Grammar – A Soothing Guide To Language Rules For Sleep

Grammar: a relaxing dive into punctuation, syntax, and why you suddenly care about commas at bedtime. A sleep-friendly look at the rules of language—because nothing says insomnia relief like subjunctive clauses.

Transcript

Welcome to the I Can't Sleep podcast,

Where I bore you to sleep with my soothing voice.

I'm your host,

Benjamin Boster,

And today's episode is about grammar.

In linguistics,

Grammar is the set of rules for how a natural language is structured as demonstrated by its speakers or writers.

Grammar rules may concern the use of clauses,

Phrases,

And words.

The term may also refer to the study of such rules,

A subject that includes phonology,

Morphology,

And syntax,

Together with phonetics,

Semantics,

And pragmatics.

There are broadly speaking two different ways to study grammar,

Traditional grammar,

And theoretical grammar.

Fluency in a particular language variety involves the speaker internalizing these rules,

Many or most of which are acquired by observing other speakers,

As opposed to intentional study or instruction.

Much of this internalization occurs during early childhood.

Learning a language later in life usually involves more direct instruction.

The term grammar can also describe the linguistic behavior of groups of speakers and writers,

Rather than individuals.

Differences in scale are important to this meaning.

For example,

English grammar could describe those rules followed by every one of the language's speakers.

At smaller scales,

It may refer to rules shared by smaller groups of speakers.

A description,

Study,

Or analysis of such rules may also be known as grammar,

Or as a grammar book.

A reference work describing the grammar of a language is called a reference grammar,

Or simply a grammar.

A fully revealed grammar which describes the grammatical constructions of a particular speech type in great detail is called descriptive grammar.

This kind of linguistic description contrasts with linguistic prescriptions,

A plan to marginalize some constructions while codifying others,

Either absolutely or in the framework of a standard language.

The word grammar often has divergent meanings when used in contexts outside linguistics.

It may be used more broadly to include orthographic conventions of written language,

Such as spelling and punctuation,

Which are not typically considered part of grammar by linguists,

That is,

The conventions used for writing a language.

It may also be used more narrowly to refer to a set of prescriptive norms only,

Excluding the aspects of a language's grammar which do not change or are clearly acceptable or not,

Without the need for discussions.

The word grammar is derived from Greek γραμματική τεχνή,

Which means art of letters,

From γράμμα,

Letter,

Itself from graphing,

To draw,

To write.

The same Greek root also appears in words graphics,

Grapheme,

And photograph.

The first systematic grammar of Sanskrit originated in Iron Age India,

With Yaska 6th century BC,

Panini 6th to 5th century BC,

And his commentators Pingala circa 200 BC,

Katyayana,

And Patanjali,

2nd century BC.

Tolkapiyam,

The earliest Tamil grammar,

Is mostly dated to before the 5th century AD.

The Babylonians also made some early attempts at language description.

Grammar appeared as a discipline in Hellenism from the 3rd century BC forward,

With authors such as Rhiannus and Aristarchus of Samothrace.

The oldest known grammar handbook is the Art of Grammar,

A succinct guide to speaking and writing clearly and effectively,

Written by the ancient Greek scholar Dionysius Thrax,

Circa 170 to circa 90 BC,

A student of Aristarchus of Samothrace who founded a school in the Greek island of Rhodes.

Dionysius Thrax's grammar book remained the primary grammar textbook for Greek schoolboys until as late as the 12th century AD.

The Romans based their grammatical writings on it,

And its basic format remains the same for grammar guides in many languages even today.

Latin grammar developed by following Greek models from the 1st century,

Due to the work of authors such as Orbelius Popilus,

Remius Palamon,

Marcus Valerius Probus,

Varius Flaccus,

And Aemilius Asper.

The grammar of Irish originated in the 7th century,

With Aracheb Nennekes,

Arabic grammar emerged with Abu al-Aswad al-Dwali in the 7th century.

The first treatise on Hebrew grammar appeared in the High Middle Ages,

In the context of Midrash,

Exegesis of Hebrew Bible.

The Karai tradition originated in Abbasid Baghdad.

The Dikduk,

10th century,

Is one of the earliest grammatical commentaries on the Hebrew Bible.

Ibn Barun,

In the 12th century,

Compares the Hebrew language with Arabic in the Islamic grammatical tradition.

