MENTALIST AND FUNCTIONALIST APPROACH

Mentalist and Functionalist Approaches to Grammar



Table of Contents

Introduction1

Discussion1

The Functionalist Approach to Grammar4

Mentalist Approach to Grammar6

The Contrasting Points between the Both Approaches to the Grammar7

Conclusion8

References9

Functionalist and Mentalist Approaches to Grammar

Introduction

The grammar is all about the formation of words and how these words are used to make sentences and enable the communication of meaning. According to Nordquist (2012), the study of grammar holds an immense importance as it helps providing the clearer understanding of the content through greater control over the way of how words are shaped into sentences and those sentences into meaningful conversation. Grammar is the foundation of the ability to express oneself. The deeper insight into it provides the greater awareness of how it works and its effectiveness of the language in describing the expressions.

This essay intends to provide the deep insight over the different approaches to grammar and also aims at highlighting the contrasts and similarities between the two major approaches that are functional approach to the grammar and the mental approach to the grammar.

Discussion

There are different approaches to grammar that explains the distinctive ways of describing and examining the functions of language. Some of the different approaches are explained as following:

Descriptive Grammar: it describes the grammatical system of a language and examines the principles and patterns that explain how language works. This aims at explaining the grammatical system which the users unconsciously use.

Prescriptive Grammar: prescriptive grammar is like a doctor prescription which aims at describing the standard language forms along with the advice on the use of effective language.

Generative Grammar: this approach defines the rules of interpreting the sentences that the user accepts as he feels belongingness with the language. The generative grammar represents the psychological system of unconscious knowledge of the user which makes him produce and interpret the utterances of the language (Parker and Riley, 1994).

Functional Grammar: this approach is based on the study of language through the functional theories of language as the key to understand the linguistic processes and structures. The functional theories define the grammar as the way to communication where the grammar is used in communicative context to convey the thoughts.

Mental Grammar: this approach allows a speaker to develop the capacity for language to construct the mental grammar.

Pedagogical Grammar: this is designed for the second language student which is often termed as the slippery grammar concept. This is used to denote the explicit treatments of the components of the targeted language (Odlin, 1994).

Theoretical Grammar: this approach is concerned with the construction of explicit formalisms of grammar. It provides the scientific arguments and explanations in the favor of grammar and also describes the essential components of the human language (Renouf and Kehoe, 2003).

Transformational Grammar: this approach describes the basic language patterns in order to create and alter the sentences. It tells about how language is used to form grammatical sentences and phrase structures (Bornstein, 1984).

Traditional Grammar: this approach to grammar reflects the traditions of the language and summarizes the range of attitudes and knowledge ...