A contraction is a shortened version of the written and spoken forms of a word, syllable, or word group, created by omission of internal letters.^[1] In traditional grammar, contraction can denote the formation of a new word from one word or a group of words, for example, by elision. This often occurs in rendering a common sequence of words or, as in French, in maintaining a flowing sound.

In strict analysis, contractions should not be confused with abbreviations or acronyms (including initialisms), with which they share some semantic and phonetic functions, though all three are connoted by the term "abbreviation" in loose parlance.^[1] Contraction is also distinguished from clipping, where beginnings and endings are omitted.

English[link]

An informal type of contraction occurs frequently in speech and writing, in which a syllable is substituted by an apostrophe and/or other mode of elision, e.g., can't for "cannot", won't for "will not". Such contractions are often either negations with not or combinations of pronouns with auxiliary verbs, e.g., I'll for "I will". At least one study has sought to analyze the category of negative informal contractions as the attachment of an inflectional suffix, for example, due to the existence of irregular forms and the fact that "n't" moves with the verb during inversion for questions rather than staying in the same place as the full word "not" would.^{[citation needed]}

Informal speech sometimes allows multiple contracted forms to pile up, producing constructions like wouldn't've for "would not have".

A commonly used English contraction of two words that does not fall into either of the above categories is let's, a contraction of "let us" that is used in forming the imperative mood in the first-person plural (e.g., "Let's go [somewhere]"). Use of the uncontracted "let us" typically carries an entirely different meaning, e.g., "Let us go [free]". "Let us" is rarely seen in the former sense and "let's" is never seen in the latter one.

Informal contractions are, by their nature, more frequent in speech than writing, e.g., John'd fix your television if you asked him. Contractions in English are generally not mandatory as in some other languages. It is almost always acceptable to write out (or say) all of the words of a contraction, though native speakers of English may judge a person not using contractions as sounding overly formal. Let's, as mentioned above, is an exception to this rule.

Writers of English commonly confuse the possessive form of the pronoun it with its compounded contractions. The possessive form (its) has no apostrophe, while the contraction of it is or it has does have an apostrophe (it's). The same is true of the possessive form of "you" (your) with its contraction you're for "you are". See List of frequently misused English words.

The linguistic function of contractions is similar to and overlaps that of portmanteau words. Some forms of syncope may also be considered contractions, such as wanna for want to, gonna for going to, and others common in colloquial speech.

Contractions may perform the same function as abbreviations. According to one source,^[1] strictly speaking an abbreviation is formed by omitting the ending of a word, for which a period is substituted, e.g., Lieut. for "Lieutenant". According to this view, contractions omit the middle of a word, and are generally not terminated with a full point, e.g., Ltd for "Limited". However, US style uses more points than British style does, e.g., in Ltd., in Jr. instead of Jr for "Junior", in Mr., etc.

Contractions are used sparingly in formal written English. The APA style guide prefers that contractions, including Latin abbreviations, not be used in scholarly papers, and recommends that the equivalent phrase in English be written out. An exception is made for the Latin abbreviation et al. (for et alii, "and others"), which may be used with citations outside parentheses.^{[citation needed]}

Chinese[link]

Contractions exist in Classical Chinese, some of which are used in modern Chinese.

French[link]

The French language has a variety of contractions, similar to English but mandatory, as in C'est la vie ("That's life"), where c'est stands for ce + est ("that is"). The formation of these contractions is called elision.

In general, any monosyllabic word ending in e caduc (schwa) will contract if the following word begins with a vowel, h or y (as h is silent and absorbed by the sound of the succeeding vowel; y sounds like i). In addition to ce → c'- (demonstrative pronoun "that"), these words are que → qu'- (conjunction, relative pronoun, or interrogative pronoun "that"), ne → n'- ("not"), se → s'- ("himself", "herself", "itself", "oneself" before a verb), je → j'- ("I"), me → m'- ("me" before a verb), te → t'- (informal singular "you" before a verb), le → l'- (masculine singular "the"; or "he", "it" before a verb or after an imperative verb and before the word y or en), and de → d'- ("of"). Unlike with English contractions, however, these contractions are mandatory: one would never say (or write) *ce est or *que elle.

In addition, the feminine definite article la mandatorily contracts to l'- before a word beginning with a vowel sound, as in l'idée, and when la is used as an object pronoun it contracts before a verb or after an imperative verb and before the word y or en.

Moi ("myself") and toi (informal "yourself") mandatorily contract to m'- and t'- respectively after an imperative verb and before the word y or en.

It is also mandatory to avoid the repetition of a sound when the preposition si ("if") is followed by il ("he", "it") or ils ("they"), which begin with the same vowel sound i: *si il → s'il ("if it", if he"); *si ils → s'ils ("if they").

