Grammar

186. Grammar

See also 236. LANGUAGE ; 247. LINGUISTICS

accidence

the aspect of grammar that deals with inflections and word order.

bagrammatism

Medicine. a neurological defect resulting in an inability to use words in grammatical sequence.

amphibology

1. an ambiguity of language.

2. a word, phrase, or sentence that can be interpreted variously because of uncertainty of grammatical construction rather than ambiguity of the words used, as “John met his father when he was sick.” Also amphibologism, amphiboly. —amphibological, amphibolous, adj.

anacoluthon

a lack of grammatical sequence or coherence, as “He ate cereal, fruit, and went to the store.” Also anacoluthia. —anacoluthic, adj.

antanaclasis

a repetition of words to resume the sense after a long parenthetical digression. See also 354. RHETORIC and RHETORICAL DEVICES .

antiptosis

the substitution of one grammatical case for another, e.g., use of the nominative where the vocative would normally occur. —antiptotic, adj.

apodosis

the clause that expresses the consequence in a conditional sentence. Cf. protasis.

grammar

1. the study of the principles by which a language or languages function in producing meaningful units of expression.

2. knowledge of the preferred forms of expression and usage in language. See also 247. LINGUISTICS . —grammarian, n. —grammatical, adj.

grammarianism

1. Rare. the principles of the study of grammar followed by a grammarian.

2. excessive emphasis upon the fine points of grammar and usage, especially as a shibboleth; dedication to the doctrine of correctness; grammatism.

grammaticism

a principle or a point of grammar.

grammatism

excessively pedantic behavior about grammatical standards and principles. —grammatist, n.

hypotaxis

arrangement of thoughts by subordination in grammatical construction. Cf. parataxis. —hypotactic, adj.

ingrammaticism

Rare. a word or phrase that violates the rules of grammar. —ingrammatically, adj.

paradigm

1. a declension, conjugation, etc. that provides all the inflectional forms and serves as a model or example for all others.

2 . any model or example. —paradigmatic, paradigmatical, adj.

parataxis

arrangement of thoughts as coordinate units in grammatical construction. Cf. hypotaxis. —paratactic, adj.

periphrastic

referring to the ability in some languages to use function words instead of inflections, as “the hair of the dog” for “dog’s hair.” —periphrasis, n.

protasis

a clause containing the condition in a conditional sentence. Cf. apodosis . See also 127. DRAMA ; 422. WISDOM AND FOOLISHNESS . —protatic, adj.

solecism

a violation of conventional usage and grammar, as “I are sixty year old.” —solecist, n. —solecistic, solecistical, adj.

syllepsis

the use of a word or expression to perform two syntactic functions, especially to apply to two or more words of which at least one does not agree in logic, number, case, or gender, as in Pope’s line “See Pan with flocks, with fruits Pomona crowned.” —sylleptic, sylleptical, adj.

synesis

the practice of using a grammatical construction that conforms with meaning rather than with strict regard for syntax, such as a plural form of a verb following a singular subject that has a plural meaning.

syntax

the grammatical principles by which words are used in phrases and sentences to construct meaningful combinations. —syntactic, syntactical, adj.