Microsoft Word Theoretical Course of English Grammar

Nino Kirvalidze
7
11.
Speakers of all languages are capable of producing and comprehending an infinite 
set of sentences.
12.
Any normal child, born anywhere in the world, of any racial, geographical, social 
or economic heritage, is capable of learning any language to which he or she is 
exposed. The differences we find among languages cannot be due to biological 
reasons. 
These principles are revealed and studied by Universal Grammar, which defines the basis 
of the specific grammars of all possible human languages and constitutes the innate component 
of the human language faculty that makes normal language development possible. Strong 
evidence for Universal grammar has been found by Noam Chomsky in the way children 
acquire language. Children need not be deliberately taught as they are able to learn effortlessly 
any human language to which they are exposed, and they learn it in definable stages, beginning 
at a very early age. By four or five years of age, children have acquired nearly the entire adult 
grammar. This suggests that children are born with a genetically endowed faculty to learn and 
use human language, which is part of the Universal grammar.
Universal Grammar aims to 
uncover the principles which characterize all human languages and to reveal the innate 
component of the human language faculty that makes language acquisition possible. 
The aim of Theoretical Grammar of a language is to present a theoretical description of its 
grammatical system, i.e. scientifically analyze and define main classes of words, so called parts 
of speech, their grammatical categories and study the mechanisms of sentence formation in the 
process of speech making.
Study Questions: 
1.
What are the functions of language? 
2.
What does creativity or a creative aspect of language imply? 
3.
What’s the difference between a person’s linguistic competence and his/her linguistic 
performance? 

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Theoretical Course of English Grammar 
Script by prof. 
Nino Kirvalidze
8
4.
How is the knowledge of language acquired in childhood/in adulthood? 
5.
What are the three constituent parts(subsystems) of a language system? Define each of 
them. 
6.
What’s the origin and the meaning of the word
grammar 
? The subject of grammar, its 
two interpretation. 
7.
What’s the difference between Descriptive and Prescriptive Grammars? 
8.
What’s the aim of Teaching Grammar? 
9.
What’s the essence of Chomskian Transformational-Generative Grammar? 
10.
What are the twelve universal principles of language? Learn them. 
11.
What’s the aim of Universal Grammar? 
12.
What’s the aim of Theoretical Grammar?