Certain prepositions are also mandatorily merged with masculine and plural direct articles: au for à le, aux for à les, du for de le, and des for de les. However, the contraction of cela (demonstrative pronoun "that") to ça is optional and informal.

In informal speech, a personal pronoun may sometimes be contracted onto a following verb. For example, je ne sais pas (IPA: [ʒənəsɛpa], "I don't know") may be pronounced roughly chais pas (IPA: [ʃɛpa]), with the ne being completely elided and the [ʒ] of je being mixed with the [s] of sais.^{[original research?]}

Italian[link]

In Italian, prepositions merge with direct articles in predictable ways. The prepositions a, da, di, in, su, con and per combine with the various forms of the direct article, namely il, lo, la, l', i, gli, gl', and le.

• Contractions with a, da, di, in, and su are mandatory, but those with con and per are optional.
• Words in parentheses are no longer commonly used, but some still exist in common expressions such as colla voce.
• Formerly, gl' was used before words beginning with i, however it is no longer in common use.

The words ci and è (form of essere, to be) and the words vi and è are contracted into c'è and v'è (both meaning "there is").

• “C'è / V'è un problema” — There is a problem

The words dove and è are contracted into dov'è ("where is").

Spanish[link]

Spanish has two mandatory phonetic contractions between prepositions and articles: al (to the) for a el, and del (of the) for de el (not to be confused with a él, meaning to him, and de él, meaning his or, more literally, of him). And other mandatory contractions between prepositions and pronouns: conmigo for con mí (with me), contigo for con ti (with you), consigo for con sí (with himself/herself/itself/themselves).

In informal spoken registers of Spanish, the word para, “for”, can be contracted to pa, for example in the subordinating conjunction pa'que (from para que "in order that"): Pa'que te enteres. Another frequent informal use is the elision of d in the past participle suffix -ado, pronouncing cansado as cansao. The elision of d in -ido is considered even more informal. Both elisions are however common in Andalusian Spanish. Thus the Andalusian quejío for quejido (“lament”) has entered Standard Spanish as a term for a special feature of Flamenco singing. Similar distinctions are made with the words bailaor(a) and cantaor(a) as contracted versions of the literal translations for dancer and singer exclusively used for Flamenco, versus the bailarín and cantante of standard Spanish. The perceived vulgarity of the silent d may lead to hypercorrections like *bacalado for bacalao (stockfish) or *Bilbado for Bilbao.^[4]

Portuguese[link]

In Portuguese, contractions are common and much more numerous than those in Spanish. Several prepositions regularly contract with certain articles and pronouns. For instance, de (of) and por (by; formerly per) combine with the definite articles o and a (masculine and feminine forms of "the" respectively), producing do, da (of the), pelo, pela (by the). The preposition de contracts with the pronouns ele and ela (he, she), producing dele, dela (his, her). In addition, some verb forms contract with enclitic object pronouns: e.g., the verb amar (to love) combines with the pronoun a (her), giving amá-la (to love her). See a list at Wikipedia in Portuguese: List of contracted prepositions.

German[link]

In informal, spoken German prepositional phrases, one can often merge the preposition and the article; for example, von dem becomes vom, zu dem becomes zum, or an das becomes ans. Some of these are so common that they are mandatory. In informal speech, also aufm for auf dem, unterm for unter dem, etc. are used, but would be considered to be incorrect if written, except maybe in quoted direct speech, in appropriate context and style.

Local languages in German-speaking areas[link]

Regional dialects of German, and various local languages which usually were already used long before today's Standard German was created, do use contractions usually more frequently than German, but varying widely between different local languages. The informally spoken German contractions are observed almost everywhere, most often accompanied by additional ones, such as in den becoming in'n (sometimes im) or haben wir becoming hamwer, hammor, hemmer, or hamma depending on local intonation preferences. Bavarian German features several more contractions such as gesund sind wir becoming xund samma which are schematically applied to all word or combinations of similar sound. The Munich-born footballer Franz Beckenbauer has as his catchphrase "Schau mer mal" ("Schauen wir einmal" - in English "let's have a look"). A book about his career had as its title the slightly longer version of the phrase, "Schau'n Mer Mal".

Such features are found in all central and southern language regions. A sample from Berlin: Sag einmal, Meister, kann man hier einmal hinein? is spoken as Samma, Meesta, kamma hier ma rin?

Several West Central German dialects along the Rhine River have possibly under the influence of French, built contraction patterns involving long phrases and entire sentences. In speech, words are often concatenated, and frequently the process of "liaison" is used. So, [Dat] kriegst Du nicht may become Kressenit, or Lass mich gehen, habe ich gesagt may become Lomejon haschjesaat.

