Grammar is the human-made system of rules and patterns that govern the structure and combination of elements within a language — phonemes into morphemes, morphemes into words, words into phrases and clauses. Parameters: (1) hierarchical constituency — elements nest inside larger structures rather than linearing flatly; (2) generativity — a finite rule set produces unbounded expressions; (3) constraint — the rules exclude infinitely more potential combinations than they admit. Grammar is distinct from vocabulary (the lexicon of items) and from usage (how speakers actually deploy grammar); it is the abstract architecture that speakers internalize and apply. Persistence: grammar persists through language acquisition — each generation of children learns it as an internalized cognitive structure, and through prescriptive codification — grammars are described, taught, standardized, and revised in pedagogical and scholarly practice across cultures and epochs.
[formal: grammatica | substrate: mind | horizon: a life | explicit: no | epoch: 0.17]