Meaning of grammar | Babel Free

Definitions

1. A system of rules and principles for the structure of a language, or of languages in general.
   countable, uncountable
2. grammar (rules for speaking and writing a language)
3. The study of such a system.
   uncountable
4. the aspect of grammar that deals with inflections and word order.
5. feminine singular of gramático
6. Actual or presumed prescriptive notions about the correct use of a language.
   uncountable
7. a lack of grammatical sequence or coherence, as “He ate cereal, fruit, and went to the store.” Also anacoluthia. — anacoluthic, adj.
8. A book describing the grammar (noun sense 1 or noun sense 2) of a language.
   countable
9. a repetition of words to resume the sense after a long parenthetical digression. See also rhetoric and rhetorical devices.
10. A formal system specifying the syntax of a language.
    countable
11. the substitution of one grammatical case for another, e.g., use of the nominative where the vocative would normally occur. — antiptotic, adj.
12. A formal system defining a formal language.
    countable
13. the clause that expresses the consequence in a conditional sentence. Cf. protasis.
14. The basic rules or principles of a field of knowledge or a particular skill.
    countable, figuratively
15. Medicine. a neurological defect resulting in an inability to use words in grammatical sequence.
16. A book describing these rules or principles; a textbook.
    British, archaic, countable
17. a principle or a point of grammar.
18. Ellipsis of grammar school.
    British, abbreviation, alt-of, countable, ellipsis, informal, uncountable
19. excessively pedantic behavior about grammatical standards and principles. — grammatist, n.
20. A set of component patterns, along with the rules for connecting them, which can be combined to form more complex patterns such as large still lifes, oscillators, and spaceships.
    countable
21. arrangement of thoughts by subordination in grammatical construction. Cf. parataxis. — hypotactic, adj.
22. Rare. a word or phrase that violates the rules of grammar. — ingrammatically, adj.

Equivalents

Examples

“Because real lexicons are big and complex, from a software engineering perspective it is best to write simple grammars that have a simple, well-defined way, of pulling out the information they need from vast lexicons. That is, grammars should be thought of as separate entities which can access the information contained in lexicons. We can then use specialised mechanisms for efficiently storing the lexicon and retrieving data from it.”

“We must learn a new grammar of power in a world that is made up more of the common good – or the common bad – than of self-interest or national interest.”

“a grammar of geography”

“To turn this sort of mixture of a gossip and a gospel into anything like a grammar of Distributism has been quite impossible.”

“He’s the old man’s only son. Some baby! Yep, right behind ya. Nope, he donno me. I was in Grammar when he was in High.”

“Hickerson has a computer program which found a spaceship with speed c/3. In fact a whole grammar of them.”

“Within a few hours of finding the first period 2 ship, Dean had discovered a grammar for constructing an infinite number of different short, wide, period 2 spaceships. A grammar is an "alphabet" of "components", along with rules for the possible sequences of connections between components. Components are simply the identifiable pieces of a ship which reappear over and over in different ships in different combinations.”

“Dean's discovery included a much more plentiful family than just the light, medium, and heavy weight spaceships that have been known since the beginning, which he was able to organize into a series of tiles and a grammar for them.”

CEFR level