Mostly, there are no binding orthographies for local dialects of German, hence writing is left to a great extent to authors and their publishers. Outside of quotations, at least, they usually pay little attention to print more than the most commonly spoken contractions, so as not to degrade their readability. The use of apostrophes to indicate omissions is a varying and considerably less frequent process than in English-language publications.

Norwegian[link]

The use of contractions is not allowed in any form of standard Norwegian spelling; however, it is fairly common to shorten or contract words in spoken language. Yet, the commonness varies from dialect to dialect and from sosiolect to sosiolect—it depends on the formality etc. of the setting. Some common, and quite drastic, contractions found in Norwegian speech are "jakke" (approximate pronunciation in English: "yakkeh") for "jeg har ikke" ("I have not", normally pronounced approximately like "yay har ikkeh") and "dække" (approximate pronunciation in English: "dakkeh") for "det er ikke" ("it is not", normally pronounced approximately like "deh ar ikkeh"). The most frequently used of these contractions—usually consisting of two or three words condensed into one word by skipping certain letters (like the examples just shown)—contain short and common words like "jeg" ("I"), "du" or "deg" ("you"), "det" ("it" or "that"), "har" ("have" or "has") or "ikke" ("not").

In extreme cases, long, entire sentences may be condensed into one word by removing consonants, vowels and spaces alike. One example of this is a sentence like (approximate English translation) "It will sort itself out.": "Det ordner seg av seg selv.", "correctly" pronounced approximately like "Deh vill ordneh say ahv say sell", in standard written Bokmål could become (note that this is essentially a combination of contraction, fast speech and dialect) "dånesæsæsjæl" (note the "å (Å)" and "æ (Æ)" letters and the "sjæl" ("sj" is one of many Norwegian digraphs used to represent "sh") at the end, as a replacement for "selv", which is pronounced with a "thick l" ("tjukk l" or "tykk l" in Norwegian)). R-dropping (which is present in the above example) is especially common in speech in many areas of Norway, but plays out in different ways, as does skipping of word-final letters, generally, like that of "e" in certain verbs.

Because of the many dialects of Norwegian and their widespread use it is often difficult to distinguish between non-standard writing of standard Norwegian and eye dialect (or writing in one's own dialect as opposed to adhering to the well-defined rules of the written language). It is almost universally true that these spellings try to convey the way each word is pronounced, but it is rare to see language written that does not adhere to at least some of the rules of the official writing spelling. There are probably four main reasons for this: 1. some words are not pronounced as they are spelled in the first place, 2. pronunciation that is impossible or only ambiguously possible to convey using solely combinations of the 29 letters of the Norwegian alphabet, 3. it is sometimes practical to utilise certain rules from standard spelling/pronunciation rules (for example digraphs and diphthongs (even though the latter is usually much more problematic than the former) to increase the number of phonemes at disposal) for ease of writing and interpreting said writing or 4. laziness, ignorance on the part of the writer of the fact that strictly speaking how they write a certain word is not the best representation of the desired pronunciation or accommodation of a perceived lack of understanding of the connection between spelling and pronunciation on part of the reader.

Misinterpreting someone else's writing may cause a slowing down of the reading pace, having a hard time understanding and use of incorrect pronunciations. It is of great importance to "play by the same rules" to avoid confusion. The "rules", however, are rarely stated by "non-standard-writers" and this is as a consequence another reason to stick with the official writing conventions. That many dialects lack certain letters in words that are used in others and the official spellings of Norwegian leads some to conclude that spelling of these dialects should not contain that letter and others to conclude that their way of speaking is non-standard, when, in fact, the truth might be that every dialect is just as standard as the next. This last assertion is based on a view of the origin of Norwegian spelling as being the average of all the dialects (which is not technically and completely true) or simply that while one dialect differs from "the norm" pertaining to certain aspects while others differ on certain other features instead.

The use of the apostrophe (') is much less common than in English, but is sometimes used in contractions to show where letters have been left out (like in English). It is also worth noting that Norwegian uses apostrophes less in other situations as well (it is not normally used to show the possessive, for instance). Norwegian also does not use accents to denote stress etc. excepts for in a few loan words (foreign words) etc. Things like these might be reasons for the hard time people have if they try to spell a word phonetically.

There is a common misconception among many Norwegians that Norwegian is a very phonetically accurate language. This is probably based both on the common knowledge that Norwegian has a more widespread use of letters like F, K and S; disfavouring letters like C, Q, X and digraphs like PH (compared to English, Portuguese, Spanish, French, German, Swedish and Danish (which are (some of) the languages Norwegians are most familiar with)); and that most Norwegians are so familiar with the Norwegian language that they don't realise the great difference between the written and spoken language. What many native Norwegian speakers do not realise, though, is that Norwegian actually has a huge number of diphthongs, silent letters and more or less unpredictable both vowel and consonant sounds.

