty is to decide when a change is merely grammatical and when it involves a real logical transformation. Between a table of wood and a wooden table there is no logical difference.
1883 F. H. Bradley Princ. Logic I. i. §17 It is false that the grammatical subject is the reality of which the predicate is held true, yet in every judgment there must be a subject.
1883 F. H. Bradley Princ. Logic III. i. ii. 394 But this differs from the result given by Professor Jevons in nothing except grammatical form.
1903 B. Russell Princ. Math. iv. 48 The question is: what logical difference is expressed by the difference of grammatical form?
1910 B. Russell in A. N. Whitehead & B. Russell Principia Mathematica I. Introd. iii. 66 The proposition must be capable of being so analysed that what was the grammatical subject shall have disappeared.
1933 L. S. Stebbing Mod. Introd. Logic (ed. 2) ix. 153 The point that is of importance is to distinguish the grammatical subject of a sentence from the logical subject of the proposition expressed by the sentence.
1951 A. Flew Ess. on Logic & Lang. 7 It would be absurd, but it would also be easy, to be misled by the grammatical similarity of ‘It goes on to London’ to ‘It goes on to Infinity’.
1959 P. F. Strawson Individuals ii. v. 148 Grammatical classifications do not unequivocally or clearly declare their own logical rationale.
c. Philology. grammatical change [translating German grammatischer wechsel] : the system of contrasting consonants found in the strong verb in Germanic languages, exemplifying Verner's Law.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > language > linguistics > study of speech sound > speech sound > sound changes > [noun] > rule or law > grammatical change
grammatical change1926
1926 Language 2 177 Another article by Braune..on what he calls ‘The Grammatical Change in the Inflection of the German Verb’.
1934 R. C. Priebsch & W. E. Collinson German Lang. ii. i. 95 Grammatical change (grammatischer Wechsel), which is limited in Gothic to a few cases..is well preserved in O.H.G.
1963 J. T. Waterman Perspectives in Linguistics 49 Grimm..had been especially impressed by the curious interplay of stop and spirant in the morphology of the strong verb, applying the term ‘grammatical change’ to this phenomenon.
d. Of languages: having relatively greater structural resources, and relying less on lexical richness.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > language > linguistics > study of grammar > [adjective] > of languages: grammatical
grammatical1937
1937 J. Orr tr. I. Iordan Introd. Romance Linguistics 287 Where there is greater solidarity between the semantic and the formal associations, the signs appear less arbitrary, and these he [sc. Saussure] calls grammatical languages.
1959 W. Baskin tr. F. de Saussure Course in Gen. Ling. ii. vi. 133 We might say that languages in which there is least motivation are more lexicological, and those in which it is greatest are more grammatical.
1962 S. D. Ullmann Princ. Semantics iv. 105 It was one of Saussure's most important discoveries that the proportion of transparent and opaque words varies characteristically... ‘Grammatical’ languages..favour the transparent type.
2. grammatical sense: that sense of a text which is obtained by the simple application of the rules of grammar to the words, without reference to any extraneous considerations; the literal sense. So grammatical category, grammatical feature, grammatical form, grammatical meaning, grammatical interpretation, †grammatical translation, grammatical word (see quots.).
ΘΚΠ
the mind > language > linguistics > semantics > meaning or signification > [noun] > literal or primary
grammatical sensea1530
notation1570
grammatical meaning1769
the mind > mental capacity > intelligibility > meaning > meaning of linguistic unit > literal meaning > [noun] > according to grammar
grammatical sensea1530
grammatical meaning1769
a1530 W. Bonde Pylgrimage of Perfeccyon (1531) iii. f. CCxiv As the lettre of these wordes (as to the grammaticall sense) pretendeth or sheweth.
1597 R. Hooker Of Lawes Eccl. Politie v. xiii. 22 In as much as by plaine grammaticall construction, Church doth signifie no other thing then The Lords house.
1651 T. Hobbes Leviathan iv. liv. 350 They had not transgressed the Grammaticall sense thereof.
1654 R. Whitlock Ζωοτομία Pref. sig. a vj As for my declining in many places Grammaticall Translations, it is to bring the Sense neerer my Purpose.
1769 in ‘Junius’ Stat Nominis Umbra (1772) I. 139 I trouble not myself with the grammatical meaning of the word expulsion. I regard only its legal meaning.
1891 H. A. Strong et al. Introd. Study Hist. Lang. xx. 343 The grammatical categories of substantive, adjective, and verb correspond to the logical categories of substance, quality, and..occurrence.
