It might also be a matter of a range of expectations as broad as of the people who hold them ("quot sententiae, tot homines"). But I'll bite. What I offer is just something for starters.MAubrey wrote:Perhaps we should start a new thread here in the linguistics/grammar subforum that asks that as a question:
What do you view as purpose or goal of a grammar?
That might be useful for all of us in understanding what expectations each of us bring to the task of grammar.
I conceive of "a grammar" as a compiled volume offering a systematic account of a particular language's structures and how the particular language functions.to convey meaning.
I think that a grammar of ancient Greek (since that's what we're talking about, and I'd just as soon not attempt to go beyond ancient Greek in this discussion) should offer an intelligible account of the language's structures, its morphology and syntax as well as its idiomatic expressions and characteristic patterns of ordering elements in sequence. Insofar as possible, its terminology should be clear and readily intelligible. I don't think of a grammar as a textbook but rather as a reference work to be consulted when we confront an expression in our reading of texts or listening to utterances in Greek that puzzles us for any reason.
I suspect that any particular grammar of ancient Greek will reflect the limits of the author's/compiler's experience and competence in the language. I suspect that, in Aristotelian terms, it will reflect accumulated ἐμπειρία rather than τέχνη in any really meaningful sense of τέχνη.
So much for starters.