Latin[link]

Latin contains several examples of contractions. One such case is preserved in the verb nolo (I am unwilling/do not want) which was formed by a contraction of ne volo (volo meaning “I want”). Similarly this is observed in the first person plural and third person plural forms (nolumus and nolunt respectively).

Japanese[link]

Some contractions in rapid speech include ～っす (-ssu) for です (desu) and すいません (suimasen) for すみません (sumimasen). では (dewa) is often contracted to じゃ (ja). In certain grammatical contexts the particle の (no) is contracted to simply ん (n).

When used after verbs ending in the conjunctive form ～て (-te), certain auxiliary verbs and their derivations are often abbreviated. Examples:

* this abbreviation is never used in the polite conjugation, to avoid the resultant ambiguity between an abbreviated ikimasu (go) and the verb kimasu (come).

The ending ～なければ (-nakereba) can be contracted to ～なきゃ (-nakya) when it is used to indicate obligation. It is often used without an auxiliary, e.g. 行かなきゃ（いけない） (ikanakya (ikenai)) "I have to go."

Other times, contractions are made to create new words or to give added or altered meaning:

• The word 何か (nanika) "something" is contracted to なんか (nanka) to make a colloquial word with a meaning along the lines of "sort of," but which can be used with almost no meaning. Its usage is as a filler word is similar to English "like."
• じゃない (ja nai) "is not" is contracted to じゃん (jan) which is used at the end of statements to show the speaker's belief or opinion, often when it is contrary to that of the listener, e.g. いいじゃん！ (ii jan!) "What, it's fine!"
• The commonly used particle-verb phrase という (to iu) is often contracted to ～って／～て (-tte/-te) to give a more informal or noncommittal feeling.
• といえば (to ieba), the conditional form of という (to iu) mentioned above, is contracted to ～ってば (-tte ba) to show the speaker's annoyance at the listener's failure to listen to, remember, or heed what the speaker has said, e.g. もういいってば！ (mō ii tte ba!), “I already told you I don't want to talk about it anymore!”.
• The common words だ (da) and です (desu) are older contractions that originate from である (de aru) and でございます (de gozaimasu). These are fully integrated into the language now, and are not generally thought of as contractions; however in formal writing (e.g. literature, news articles, or technical/scientific writing), である (de aru) is used in place of だ (da).

Various dialects of Japanese also use their own specific contractions which are often unintelligible to speakers of other dialects.

Uyghur[link]

Uyghur, a Turkic language spoken in Central Asia, includes some verbal suffixes that are actually contracted forms of compound verbs (serial verbs). For instance, sëtip alidu (sell-manage, "manage to sell") is usually written and pronounced sëtivaldu, with the two words forming a contraction and the [p] leniting into a [v] or [w].^{[original research?]}

See also[link]

For a list of words relating to Contractions, see the English contractions category of words in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

• Apostrophe
• Blend
• Clipping (morphology)
• Contractions of negated auxiliary verbs in English
• List of English contractions
• Elision
• List of common English usage misconceptions
• Poetic contraction
• Portmanteau word
• Relaxed pronunciation
• Synalepha
• Syncope (phonetics)

References[link]

External links[link]

• ZoomAstronomy.com, Common English contractions.

Look up contraction in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

Contraction may refer to:

In physiology:

• Muscle contraction, one that occurs when a muscle fiber lengthens or shortens
  • Uterine contraction, contraction of the uterus, such as during childbirth
• Contraction, a stage in wound healing

In linguistics:

• Poetic contraction, the omission of letters in a word for poetic reasons
• Synalepha, merging of two syllables of adjacent words
  • Elision, the loss of a sound
    • Syncope (phonetics), the loss of sounds inside a word
    • Contraction (grammar), the shortening of a word or words by loss of a sound or sounds
  • Synaeresis, the pronunciation of two vowels as a diphthong
  • Crasis, contraction of two vowels into one monophthong

In science:

• Lanthanoid contraction, the decrease in size of the ionic radius of lanthanide elements with their growing atomic number (series of Rare Earth Elements (REE) in the Mendeleev Table)
• The reverse of thermal expansion

In mathematics:

• Contraction mapping, in mathematics, a type of function on a metric space
• Contraction (operator theory)
• Edge contraction or vertex contraction, graph operations used in graph theory
• Tensor contraction in tensor theory
• Contraction (Conditional Independence), in probability, one of the rules of Conditional Independence

Other:

• Economic contraction or recession, a reversal of economic growth; the opposite of economic expansion
• A structural rule in proof theory
  Further information: idempotency of entailment
• In sports, the (sometimes forced) elimination of a team. The opposite of expansion. Example: the elimination of several teams after the Canadian Football League's failed attempt to expand into the United States in the early 1990s.

