GRAMMAR, in its simplest sense, is the study of “how a language works.” More specifically, it is the study of those systems and pattern that operate in a language to give meaning to an utterance—such as “The men were chasing the bears”---beyond the meaning of each separate word in its base form. The most obvious examples of such systems are (1) morphology, which governs variations of form---for example, the variation between “man” and “men,” “be” and “were,” “chase” and “chasing,” and “bear” and “bears”—and (2) syntax, which governs variations of order or position---for example, the variation represented by the word order in “The men were chasing the bears” and “The bears were chasing the men.”

语法，从其最简单的意义上说，是对“语言如何运作的”的研究。更具体地说，是对那些在语言赋予话语的意义中操纵系统和模式的研究---诸如“男人们正在追逐熊”---超越了每个不相关单词的基础形式。这类系统最明显的例子是（1）词法，它支配着形式的变化---例如，在“男人”与“男人们”，单数“正在”与复数“正在”，一般“追逐”与正在“追逐”，一只“熊”与多只“熊”。---以及（2）句法，它支配着顺序或位置的变化---例如，在“男人们在追逐熊”和“熊正在追逐那些男人”中词序所表示的变化。

Both morphology and syntax are inescapable subtopic of grammar. The remaining subtopic of grammar, as defined in this article, is phonology. It is concerned with the sounds of the language (including stress and intonation), which underlie distinctions in both morphology and syntax. For example, sounds represented by the letter “s” signal the difference between the singular form of most English nouns and the plural and possessive forms. Stress and intonation signal the meaning of an utterance such as “She gave her jewels” (whether “she gave her own jewels” or “she gave jewels to her”).

词法与句法都是语法不可避免的子主题。语法另一个不变的子主题，如在该文中定义的，是音韵学。它涉及语言的声音（包括重音和语调），它构成了词法和句法之间的差别。例如，由字母“s”所代表的声音标志了大多数英语名词的单数形式与复数和所有格形式之间的差别。重音与语调标志了话语的意义，比如“她给了她的珠宝”（无论是“她给了她自己珠宝”或是“她把珠宝给了她”）。

Other Senses of the Term.  Grammar is also understood in other senses, one of the most common in English-speaking countries being the study of established usage---of what is preferred among educated, or cultivated, speakers and writers (as reflected in the EXPRESSIONS “good’ or “correct’ grammar or English) and what is condemned (as reflected in “bad” or “incorrect” grammar).

该术语的其它含义。语法还有其它的含义，在说英语的国家中最常见的一种是对已确定用法的研究---在受过教育，或有教养的演讲者和作家中更喜爱的用法（如在“好的”或“恰当的”的语法或英语表达中反映的那样），以及被指责的用法（如在“不好的”或“不恰当的”语法中反映的那样）。

Most traditional elementary textbooks are heavily weighted with drills intended to eradicate “ain’t,” “didn’t do nothin’,” “I seen it,” and the like, from the speech and writing of children of “deprived” background. At more advanced levels, textbooks and handbooks warn against a host of faults, such as wrong form of pronouns as “I” for “me” in “between you and I”), confusion of words that sound alike (as “to,” “too,” and “two”), split infinitives (“to quietly go”), and dangling modifiers (“Born in China, his travels took him all over the world”).

大多数传统的小学教材都偏重于试图从“贫困”背景孩子的说话和写作中根除“ain’t,（不是）” “didn’t do nothin’,（什么都没有做）” “I seen it,（我明白了）”诸如此类的错误。到了更高的水平，教材和手册对许多错误提出了警告，诸如在“between you and I”中“I（我）”替代“me（我）”的代词错误形式，发音相似的单词混淆（像“to,到” “too,也” and “two两”），分离不定式（“to quietly go”），以及垂悬修饰语（出生在中国，他的旅行让他走遍了世界）。

These aspects of the use of language are a legitimate concern of teacher and the school, since society charges them with the task of bringing every child to the point where his use of his native tongue will not handicap him in his future business and social life. But to the grammarian the study of what is to be preferred and what avoided is not the subject matter of grammar proper. Rather, concepts of “correctness,” many of which are highly subjective and variable, belong to closely related areas of language study, especially to usage and the “levels” thereof. Among these are the nonstandard (“uneducated” or “dialect”), the standard spoken (or colloquial), and the standard written levels.

语言使用的这些方面都是教师和学校的合理关切，因为社会赋予了他们任务，要将每个孩子在其未来的职业和社会生活中在使用母语时不会遇到障碍。但对语法学家来说，研究什么是更喜欢的，什么是要避免的不是严格意义上的语法主题。相反，那些“正确性”概念，其中许多是非常主观的和易变的，属于与语言密切相关的领域，尤其是用法和其中的“标准”。其中，有些是非标准的（“未受过教育的”或“方言”），有些是标准会话（或口语），和标准书写水平。

Derivation of the Term.  The word “grammar’ is derived through Old French from Latin grammatica, which represents Greek grammatike in the EXPRESSION grammatike tekhne (“the art of reading and writing”), ultimately from the verb graphein (“to write”). In earlier English, “grammar” was identified with “Latin,” the language chiefly written by educated persons. And since it was mysterious to the uneducated, it also came to mean “magic,” “astrology,” or “the occult,” and gave rise to the word “glamour” (or “glamor’)--originally a Scots alternate of the English word “grammar.”

