It may however be cogent to firstly discuss various underlying definitions and views of the meaning of grammar as these fundaments tend to provide an avenue of understanding of the central theories involved. The word grammar derived from grammatike or grammatike techne, which in classical Greek meant "the art of writing." ( Ezzaher, Lahcen E. 2001)

It is important to note that the meaning of 'grammar' was originally focused on "writing" and not speech. This is a crucial aspect as many of the contending linguistic and grammatical theories tend to privilege writing over speech in their understanding of what grammar essentially is. This factor can also be brought to bear in an understanding of the underling difference between the formalist and functionalist approach - as will be discussed in this paper.

To summarize his views, Chomsky begins from the view that although different groups of people speak different languages, yet all human language is essentially governed by common rules, or principles, that are universal. " Every language has rules that govern pronunciation, word formation, and sentence construction, providing a means for making assertions or requests, asking questions, and so on." (Contents)

... they are coded into semantic and syntactic structures that reflect the different social semiotic of different communities. Within each community this semantic and syntactic code represents the ˜grammatical system" of its language which allows the expression of the social behavior of people using it in various situational contexts. Within the grammatical resources of their code, people are free to choose those structures that best convey their expressive and communicative intents.

Chomsky is recognized as one of the foremost modern innovators in linguistics and language theory. In his doctoral thesis he began to develop some of his linguistic ideas. These ideas were elaborated in the book Syntactic Structure, published in 1957. This was one of his best known works in linguistics. Not only is he regarded by any as the founder of modern linguistics, but he is also acknowledged as the main proponent of the field of transformational-generative grammar. This area is strongly related to logic and philosophy. (Cowley, J. 2003)

An essential aspect that characterizes his early work was his opposition to behaviorist theory. "His works in generative linguistics contributed significantly to the decline of behaviorism and led to the advancement of the cognitive sciences". (Wikipedia: Noam Chompsky.)

"The structuralist grammarian simply collects samples of the target language and classifies them in much the same way as a biologist classifies butterflies." (Bourke J M.)

However there are very different and sometimes seemingly diametrically opposed views of what grammar is and how it functions. As was mentioned in the introduction to this paper, it is often the case that these different perceptions and theories have their foundations in different beliefs and views of reality and the nature of language itself.

The above quotation clearly shows the social and interactionist function of grammars from Halliday's point of view.

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Approximate Word count = 2735
Approximate Pages = 11 (250 words per page double spaced)