This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the same title. If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article.

In linguistics, grammar is the set of structural rules that govern the composition of clauses, phrases, and words in any given natural language. The term refers also to the study of such rules, and this field includes morphology, syntax, and phonology, often complemented by phonetics, semantics, and pragmatics. Linguists do not normally use the term to refer to orthographical rules, although usage books and style guides that call themselves grammars may also refer to spelling and punctuation.

Use of the term[link]

The term grammar is often used by non-linguists with a very broad meaning. As Jeremy Butterfield puts it: "Grammar is often a generic way of referring to any aspect of English that people object to."^[1] However, linguists use it in a much more specific sense. Every speaker of a language has, in his or her head, a set of rules^[2] for using that language. This is a grammar, and—at least in the case of one's native language—the vast majority of the information in it is acquired not by conscious study or instruction, but by observing other speakers; much of this work is done during infancy. Language learning later in life, of course, may involve a greater degree of explicit instruction.^[3]

The term "grammar" can also be used to describe the rules that govern the linguistic behaviour of a group of speakers. The term "English grammar", therefore, may have several meanings. It may refer to the whole of English grammar—that is, to the grammars of all the speakers of the language—in which case, the term encompasses a great deal of variation.^[4] Alternatively, it may refer only to what is common to the grammars of all, or of the vast majority of English speakers (such as subject–verb–object word order in simple declarative sentences). Or it may refer to the rules of a particular, relatively well-defined variety of English (such as Standard English).

"An English grammar" is a specific description, study or analysis of such rules. A reference book describing the grammar of a language is called a "reference grammar" or simply "a grammar." A fully explicit grammar that exhaustively describes the grammatical constructions of a language is called a descriptive grammar. Linguistic description contrasts with linguistic prescription, which tries to enforce rules of how a language is to be used.

Grammatical frameworks are approaches to constructing grammars. The most known among the approaches is the traditional grammar which is traditionally taught in schools.

The standard framework of generative grammar is the transformational grammar model developed in various ways by Noam Chomsky and his associates from the 1950s onwards.

Etymology[link]

The word grammar derives from Greek γραμματικὴ τέχνη (grammatikē technē), which means "art of letters", from γράμμα (gramma), "letter", itself from γράφειν (graphein), "to draw, to write".^[5]

History[link]

The first systematic grammars originated in Iron Age India, with Yaska (6th c. BC), Pāṇini (4th c. BC) and his commentators Pingala (ca. 200 BC), Katyayana, and Patanjali (2nd c. BC). In the West, grammar emerged as a discipline in Hellenism from the 3rd c. BC forward with authors like Rhyanus and Aristarchus of Samothrace, the oldest extant work being the Art of Grammar (Τέχνη Γραμματική), attributed to Dionysius Thrax (ca. 100 BC). Latin grammar developed by following Greek models from the 1st century BC, due to the work of authors such as Orbilius Pupillus, Remmius Palaemon, Marcus Valerius Probus, Verrius Flaccus, and Aemilius Asper.

Tolkāppiyam is the earliest Tamil grammar; it has been dated variously between 1st CE and 10th CE.

A grammar of Irish originated in the 7th century with the Auraicept na n-Éces.

Arabic grammar emerged from the 8th century with the work of Ibn Abi Ishaq and his students.

The first treatises on Hebrew grammar appeared in the High Middle Ages, in the context of Mishnah (exegesis of the Hebrew Bible). The Karaite tradition originated in Abbasid Baghdad. The Diqduq (10th century) is one of the earliest grammatical commentaries on the Hebrew Bible.^[6] Ibn Barun in the 12th century compares the Hebrew language with Arabic in the Islamic grammatical tradition.^[7]

Belonging to the trivium of the seven liberal arts, grammar was taught as a core discipline throughout the Middle Ages, following the influence of authors from Late Antiquity, such as Priscian. Treatment of vernaculars began gradually during the High Middle Ages, with isolated works such as the First Grammatical Treatise, but became influential only in the Renaissance and Baroque periods. In 1486, Antonio de Nebrija published Las introduciones Latinas contrapuesto el romance al Latin, and the first Spanish grammar, Gramática de la lengua castellana, in 1492. During the 16th century Italian Renaissance, the Questione della lingua was the discussion on the status and ideal form of the Italian language, initiated by Dante's de vulgari eloquentia (Pietro Bembo, Prose della volgar lingua Venice 1525). The first grammar of Slovene language was written in 1584 by Adam Bohorič.

Grammars of non-European languages began to be compiled for the purposes of evangelization and Bible translation from the 16th century onward, such as Grammatica o Arte de la Lengua General de los Indios de los Reynos del Perú (1560), and a Quechua grammar by Fray Domingo de Santo Tomás.