Belonging to the trivium of the seven liberal arts,

Grammar was taught as a core discipline throughout the Middle Ages,

Following the influence of authors from Late Antiquity,

Such as Priscian.

Treatment of vernaculars began gradually during the High Middle Ages,

With isolated works such as the first grammatical treatise,

But became influential only in the Renaissance and Baroque periods.

In 1486,

Antonio de Nebrija published Las Introducciones Latinas Contrapuesto al Romance Latin,

And the first Spanish grammar,

Gramática de la Lengua Castelana,

In 1492.

During the 16th century Italian Renaissance,

The Questione della Lingua was the discussion on the status and ideal form of the Italian language,

Initiated by Dante's De vulgari eloquentia,

Pietro Bembo,

Prose della vulgar lingua venice,

1525.

The first grammar of Slovene was written in 1583.

The first grammar of German was published in 1578.

Grammars of some languages began to be compiled for the purposes of evangelism and Bible translation from the 16th century onward,

Such as Gramática o Arte de la Lengua General de los Reinos del Perú,

1560,

A Quechua grammar by Fray Domingo de Santo Tomás.

From the latter part of the 18th century,

Grammar came to be understood as a subfield of the emerging discipline of modern linguistics.

The Deutsche Grammatik of Jacob Grimm was first published in the 1810s.

The Comparative Grammar of Franz Bopp,

A starting point of modern comparative linguistics,

Came out in 1833.

Frameworks of grammar which seek to give a precise scientific theory of the syntactic rules of grammar and their function have been developed in theoretical linguistics.

Other frameworks are based on innate universal grammar,

An idea developed by Noam Chomsky.

In such models,

The object is placed into the verb phrase.

Parsed trees are commonly used by such frameworks to depict their rules.

There are various alternative schemes for some grammar.

Affixed grammar over a finite lattice,

Bacchus-Naur form,

Constraint grammar,

Lambda calculus,

Tree-adjoining grammar,

And X-bar theory.

Grammars evolve through usage.

Historically,

With the advent of written representations,

Formal rules about language usage tend to appear also,

Although such rules tend to describe writing conventions more accurately than conventions of speech.

Formal grammars are codifications of usage,

Which are developed by repeated documentation and observation over time.

As rules are established and developed,

The prescriptive concept of grammatical correctness can arrive.

This often produces a discrepancy between contemporary usage and that which has been accepted over time as being standard or correct.

Linguists tend to view prescriptive grammar as having little justification beyond their author's aesthetic tastes,

Although style guides may give useful advice about standard language employment based on descriptions of usage in contemporary writings of the same language.

Linguistic prescriptions also form part of the explanation for variation in speech,

Particularly variation in the speech of an individual speaker.

For example,

Why some speakers say,

I didn't do nothing,

Some say,

I didn't do anything,

And some say one or the other depending on social context.

The formal study of grammar is an important part of children's schooling from a young age through advanced learning,

Though the rules taught in schools are not a grammar in a sense that most linguists use,

Particularly as they are prescriptive in intent rather than descriptive.

Constructed languages,

Also called planned languages or conlangs,

Are more common in modern day,

Although still extremely uncommon compared to natural languages.

Many have been designed to aid human communication,

For example,

Naturalistic interlingua,

Schematic esperanto,

And the highly logical lojban.

Each of these languages has its own grammar.

Syntax refers to the linguistic structure above the word level,

For example,

How sentences are formed,

Though without taking into account intonation,

Which is the domain of phonology.

Morphology,

By contrast,

Refers to the structure at and below the word level,

For example,

How compound words are formed,

But above the level of individual sounds,

Which,

Like intonation,

Are in the domain of phonology.

However,

No clear line can be drawn between syntax and morphology.

Analytic languages use syntax to convey information that is encoded by inflection in synthetic languages.

In other words,

Word order is not significant,

And morphology is highly significant in a purely synthetic language,

Whereas morphology is not significant,

And syntax is highly significant in an analytic language.

For example,

Chinese and Afrikaans are highly analytic,

Thus meaning is very context dependent.

Both have some inflections,

And both have had more in the past.

Thus,

They're becoming even less synthetic and more purely analytic over time.

Latin,

Which is highly synthetic,

Uses affixes and inflections to convey the same information that Chinese does with syntax.

