What does «gramática (lingüística)» mean in Spanish?
- Grammar has various meanings, from the technical to the everyday. In its most popular sense, a "grammar" may be little more than a list of rules, dictated by some authority, that provides advice on how to speak "correctly." Others may think of "grammar" as a set of other kinds of rules, setting out as simply as possible how words are formed and ordered in sentences. For the linguist, on the other hand, what might most immediately come to mind would be a highly technical, abstract, and theoretical account of the language system itself. The first use of the term represents a prescriptivist view, and is often found as advice in newspapers and style manuals. Journalists, teachers, and others who work with language on a daily basis, as well as self-appointed authorities, may offer recommendations from time to time as to what is standard and what is not. The linguistic validity of some of these "standards" may be questioned, either by the relevant authorities or by linguists who point to apparent evidence to the contrary. Linguists often work with descriptive language work, refusing to tell people how they should speak or write, but instead recording their usage and compiling this evidence to support their claims about the nature of language. The idea that "grammar" can be reduced to a set of simple "rules," such as "pluralize an English noun by adding -s to the end," is a view that may appeal to educators who wish to convey the most fundamental aspects of the grammar of a language as simply as possible. Again, linguists reject this definition, since native speakers are intuitively aware of many exceptions to any proposed "rule," and their understanding and production of the language involves the use of a highly complex and structured system that cannot be easily described or reduced to a learning list. "All grammars are filtered."