ungrammatical
English
[edit]Etymology
[edit]From un- + grammatical.
Pronunciation
[edit]Audio (Southern England): (file)
Adjective
[edit]ungrammatical (comparative more ungrammatical, superlative most ungrammatical)
- (linguistics) In violation of one or more of the rules and conventions of a language as defined by the grammar, resulting in unacceptable or incorrect usage.
- Synonyms: agrammatical, ungrammatic
- Antonym: grammatical
- 1985, Anthony Burgess, Kingdom of the Wicked:
- My Greek is not the tongue of Homer or Aeschylus but a sloppy ungrammatical sabir lacking Attic salt and tending to a saccharinity which sets my teeth on edge.
Usage notes
[edit]- In formal linguistics, ungrammatical sentences are labelled using an asterisk (*):
- *The subject of this sentence is.
- This convention goes back at least as far as Leonard Bloomfield's Language (1933).
- In the precise usage of linguistics, being ungrammatical does not mean violating prescription; rather, it means violating requirements of the language that are descriptively obligate. For example, the following sentences are not ungrammatical; they are merely proscribed by some outdated notions:
- "If they ask who donated the money for the bicycles, tell them it was Santa Claus, not me."
- "There are some types of shenanigans that the teacher simply won't put up with."
Derived terms
[edit]Related terms
[edit]Translations
[edit]in violation of one or more of the rules and conventions of a language
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