Past perceptions of the role of grammar in the second language syllabus have been limited by the attitude that grammatical content should be addressed directly in the language classroom and that it is limited to language items and rules with definable boundaries. However, language has properties crucial to its use for communication that are not readily observable and exploitable within the traditional language-teaching. These properties include general typological qualities that determine the language's form and the principles of discourse that the language form serves. Language syllabi should reflect these properties, and may have to be reshaped to do so. Forty-five references are included. (MSE)