Definition:
The study of the essential components of any human language. Transformational grammar is one variety of theoretical grammar. See also:
Examples and Observations:
- "Theoretical grammar or syntax is concerned with making completely explicit the formalisms of grammar, and in providing scientific arguments or explanations in favour of one account of grammar rather than another, in terms of a general theory of human language."
(Antoinette Renouf and Andrew Kehoe, The Changing Face of Corpus Linguistics. Rodopi, 2003) - "The purpose of descriptive and theoretical linguistics is to further our understanding of language. This is done through a continual process of testing theoretical assumptions against data, and analyzing data in the light of those assumptions which previous analyses have confirmed to such a degree that they form a more or less integral whole that is accepted as the currently preferred theory. Between them, the mutually dependent fields of descriptive and theoretical linguistics provide accounts and explanations of how things seem to be in language, and a terminology for use in discussions."
(O. Classe, Encyclopedia of Literary Translation Into English. Taylor & Francis, 2000) - "It seems that in modern theoretical grammar the differences between morphological and syntactic constructions are beginning to show up, for example in the fact that, in the European languages at least, syntactic constructions tend to be right-branching while morphological constructions tend to be left-branching."
(Pieter A. M. Seuren, Western Linguistics: An Historical Introduction. Blackwell, 1998)
Also Known As: theoretical linguistics, speculative grammar