In 1643 there appeared Ivan Uzhevych's Grammatica sclavonica and, in 1762, the Short Introduction to English Grammar of Robert Lowth was also published. The Grammatisch-Kritisches Wörterbuch der hochdeutschen Mundart, a High German grammar in five volumes by Johann Christoph Adelung, appeared as early as 1774.

From the latter part of the 18th century, grammar came to be understood as a subfield of the emerging discipline of modern linguistics. The Serbian grammar by Vuk Stefanović Karadžić arrived in 1814, while the Deutsche Grammatik of the Brothers Grimm was first published in 1818. The Comparative Grammar of Franz Bopp, the starting point of modern comparative linguistics, came out in 1833.

Development of grammars[link]

Grammars evolve through usage and also due to separations of the human population. With the advent of written representations, formal rules about language usage tend to appear also. Formal grammars are codifications of usage that are developed by repeated documentation over time, and by observation as well. As the rules become established and developed, the prescriptive concept of grammatical correctness can arise. This often creates a discrepancy between contemporary usage and that which has been accepted, over time, as being correct. Linguists tend to view prescriptive grammars as having little justification beyond their authors' aesthetic tastes, although style guides may give useful advice about standard language employment, based on descriptions of usage in contemporary writings of the same language. Linguistic prescriptions also form part of the explanation for variation in speech, particularly variation in the speech of an individual speaker (an explanation, for example, for why some people say, "I didn't do nothing"; some say, "I didn't do anything"; and some say one or the other depending on social context).

The formal study of grammar is an important part of education for children from a young age through advanced learning, though the rules taught in schools are not a "grammar" in the sense most linguists use the term, particularly as they are often prescriptive rather than descriptive.

Constructed languages (also called planned languages or conlangs) are more common in the modern day. Many have been designed to aid human communication (for example, naturalistic Interlingua, schematic Esperanto, and the highly logic-compatible artificial language Lojban). Each of these languages has its own grammar.

Syntax refers to linguistic structure above the word level (e.g. how sentences are formed)—though without taking into account intonation, which is the domain of phonology. Morphology, by contrast, refers to structure at and below the word level (e.g. how compound words are formed), but above the level of individual sounds, which, like intonation, are in the domain of phonology.^[8] No clear line can be drawn, however, between syntax and morphology. Analytic languages use syntax to convey information that is encoded via inflection in synthetic languages. In other words, word order is not significant and morphology is highly significant in a purely synthetic language, whereas morphology is not significant and syntax is highly significant in an analytic language. Chinese and Afrikaans, for example, are highly analytic, and meaning is therefore very context-dependent. (Both do have some inflections, and have had more in the past; thus, they are becoming even less synthetic and more "purely" analytic over time.) Latin, which is highly synthetic, uses affixes and inflections to convey the same information that Chinese does with syntax. Because Latin words are quite (though not completely) self-contained, an intelligible Latin sentence can be made from elements that are placed in a largely arbitrary order. Latin has a complex affixation and simple syntax, while Chinese has the opposite.

Grammar frameworks[link]

Various "grammar frameworks" have been developed in theoretical linguistics since the mid 20th century, in particular under the influence of the idea of a "universal grammar" in the United States. Of these, the main divisions are:

• Transformational grammar (TG)
• Systemic functional grammar (SFG)
• Principles and Parameters Theory (P&P)
• Lexical-functional Grammar (LFG)
• Generalized Phrase Structure Grammar (GPSG)
• Head-Driven Phrase Structure Grammar (HPSG)
• Dependency grammars (DG)
• Role and reference grammar (RRG)

Education[link]

Prescriptive grammar is taught in primary school (elementary school). The term "grammar school" historically refers to a school teaching Latin grammar to future Roman citizens, orators, and, later, Catholic priests. In its earliest form, "grammar school" referred to a school that taught students to read, scan, interpret, and declaim Greek and Latin poets (including Homer, Virgil, Euripides, Ennius, and others). These should not be confused with the related, albeit distinct, modern British grammar schools.

A standard language is a particular dialect of a language that is promoted above other dialects in writing, education, and broadly speaking in the public sphere; it contrasts with vernacular dialects, which may be the objects of study in descriptive grammar but which are rarely taught prescriptively. The standardized "first language" taught in primary education may be subject to political controversy, since it establishes a standard defining nationality or ethnicity.

Recently, efforts have begun to update grammar instruction in primary and secondary education. The primary focus has been to prevent the use of outdated prescriptive rules in favor of more accurate descriptive ones and to change perceptions about relative "correctness" of standard forms in comparison to non standard dialects.