Because Latin words are quite,

Though not totally,

Self-contained,

An intelligible Latin sentence can be made from elements that are arranged almost arbitrarily.

Latin has a complex affixation and simple syntax,

Whereas Chinese has the opposite.

Prescriptive grammar is taught in primary and secondary school.

The term grammar school historically referred to a school attached to a cathedral or monastery that teaches Latin grammar to future priests and monks.

It originally referred to a school that taught students how to read,

Scan,

Interpret,

And declaim Greek and Latin poets,

Including Homer,

Virgil,

Euripides,

And others.

These should not be mistaken for the related,

Albeit distinct,

Modern British grammar schools.

A standard language is a dialect that is promoted above other dialects in writing,

Education,

And,

Broadly speaking,

In the public sphere.

It contrasts with vernacular dialects,

Which may be the objects of study in academic,

Descriptive linguistics,

But which are rarely taught prescriptively.

The standardized first language taught in primary education may be subject to political controversy because it may sometimes establish a standard defining nationality or ethnicity.

Recently,

Efforts have begun to update grammar instruction in primary and secondary education.

The main focus has been to prevent the use of outdated prescriptive rules in favor of setting norms based on earlier descriptive research and to change perceptions about the relative correctness of prescribed standard forms in comparison to non-standard dialects.

A series of meta-studies have found that the explicit teaching of grammatical parts of speech and syntax has little or no effect on the improvement of student writing quality in elementary school,

Middle school,

Or high school.

Other methods of writing instruction had far greater positive effect,

Including strategy instruction,

Collaborative writing,

Summary writing,

Process instruction,

Sentence combining,

And inquiry projects.

The preeminence of Parisian French has reigned largely unchallenged throughout the history of modern French literature.

Standard Italian is based on the speech of Florence rather than the capital because of its influence on early literature.

Likewise,

Standard Spanish is not based on the speech of Madrid,

But on that of educated speakers from more northern areas,

Such as Castile and León.

In Argentina and Uruguay,

The Spanish standard is based on the local dialects of Buenos Aires and Montevideo.

Portuguese has for now two official standards,

Brazilian Portuguese and European Portuguese.

The Serbian variant of Serbo-Croatian is likewise divided.

Serbia and the Republika Srpska of Bosnia and Herzegovina use their own distinct normative sub-varieties,

With differences in yacht reflexes.

The existence and codification of a distinct Montenegrin standard is a matter of controversy.

Some treat Montenegrin as a separate standard-lect,

And some think that it should be considered another form of Serbian.

Norwegian has two standards,

Bukmål and Njønorsk,

The choice between which is subject to controversy.

Each Norwegian municipality can either declare one as its official language,

Or it can remain language neutral.

Njønorsk is backed by 27% of municipalities.

The main language used in primary schools,

Chosen by referendum within the local school district,

Normally follows the official language of its municipality.

Standard German emerged from the standardized chancellery use of High German in the 16th and 17th centuries.

Until about 1800 it was almost exclusively a written language,

But now it is so widely spoken that most of the former German dialects are nearly extinct.

Standard Chinese has official status as the standard spoken form of the Chinese language in the People's Republic of China,

PRC,

The Republic of China,

ROC,

And the Republic of Singapore.

Pronunciation of Standard Chinese is based on the local accent of Mandarin Chinese from Luanping,

Chengde,

And Hebei Province near Beijing,

While grammar and syntax are based on modern vernacular written Chinese.

Modern Standard Arabic is directly based on Classical Arabic,

The language of the Quran.

The Hindustani language has two standards,

Hindi and Urdu.

In the United States,

The Society for the Promotion of Good Grammar designated the 4th of March as National Grammar Day in 2008.

English grammar is the set of structural rules of the English language.

This includes the structure of words,

Phrases,

Clauses,

Sentences,

And whole texts.

This article describes a generalized present-day Standard English,

Forms of speech and writing used in public discourse,

Including broadcasting,

Education,

Entertainment,

Government,

And news,

Over a range of registers,

From formal to informal.

Divergences from the grammar described here occur in some historical,

Social,

Cultural,

And regional varieties of English,

Although these are minor compared to the differences in pronunciation and vocabulary.

Modern English has largely abandoned the inflectional case system of Indo-European in favor of analytic constructions.