该术语的推导。“语法”这个词是从拉丁语grammatica一词，通过古法语衍生出来的，在grammatike tekhne（“阅读和写作的艺术”）表达中代表希腊语grammatike（语法术），最终源自动词graphein（“写作”）。在早期的英语中，“语法”等同于“拉丁语”，主要是由受过教育的人书写的语言。因为它对于未受过教育的人很神秘，它也意味着“魔法”，“占星术”，或“神秘的事物”，因此产生了“魅力”这个词（或“glamor’）---最初是英语单词“语法”的苏格兰英语的变体。

Reasons for Studying Grammar.  As the following historical sketch will show, the reason for studying and investigating grammar, which have varied greatly over the centuries, include the following: (1) to instruct the young and the unlearned in foreign languages or in the prestige---”educated” or “cultivated”---use of their own language, (2) to keep sacred texts accurate and therefore effective, (3) to understand the operation of language itself as such, and (4) to understand the human mind and its means of operating with linguistic symbols.

学习语法的原因。正如下列历史概述将显示的那样，学习和研究语法的原因，几个世纪以来变化极大，它包括以下几个方面：（1）指导青年和不懂外语的人们，或有声望的---“受过教育的人”或“有教养的人”----使用他们自己的语言，（2）保持神圣经文的准确性，进而保持有效性，（3）理解语言自身的运作，以及（4）理解人类的思想及其用语言符号运行的方法。

The first reason, which has been the most widespread and practical, is the one that has given grammar an evil name among those who are forced to learn its strange terminology and translate its patterns into “diagrams” that seem to violate and distort the act of speech. What “glamour” there is in grammar---and it is powerfully there for some--resides in the THIRD and fourth reasons.

第一个最为普遍和实际的原因是，在那些被迫学习它奇怪的专门术语以及将其模式转化为“图表”的人中给语法起了一个邪恶的名称，以至于似乎违反和扭曲了说话的行为。语法太有“魅力”了---而存在于第三和第四中的原因，对一些人来说极具魅力。

Increasingly during the 20^th century the old use of grammar to instruct, especially in the prestige use of the language, is being modified by these deeper and more challenging motivations—to the extent that we can speak of a “revolution in grammar,” or a “new grammar,” as the findings of scientific and scholarly grammarians percolate into the classroom. Instead of the grim old grammar we are now seeing language instruction, even in the lower grades, take more and more the form of general linguistics (the science of language, or the study of human speech, including its nature, units, and structure).

在20世纪期间，古老的语法指导方法，尤其是在语言的高贵用法中，越来越多地被这些更深层、更具挑战的动机所改变---随着科学的发现以及学术性的语法学家渗透进教室，就这个意义上说，我们可以说是一场“语法革命”或“新语法”。甚至在较低年级，越来越多地采用普通语言学的形式（语言科学，或者对人类讲话的研究，包括它的性质、单元和结构），而不是我们现在看到的语言教学令人沮丧的古老语法。

The historical background of both the traditional and the “new” grammar and the main features of each are set forth in subsequent sections of this article. However, one of the striking differences might be noted here. The “new” grammarians point out that by the age of six the native speaker has acquired an unconscious mastery of the phonology, morphology, and syntax of his language. The child to whom English is native produces most of the 40 or 50 significant sound of the language. He has a command of the morphological system, even to recognizing many of the exceptions to the regular ways of forming the plural of nouns, the past tense of verbs, and the comparison of adjectives. (If his initial attempts at handling the language yield such “logical” but unacceptable forms as “The mouses runned” or “the goodest cookies,” he soon learns and uses the acceptable forms.) His command of syntax is such that when he means “The man killed the bear,” he never reverses the order of the nouns and says, “The bear killed the man.” To the child, as to an older native speaker of English, either “He and I brought it” or “Him and me brung it” is perfectly clear and understandable (although the latter may be offensive to the educated), but “He it brought and I” is meaningless because it is not “English.” The new grammar therefore take account of the native speaker’s unconscious mastery of language, and the teaching of grammar becomes a process of leading the child to a conscious understanding of the system and how it works.

传统与“新”语法的历史背景以及各自的主要特点会在本文的随后部中分阐述。然而，在此可以注意到一个显著的差异。“新”语法学家们指出，到六岁时，说母语的人已下意识地掌握了其语言的音韵、词法和句法。英语为母语的孩子可以发出多达40或50个意义重大的语言声音。他具有了掌控词法系统的能力，甚至能认出许多形成名词复数，动词的过去式以及形容词比较规则方法的例外情况。（如果他处理语言的最初尝试产生了如“老鼠跑了”或“最好的曲奇饼”这样“合乎逻辑的”，但不能接受的形式）。他对句法的掌握就像他表示的“那人杀了那只熊”，他不会颠倒名词的顺序，说“那只熊杀了那人”。对于孩子来说，就像对一位母语说英语的老人一样，“他和我把它带来的”或“他和我把它带来的”都是完全清楚的，而且是可以理解的（尽管后者对于受过教育的人可能令人不快），但由于它不是“英语”，因此“He it brought and I”是无意义的。因此，新语法考虑到说母语者对语言的无意识掌握，语法教学就变成了引导孩子有意识地理解糸统及其如何运作的一个过程。

                                               2022年7月28日译

（译者注：该部分词条位列《大美百科全书》1985年版，第13卷，第151页至152页）

待续部分：HSITORY OF GRAMMATICAL STUDY 语法研究的历史；COMTEMPORARY GRAMMATICAL STUDIES 当代语法研究。