The pre-eminence of Parisian French has reigned largely unchallenged throughout the history of modern French literature. Standard Italian is not based on the speech of the capital, Rome, but on the speech of Florence because of the influence Florentines had on early Italian literature. Similarly, standard Spanish is not based on the speech of Madrid, but on the one of educated speakers from more northerly areas like Castile and León. In Argentina and Uruguay the Spanish standard is based on the local dialects of Buenos Aires and Montevideo (Rioplatense Spanish). Portuguese has for now two official written standards, respectively Brazilian Portuguese and European Portuguese, but in a short term it will have a unified orthography.^[9]

The Serbian language is divided in a similar way; Serbia and the Republika Srpska use their own separate standards. The existence of a third standard is a matter of controversy, some consider Montenegrin as a separate language, and some think it's merely another variety of Serbian.

Norwegian has two standards, Bokmål and Nynorsk, the choice between which is subject to controversy: Each Norwegian municipality can declare one of the two its official language, or it can remain "language neutral". Nynorsk is endorsed by a minority of 27 percent of the municipalities. The main language used in primary schools normally follows the official language of its municipality, and is decided by referendum within the local school district. Standard German emerged out of the standardized chancellery use of High German in the 16th and 17th centuries. Until about 1800, it was almost entirely a written language, but now it is so widely spoken that most of the former German dialects are nearly extinct.

Standard Chinese has official status as the standard spoken form of the Chinese language in the People's Republic of China (PRC), the Republic of China (ROC) and the Republic of Singapore. Pronunciation of Standard Chinese is based on the Beijing dialect of Mandarin Chinese, while grammar and syntax are based on modern vernacular written Chinese. Modern Standard Arabic is directly based on Classical Arabic, the language of the Qur'an. The Hindustani language has two standards, Hindi and Urdu.

In the United States, the Society for the Promotion of Good Grammar designated March 4 as National Grammar Day in 2008.^[10]

See also[link]

Notes and references[link]

External links[link]

Look up grammar in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

•  Archibald Henry Sayce (1911). "Grammar". In Chisholm, Hugh. Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. 
• GrammarBank : Grammar rules explanations with examples and exercises online
• The syntax of natural language: An online introduction using the Trees program -- Beatrice Santorini & Anthony Kroch, University of Pennsylvania, 2007
• The Grammar Vandal (Funny, informative blog that fixes bad grammar.)
• The "Blog" of "Unnecessary" Quotes (Another educational, still funny poke at people who incorrectly use quote marks.)

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Grammar

Carly Rae Jepsen
Jepsen performing on Canada Day in 2010
Background information
Born	(1985-11-21) November 21, 1985 (age 26) Mission, British Columbia, Canada
Genres	Pop, pop rock
Occupations	Singer-songwriter
Years active	2007–present
Labels	604 (2008–present) Schoolboy/Interscope (2012–present)
Website	carlyraemusic.com

Carly Rae Jepsen (born November 21, 1985) is a Canadian recording artist and singer-songwriter from Mission, British Columbia. In 2007, she placed third in the fifth season of Canadian Idol, and was a part of the Canadian Idol Top 3 concert tour.^[1]

Shortly after competing on Idol, she signed to Fontana and MapleMusic, and released her debut album, Tug of War, on September 30, 2008. Three years later, she released a new single, entitled "Call Me Maybe", which was released by 604 Records, and was followed by the release of her debut extended play, Curiosity, on February 14, 2012. "Call Me Maybe" was met with much success, reaching the Top 5 on the Billboard Hot 100 and reaching the number 1 spot on the Canadian Hot 100. The single also went to number 1 in Australia, Ireland and the United Kingdom. Jepsen signed with Interscope Records in 2012.

Life and career[link]

Jepsen attended Heritage Park Secondary School in Mission, British Columbia and has since performed there post-graduation. She later attended the Canadian College of Performing Arts in Victoria, BC before auditioning for Canadian Idol. After completing the Canadian Idol tour, Jepsen retreated to B.C. to focus on writing, recording and completing her band. Her demos attracted attention and she was eventually signed a joint management deal with Simkin Artist Management and Dexter Entertainment. A deal with Fontana/Maple Music quickly followed, leading Jepsen into the studio with producer/writer Ryan Stewart.^[2]

[edit] 2008–11: Tug of War

On June 16, 2008, Jepsen released her debut single and another single, a cover of John Denver's song "Sunshine On My Shoulders". It is the only cover song on her debut album.^[3] On July 21, 2008, Jepsen added two new songs from the album to her MySpace page: "Bucket" and "Heavy Lifting". In August 2008, Jepsen's MySpace page announced that the album's title would be Tug of War, and it was released on September 30, 2008. The page also mentioned two more songs that were included on the album: "Tug of War" and "Sweet Talker". The former was released as a single on iTunes on September 16, 2008, and has been receiving radio airplay on various stations across Canada. She performed the latter as her Canadian Idol audition.^[4]
A music video for "Tug of War" was released in January 2009. "Bucket", her second single, was released in May 2009, and the video for "Sour Candy", a duet with Josh Ramsay of Marianas Trench who has also help produce some of her songs including Call Me Maybe, has also been released. All of Jepsen's music videos have been directed by Ben Knechtel. In spring 2009, she toured western Canada with Marianas Trench and Shiloh.^[5] She then went on a cross-Canada tour with Marianas Trench, The New Cities and Mission District.