The personal pronouns retain morphological case more strongly than any other word case,

A remnant of the more extensive Germanic system of Old English.

For other pronouns and all nouns,

Adjectives,

And articles,

Grammatical function is indicated only by word order,

By prepositions,

And by the Saxon genitive or English possessive.

Nouns,

Verbs,

Adjectives,

And adverbs are open classes,

Word classes that readily accept new members,

Such as the noun celebutante,

A celebrity who frequents the fashion circles,

And other similar relatively new words.

The rest are closed classes.

For example,

It is rare for a new pronoun to enter the language.

Determiners,

Traditionally classified along with adjectives,

Have not always been regarded as a separate part of speech.

Interjections are another word class,

But these are not described here as they do not form part of the clause and sentence structure of the language.

Linguists generally accept nine English word classes.

Nouns,

Verbs,

Adjectives,

Adverbs,

Pronouns,

Prepositions,

Conjunctions,

Determiners,

And exclamations.

English words are not generally marked for word class.

It is not usually possible to tell from the form of a word which class it belongs to.

Inflectional endings and derivational suffixes are unique and specific too.

On the other hand,

Most words belong to more than one class.

For example,

Run can serve as either a verb or a noun.

These are regarded as two different lexems.

Lexems may be inflected to express different grammatical categories.

The lexem run has the forms run,

Ran,

Runny,

Runner,

And running.

Words in one class can sometimes be derived from those in another.

This has the potential to give rise to new words.

For example,

The noun aerobics has given rise to the adjective aerobicized.

Words combine to form phrases.

A phrase typically serves the same function as a word from some particular word class.

For example,

My very good friend Peter is a phrase that can be used in a sentence as if it were a noun,

And is therefore called a noun phrase.

Similarly,

Adjectival phrases and adverbial phrases function as if they were adjectives or adverbs.

But with other types of phrases,

The terminology has different implications.

For example,

A verb phrase consists of a verb together with any objects and other dependents.

A prepositional phrase consists of a preposition and its complement,

And is therefore usually a type of adverbial phrase.

And a determiner phrase is a type of noun phrase containing a determiner.

Many common suffixes form nouns from other nouns or from other types of words,

Such as A-G-E,

Shrinkage,

Hood,

Sisterhood,

And so on.

Though many nouns are base forms containing no such suffix,

Cat,

Grass,

France.

Nouns are also created by converting verbs and adjectives as with the words talk and reading.

A boring talk,

The assigned reading.

Nouns are sometimes classified semantically by their meanings as proper and common nouns.

Cyrus,

China versus frog,

Milk.

Or as concrete and abstract nouns.

Book,

Laptop versus embarrassment,

Prejudice.

A grammatical distinction is often made between count,

Countable nouns,

Such as clock and city,

And non-count,

Uncountable nouns,

Such as milk and decor.

Some nouns can function both as countable and as uncountable,

Such as wine,

In,

This is a good wine.

Countable nouns generally have singular and plural forms.

In most cases,

The plural is formed from the singular by adding E-S or S,

As in dogs,

Bushes.

Although there are also irregular forms,

Woman,

Women,

Foot,

Feed,

Including cases where the two forms are identical,

Sheep,

Series.

Certain nouns can be used with plural verbs even though they are singular in form,

As in,

The government were,

Where the government is considered to refer to the people constituting the government.

This is a form of senescence and is more common in British than American English.

English nouns are not marked by case as they are in some languages,

But they have possessive forms through the addition of an apostrophe S,

As in John's,

Children's,

Or just an apostrophe with no change in pronunciation,

In the case of E-S plurals,

The dog's owners,

And sometimes other words ending with S,

Jesus's love.

More generally,

The ending can be applied to noun phrases,

As in,

The man you saw yesterday's sister.

The possessive form can be used either as a determiner,

Mañanda's cat,

Or as a noun phrase,

Mañanda's is the one next to Jane's.

The status of the possessive as an affix or a clitic is the subject of debate.

It differs from the noun inflection of languages such as German,

And that the genitive ending may attach to the last word of the phrase.

To account for this,

The possessive can be analyzed,

For instance,

As a clitic construction and enclitic postposition,

Or as an inflection of the last word of a phrase,

Edge inflection.

Noun phrases are phrases that function grammatically as nouns within sentences,

For example,

As the subject or object of a verb.

