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Chomsky’s original transformational-generative grammar,^20 now
known as Minimalism,^21 as well as its offshoots such as Lexical-
Functional Grammar;^22 Generalized Phrase Structure Grammar;^23
Head Driven Phrase Structure Grammar;^24 and Construction
Grammar.^25 What has been especially impressive about the
generative theory of language is its ability to make predictions
about linguistic structure, linguistic functions, and the
psychological reality of linguistic structure. Other theories, such
as Tagmemics^26 or Systemic Functional Grammar,^27 have
remained primarily descriptive or taxonomic rather than
predictive.
Prescriptive grammar—or school grammar—is taught in
schools to indoctrinate students with the prestige or most socially
desirable dialect and especially how to “use words correctly.” It
teaches how a native speaker should speak rather than how a
native speaker actually speaks. Prescriptive grammar is neither
descriptive nor predictive, as it is not a scientific theory of
language but is the standard approach to language for literary
analysis and for anyone who has not studied linguistics.
Prescriptive grammar is attractive to judges who typically write
and speak a prestige dialect congruent with prescriptive
grammar. However, research has demonstrated that prescriptive
grammar is not an adequate theory of language for authorship
identification.^28
(^20) See NOAM CHOMSKY, ASPECTS OF THE THEORY OF SYNTAX (1965).
(^21) See NOAM CHOMSKY, THE MINIMALIST PROGRAM (1995).
(^22) See JOAN BRESNAN, LEXICAL FUNCTIONAL SYNTAX (2001).
(^23) See GERALD GAZDAR ET AL., GENERALIZED PHRASE STRUCTURE
GRAMMAR (1985).
(^24) See CARL POLLARD & IVAN A. SAG, HEAD-DRIVEN PHRASE
STRUCTURE GRAMMAR (1994).
(^25) See THOMAS HOFFMAN & GRAEME TROUSDALE, THE OXFORD
HANDBOOK OF CONSTRUCTION GRAMMAR (2013).
(^26) See KENNETH L. PIKE, LANGUAGE IN RELATION TO A UNIFIED THEORY
OF THE STRUCTURE OF HUMAN BEHAVIOR (1967); KENNETH L. PIKE,
LINGUISTIC CONCEPTS: AN INTRODUCTION TO TAGMEMICS (1982).
(^27) M.A.K. HALLIDAY & CHRISTIAN M.I.M. MATTHIESSEN, AN
INTRODUCTION TO FUNCTIONAL GRAMMAR (3d ed. 2004).
(^28) See Michael Brennan & Rachel Greenstadt, Practical Attacks Against
Authorship Recognition Techniques, PROC. TWENTY-FIRST CONF. ON