[edit] 2012–present: Curiosity

Jepsen's second album Curiosity was released on February 14, 2012. It was produced by Ryan Stewart and Kevin James Maher produced the track "Dear Julien". On the same day as the release, Justin Bieber made the announcement on the MuchMusic program New Music Live that Jepsen has been signed to Schoolboy Records, the label run by Justin Bieber's manager, Scooter Braun.^[6] The lead single, "Call Me Maybe" (which gained notoriety after "Primetime" Sam Roberts played the track during "After Opie and Anthony Live" on SiriusXM Satellite Radio) is from her second studio album Curiosity was released on September 21, 2011 and was produced by Josh Ramsay of Marianas Trench and co-written by Jepsen, Ramsay and Tavish Crowe. "Call Me Maybe" is the first song by a Canadian artist to reach the top of the digital chart since Justin Bieber's “Baby” in January 2010. It is also only the 11th song by a Canadian artist to reach No. 1 on the Digital Songs chart since Nielsen SoundScan began tracking digital download sales in 2005. The song has also peaked at #1 on Billboard's Canadian Hot 100, being the 4th Canadian artist to do so, after Avril Lavigne's "Girlfriend", Nikki Yanofsky's "I Believe", and the Young Artists for Haiti version of "Wavin' Flag", originally by Canadian rapper K'naan.^[7] Jepsen is currently touring on the Shout it Out World Tour. She is the opening act for the pop-rock trio Hanson. In February 2012, Jepsen visited Justin Bieber and Scooter Braun in Los Angeles, California, where she subsequently signed to Schoolboy Records and Interscope. Her music will still be distributed by 604 Records in Canada. On March 23, 2012, Jepsen made her first American television debut on The Ellen DeGeneres Show, performing "Call Me Maybe" (with Jared Manierka on keys), later joined by Justin Bieber. Carly was also the first Canadian Idol contestant to enter the UK charts, when Call Me Maybe debuted at #1. Carly played at Citywalk at Universal Studios on April 14 2012. 400 people who paid $5 were allowed to meet with the singer and get CDs autographed by her.

Jepsen, 26, has been criticized in the press for dressing "too young" for her age in an effort to appeal to the pre-teen demographic.^[8][9]

On May 20th, 2012 Jepsen performed "Call Me Maybe" at the 2012 Billboard Music Awards. On May 22th, 2012 she performed "Tug of War", "Curiosity", and "Call Me Maybe" at the first Q102 Springle Ball concert.

[edit] Canadian Idol performances

Discography[link]

Studio albums[link]

• Tug of War (2008)

Extended plays[link]

• Curiosity (2012)

Tours[link]

Opening act

• Justin Bieber – Believe Tour (North American dates) (2012)

Filmography[link]

Awards and nominations[link]

References[link]

External links[link]

• Official website
• Carly Rae Jepsen on Twitter
• Carly Rae Jepsen on Myspace
• "Primetime" Sam Roberts

This article includes a list of references, related reading or external links, but its sources remain unclear because it lacks inline citations. Please improve this article by introducing more precise citations. (April 2010)

Miss Jenny (fl. 1781) was a spy during the American Revolutionary War on the side of the British loyalists.

Miss Jenny, a French-speaking woman whose real-life identity was never confirmed, infiltrated the French troops who were fighting on the American side and reported the movements of French and American troops to the British headquarters in New York.

Miss Jenny is considered an important factor in the British military movements in the summer of 1781. At that time, she reported to the British that the French and Americans where planning an attack on the city of New York. She was on her way to cross the lines to the city to confirm this personally when she was caught by a French guard; after having been nearly raped, she was brought to the French camp, where she was questioned. She claimed to be searching for her French-Canadian father. The French turned her to General George Washington's camp, where she was further questioned, but she held to her story. She was then turned over to French custody again, and after a last try to make her confess, they gave up. They inflicted the informal punishment of cutting off her hair.

Miss Jenny continued on her way to the British camp in New York and reported everything she had observed. Based on her and other spies' reports, the general in charge kept his troops in New York. However, the French and Americans later changed their plan and attacked Yorktown instead.

See also[link]

• Ann Bates

References[link]

• [1] Spy Letters of the American Revolution. Stories of Spies and Letters. Women Spies