Most noun phrases have a noun as their head.

An English noun phrase typically takes the following form.

Not all elements need to be present.

A determiner,

Plus pre-modifiers,

Plus the noun,

Plus post-modifiers complement.

In this structure,

The determiner may be an article,

The a.

N.

,

Or other equivalent word.

In many contexts,

It is required for a noun phrase to include some determiner.

Pre-modifiers include adjectives and some adjective phrases,

Such as read,

Really lovely,

And noun adjuncts,

Such as college in the phrase,

The college student.

Adjectival modifiers usually come before noun adjuncts.

A complement or post-modifier may be a prepositional phrase,

Of London,

A relative clause,

Like,

Which we saw yesterday,

Certain adjective or participle phrases,

Sitting on the like,

That the world is round,

After a noun such as fact or statement,

Or,

To travel widely,

After a noun such as desire.

An example of a noun phrase that includes all of the above-mentioned elements is,

That rather attractive young college student to whom you are talking.

Here,

That is the determiner.

Rather attractive and young are adjectival pre-modifiers.

College is a noun adjunct,

Student is the noun serving as the head of the phrase,

And to whom you are talking is a post-modifier,

A relative clause in this case.

Notice the order of pre-modifiers.

The determiner,

That,

Must come first,

And the noun adjunct,

College,

Must come after the adjectival modifiers.

Coordinators,

Such as,

And,

Or,

And,

But,

Can be used as various levels in noun phrases,

As in,

John,

Paul,

And Mary,

The matching green coat and hat.

A dangerous but exciting ride.

A person sitting down or standing up.

Noun phrases can also be placed in apposition,

Where two consecutive phrases refer to the same thing,

As in,

That President Abraham Lincoln,

Where,

That President and Abraham Lincoln are in apposition.

In some contexts,

The same can be expressed by a prepositional phrase,

As in,

The twin curses of famine and pestilence,

Meaning the twin curses that are famine and pestilence.

Particular forms of noun phrases include phrases formed by the determiner,

The,

With an adjective,

As in,

The homeless,

The English.

These are plural phrases referring to homeless people or English people in general.

Phrases with a pronoun rather than a noun,

As the head.

Phrases consisting just of possessive.

Infinitive and gerund phrases in certain positions.

Certain clauses,

Such as,

That clauses,

And content clauses,

Like,

What he said,

In certain positions.

Gender.

A system of grammatical gender whereby every noun was treated as either masculine,

Feminine,

Or neuter,

Existed in Old English,

But fell out of use during the Middle English period.

Modern English retains features relating to natural gender,

Most prominently the use of pronouns,

Such as he and she,

To refer specifically to persons or animals of one or other genders and certain others,

Such as it,

For sexless objects.

Although feminine pronouns are sometimes used when referring to ships,

And more uncommonly some airplanes and analogous machinery,

And nation states.

Some aspects of gender usage in English have been influenced by the movement towards a preference for gender-neutral language.

Animals are triple gender nouns,

Being able to take masculine,

Feminine,

And neuter pronouns.

While the vast majority of nouns in English do not carry gender,

There remain some gendered nouns,

E.

G.

,

You,

Sow,

Rooster,

And derivational affixes,

E.

G.

,

Widower,

Waitress,

That denote gender.

English determiners constitute a relatively small class of words.

They include the articles the and an,

Or a.

Certain demonstrative and interrogative words,

Such as this,

That,

And which.

Possessives,

Such as my and whose.

The role of determiner can also be played by noun possessive forms,

Such as John's and the girl's.

Various quantifying words,

Like all,

Some,

Many,

Various.

And numerals,

One,

Two,

Etc.

There are also many phrases,

Such as a couple of,

That can play the role of determiners.

Determiners are used in the formation of noun phrases.

Many words that serve as determiners can also be used as pronouns.

This,

That,

Many,

Etc.

Determiners can be used in certain combinations,

Such as all the water,

And the many problems.

In many contexts,

It is required for a noun phrase to be completed with an article or some other determiner.

It is not grammatical to say just cat sat on table.

One must say my cat sat on the table.

The most common situations in which a complete noun phrase can be formed without a determiner are when it refers generally to a whole class or concept,

As in dogs are dangerous and beauty is subjective,

And when it is a name,

Jane,

Spain,

Etc.

