Parts of a reference grammar1

Although reference grammars vary considerably in length and scope, a good one should consist minimally of the following substantive parts:

Introduction

An introductory section or chapter should provide essential background material on the language and its speakers, including genetic affiliation, sociolinguistic situation (demography, dialects), ethnography, and a brief review of previous literature. This section does not have to be very long, but it is absolutely necessary in order to orient the reader to the language as a vehicle for communication used by real people.

Body

The main part of the grammar is usually organized according to some structural organizing principle. One principle that I advocate is to begin with "smaller" units of structure and to work one's way up to the larger and normally more complex units, for example: As structural complexity increases, it becomes less and less feasible to organize the grammar according to structure alone. There are other possible organizing principles, and to a great extent the organization of a particular grammar should reflect the unique characteristics of the language itself.

Index

A good index is what turns an ordinary grammar into a true reference grammar. One "test" I often apply to published grammars is to look up some grammatical feature that ought to be treated in any reference grammar, such as relative clauses or causatives, and check on how long it takes me to find an example of that feature. If it takes longer than five minutes, the grammar fails the test. Since the purpose of a reference grammar is to make detailed information on a language accessible, a good measure of its success in accomplishing its intended purpose is how easily that detailed information can be found. Without a good index, the best reference grammar in the world is almost useless.

Bibliography

The grammar should contain a bibliography of all previous literature on the language, plus other works cited in the grammar.

Abbreviations

All descriptive linguistic work involves abbreviations. A good informative list of all the abbreviations found in the grammar is an important tool to allow the reader to comprehend and use it.
 
 
 
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Dr. Uwe Seibert

Department of Languages and Linguistics
Faculty of Arts
University of Jos
Email address: seibertu@unijos.edu.ng
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