GRAMMAR (OF., Fr. grammaire, from Lat. grammatica, from Gk. ypappartn6c, grammati kos, pertaining to writing, from pappa, gramma, letter, from ypcioetv, graphein, to write; ulti mately connected with Ger. graben, Eng. grave). That branch of linguistic science which investi gates the forms of speech in a language or group of languages and treats of the mutual relations of those forms. Grammar may be divided into normative or didactic, historical, and comparative. Normative grammar deals with the phenomena of a given language at a single period, establishing the linguistic usage for that epoch, any deviation from the standard there set being considered `bad grammar.' As examples of normative grammar may be cited the ordinary treatises on the Latin of the Ciceronian period, the Attic Greek of the Periclean age, and most grammars of modern French, German, English, and the like. Histori cal grammar, as its name implies, discusses the historical development of a given language, usual ly from the earliest traces of the language in question down to the present time. Here no norm is set. The purpose of such a work is mere ly to present facts, not, as in the normative grammar, to lay down canons of usage. For in stance, normative grammar of modern English states that two negatives are equivalent to an affirmative. Such a sentence as 'he didn't hear nothing' as equivalent to 'he heard nothing' is stigmatized as 'bad grammar,' i.e. as deviating from the norm. On the other hand, historical
grammar observes that at present two negatives are equal to an affirmative. In Early English, however, as in the Proverbs of Hendyng (thir teenth century), this is not true, for we have such constructions as: In like manner we find in Anglo-Saxon of the best period, as in Alfred's translation of Boahius, such sentences as on niinum nartin nyto,ri Wine are (literally, they don't show no honor to no man, i.e. they show honor to no man). Histori cally there is no inherent correctness in the use of one negative or more than one. The best usage forms the only law. Historical grammar may, however, explain the origin of a usage, without transcending its limits. Thus in the ex ample before us the double negative is based on a desire for emphasis (if one negative is good, two are better), the use of the single negative, on a sense of logic (one negative annuls another). Comparative grammar. which is usually histori cal rather than nomative in type, groups dif ferent languages together for a comparative study of their forms and the relations of sdch forms. We thus have comparative grammars of Romance, Germanic, Indo-Germanic, Dravidian, or Semitic • languages, and the like. Here the discussion will be only of normative and of historical gram mar, the subject of comparative grammar being treated under the title PHILOLOGY (q.v.).