grammar

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   A formal system specifying the syntax of a language.

   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.

2. 2
   noun

   The basic rules or principles of a field of knowledge or a particular skill.

   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.

3. 3
   noun

   A book describing these rules or principles; a textbook.

   a grammar of geography

4. 4
   noun

   Ellipsis of grammar school.

   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.

5. 5
   noun

   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.

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

6. 6
   verb

   To discourse according to the rules of grammar; to use grammar.

   She is in her Moods, and her Tenses: / I'll Grammar with you, / And make a trial how I can decline you

7. 7
   noun

   the branch of linguistics that deals with syntax and morphology (and sometimes also deals with semantics)

8. 8
   noun

   A system of rules and principles for the structure of a language, or of languages in general.

Etymology

From Middle English gramere, from Old French gramaire (“classical learning”), from unattested Vulgar Latin *grammāria, an alteration of Latin grammatica, from Ancient Greek γραμματική (grammatikḗ, “skilled in writing”), from γράμμα (grámma, “line of writing”), from γράφω (gráphō, “write”), from Proto-Indo-European *gerbʰ- (“to carve, scratch”). Displaced native Old English stæfcræft; a doublet of glamour, glamoury, gramarye, and grimoire. Piecewise doublet of grammatic.