The Scope of Grammar

In his definiton of the ‘science of grammar’, Bacon described the concern of grammar as ‘speech and word’. The linguistic study of a language , or variety of a language, is often said to comprise three components: phonetics/phonology, grammar,semantic. The three aspects of linguistic study are, however, not independent of each other.

1. Phonetics and phonology

Phonetics and phonology are both concerned with the pronunciation of language, how language sounds, the transmission of utterances through the medium of sound.

2.   Semantic

Semantic is the study of meaning. In a way, nearly all of language study is concerned with how language means. Semantic is often conceived as being wider in scope than lexicology, concerned not only with the meaning of words, but also with the meaning of sentences and with meaning relations between words and between sentences.

Language is sometimes viewed as the means by which meanings are transmitted in sound via the organising principle of grammar. The study of grammar is often subdivided into syntax and morphology, the former dealing with the structure of sentences, and the latter with the structure of words.