Pronouns are a relatively small,

Closed class of words that function in the place of nouns or noun phrases.

They include personal pronouns,

Demonstrative pronouns,

Relative pronouns,

Interrogative pronouns,

And some others,

Mainly indefinite pronouns.

Examples of personal pronouns of modern Standard English are I,

You,

She,

He,

It,

We,

And they.

The personal pronouns are so-called not because they apply to persons,

Which other pronouns also do,

But because they participate in the system of grammatical person,

First,

Second,

Third.

The second-person forms,

Such as you,

Are used with both singular and plural reference.

In the southern United States,

Y'all,

You all,

Is used as a plural form,

And various other phrases,

Such as you guys,

Are used in other places.

An archaic set of second-person pronouns used for singular reference is thou,

Thee,

Thyself,

Thy,

Thine,

Which are still used in religious services and can be seen in older works,

Such as Shakespeare's.

In such texts,

The you set of pronouns are used for plural reference,

Or with singular reference as a formal V form.

You can also be used as an indefinite pronoun,

Referring to a person in general,

Compared to the more formal alternative,

One,

Reflexive oneself,

Possessive ones.

The third-person singular forms are differentiated according to the gender of the referent.

For example,

She is used to refer to a woman,

Sometimes a female animal,

And sometimes an object to which feminine characteristics are attributed,

Such as a ship or a country.

A man,

And sometimes a male animal,

Is referred to using he.

In other cases,

It can be used.

The word it can also be used as a dummy subject,

Concerning abstract ideas like time,

Weather,

Etc.

,

Or a dummy object of a verb or preposition.

The third-person form they is used with both plural and singular reference.

Historically,

Singular they was restricted to quantificational constructions,

Such as each employee should clean their desk,

And referential cases where the reference gender was unknown.

However,

It is increasingly used when the reference gender is irrelevant,

Or when the referent is neither male nor female.

The possessive determiners,

Such as my,

Are used as determiners together with nouns,

As in my old man,

Some of his friends.

The second-possessive forms,

Like mine,

Are used when they do not qualify a noun,

As pronouns,

As in mine is bigger than yours,

And as predicates,

As in this one is mine.

Note also the construction of friend of mine,

Meaning someone who is my friend.

The demonstrative pronouns of English are this,

Plural these,

And that,

Plural those,

As in these are good,

I like that.

All four words can also be used as determiners followed by a noun,

As in those cars.

They can also form the alternative pronominal expressions,

This,

That one,

These,

Those ones.

The interrogative pronouns are who,

What,

And which.

All of them can take the suffix ever for emphasis.

The pronoun who refers to a person or people.

It has an oblique form whom,

Though in formal context this is usually replaced by who.

And a possessive form,

Pronoun or determiner,

Whose.

The pronoun what refers to things or abstracts.

The word which is used to ask about alternatives from what is seen as a closed set.

Which of the books do you like best?

It can also be an interrogative determiner.

Which book?

This can form the alternative pronominal expressions which one and which ones.

Which,

Who,

And what can be either singular or plural,

Although who and what often take a singular verb,

Regardless of any supposed number.

In Old and Middle English,

The roles of the three words were different from their roles today.

The interrogative pronoun who,

What,

Had only singular forms,

And also only distinguished between non-neuter and neuter,

The neuter nominative form being what.

Note that neuter and non-neuter refers to the grammatical gender system of the time,

Rather than the so-called natural gender system of today.

A small holdover of this is the ability of relative but not interrogative whose to refer to non-persons,

E.

G.

The car whose door won't open.

All the interrogative pronouns can also be used as relative pronouns,

Though what is quite limited in its use.

That's it for this episode.

There's so much more to learn about English grammar,

And I find it quite fascinating.

If it's something you would like to hear more about,

Just let me know,

And I'll get recording on another episode.

Happy sleeping.

Reviews

It worked! Quickly fell asleep, odd subject matter lol 😴

Unbelievable never realized grammar was so complex…..it kept me awake 🤣😅😂thank you Benjamin🙏🏻

That was AMAZING! I fell asleep the fastest I’ve ever fallen asleep

How did you stay awake to even read this? 😂
Thanks for the boring subject! 😁

Grammar is a perfect sleep inducing subject! Thank you, Benjamin!