| Summary: | "Grammar, at least in part, is psychological. Yet no satisfactory study of grammatical phenomena has been made from the psychological point of view. There are, of course, a number of psychological treatises on linguistic phenomena, but they constitute neither a definite body of psychological facts and principles nor a satisfactory contribution to the clarification of linguistic problems. The present work constitutes an attempt to study grammatical phenomena from an objective psychological point of view. It is motivated by the question: Can recent psychological developments contribute to the analysis of grammatical problems? As a working method I compare the relative effectiveness of psychological and other types of grammar for describing and interpreting speech phenomena. Two purposes are thus served: first, the analysis of the psychological character of speech considered from the angle of grammatical minutiae; second, the application of the results to grammatical problems. I should like to point out particularly that whenever conventional grammar is criticized it is only in order to pave the way for constructive suggestions and not to indicate mere dissatisfaction. Psychological grammar is in no wise a competitor for the grammatical field. In many ways it is a distinct discipline with problems different from those of ordinary grammar. At best, psychological grammar is only one type among several others, each concerned with different phases of language. Certainly, psychological grammar can deal most efficiently with the grammar of speech and less well, if at all, with the historical or comparative facts of language. Nevertheless, since it is probable that all phases of language have a unifying basis in human behavior--psychological adjustments--it is not without the range of possibility that psychological grammar may aid in the solution of certain general linguistic and grammatical problems"--Preface. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved).
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