1924 O. Jespersen Philos. Gram. ii. 44 The paradigmatic arrangement is not one of grammatical form.
1924 O. Jespersen Philos. Gram. iii. 54 The grammatical category of number evidently corresponds to the distinction found in the outside world between ‘one’ and ‘more than one’.
1925 P. Radin tr. J. Vendryes Language ii. 90 To the concepts expressed by means of morphemes, we give the name grammatical categories. Thus, gender, number, person, tense and mood, interrogation and negation,..etc., are grammatical categories in languages where these concepts are expressed by special morphemes.
1933 L. Bloomfield Lang. x. 166 A simple feature of grammatical arrangement is a grammatical feature or taxeme... The utterance Run!, for example, contains two grammatical features (taxemes), namely, the modulation..and the selective feature.
1933 L. Bloomfield Lang. x. 166 The smallest meaningful units of grammatical form may be spoken of as tagmemes.
1933 L. Bloomfield Lang. x. 169 Some pitch-scheme.., in English at any rate, lends it a grammatical meaning such as ‘statement’, ‘yes-or-no question’, ‘supplement-question’, or ‘exclamation’.
1933 L. Bloomfield Lang. x. 169 The grammatical forms of a language can be grouped into three great classes.
1958 C. F. Hockett Course in Mod. Linguistics xxvii. 231 A specific grammatical category is an element in a system or a class in a classification: English plural, Spanish masculine, Latin accusative.
1963 Listener 3 Jan. 21/2 The feeling of climax comes..from increasing syntactical concentration. More merely grammatical words—‘see’, ‘are’, ‘was’, ‘is’—are omitted.
1964 M. Joos Eng. Verb iv. 81 The necessity of distinguishing between lexical meaning and grammatical meaning.
1966 G. N. Leech Eng. in Advertising ix. 88 ‘Grammatical words’ such as prepositions, pronouns, and auxiliary verbs.
1968 M. Black Labyrinth of Lang. iv. 85 The totality of rules that determine the correct use of a given word or expression may be said to specify the grammatical form of that word or expression.
3. Of speech, composition, etc.: Conforming to the rules of grammar.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > language > linguistics > study of grammar > [adjective] > conforming to rules of grammar
truthable1592
grammatical1752
well-formed1946
1752 S. Johnson Rambler No. 206. ⁋11 I have laboured to refine our language to grammatical purity.
1861 G. L. Craik Hist. Eng. Lit. & Lang. II. 538 [Carlyle's style is] with all its startling qualities, one of the most exactly grammatical in our literature.
1900 N.E.D. at Grammatical Mod. The sentence is grammatical, but not quite idiomatic.
4.
a. transferred. Of or pertaining to, also strictly conforming to the ‘grammar’ or formal principles of an art.
ΘΚΠ
the world > relative properties > order > agreement, harmony, or congruity > conformity to or with a pattern, etc. > [adjective] > conforming to a standard rule > conforming to rules of art or law
formal1390
grammatical1846
1846 J. Ruskin Mod. Painters (ed. 3) I. 113 The..grammatical accuracy of the tones of Turner.
1890 Internat. Ann. Anthonys Photogr. Bull. 426 To secure ‘grammatical’ or perspective truth the horizon line of such background must be brought opposite the lens.
b. Music. grammatical accent n. the accent regularly occurring at the beats of a bar; opposed to oratorical accent.
ΚΠ
1833 Penny Cycl. I. 72/2.
1889 H. C. Banister Text-bk. Mus. (ed. 14) §362.
ΘΚΠ
society > education > learning > study > subject or object of study > [noun] > grammar-school subjects
grammar-learning1628
grammatical1691
1691 A. Wood Athenæ Oxonienses I. 12 John Constable..Educated in Grammaticals under William Lilye, in Academicals in an antient Hostle sometimes called Byhem..Hall.
1716 M. Davies Athenæ Britannicæ II. 328 Robert Talbot..He was educated in Grammaticals in Wikeham-School.
Derivatives
graˈmmaticalness n. the quality of being grammatical.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > language > linguistics > study of grammar > [noun] > grammatical rule or principle > adherence to
grammaticalness1649
well-formedness1947
grammaticality1961
1649 H. Hammond Vindic. Addresse 43 To justifie the Grammaticalnesse of these words.
1897 F. Hall in Nation (N.Y.) 64 357/2 Not without entertaining a very original notion of grammaticalness can Mr. Philpson say what he says about expect.
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1900; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
<
adj.a1530