Principles of Flight

Traditional prescriptive grammar
Correct usage: the do¡¦s and don¡¦ts/ Dogmatic
Example: Use ¡¥must¡¦ for internal obligation, and ¡¥have to¡¦ for external obligation
It is often inaccurate and subjective, and tends to ignore actual usage
It ignores the fact that a living language is constantly on the move.
It usually follows a decontextualized, rote memorization, worksheet-driven approach void of real-life application.

More on traditional grammar
Emphasis on correctness
Based on the principles which rule Latin
Preeminence of written form over oral form
Difference between what people actually do with L and what the should do.
Objetive: to preserve proper language
Restricted mainly to SYNTAX

Structuralist applied grammar
The Structuralist grammarian collects samples of the target language and classifies them .
the resulting grammar being described “in terms of properties of such data through ‘structures’ or ‘patterns’”. E-language vs I-language .
Pioneering work: Fries (1945) in the USA and by Hornby (1976) in the UK. Comprehensive taxonomy of the structural
patterns of contemporary English
[VP1] S + BE + subject complement/adjunct
VP1 yields the following intransitive patterns:
1) subject + BE + noun / pronoun; e.G., This is a book.
2) subject + BE + adjective; e.G., It was dark.
3) subject + BE + prepositional group; e.G., She is in good health