Transformational & Generative Grammar

SM2220 The Writing Machine

March 8, 2005

Linda Lai

What is grammar?

Grammar is the detailed descriptions of a particular language.

To develop a theory of language structure, one must first study a particular grammar.

What is grammar?

Grammar covers:

morphology 词法 : internal structure of words

syntax 句法 : how words are combined to form phrases and sentences

phonology音系学（语音模式） : pronunciation

semantics 语意学 : meanings

What is grammar?

Grammar can be devised and compiled.

Grammar takes the form of a set of rules or principles which tell you how to “speak” (pronounce and form phrases and sentences) and “understand” the language.

What is grammar?

Descriptive rules Vs Prescriptive rules 描述性的法则 Vs 规范性的法则

Modern linguistics (since the 1970s) is purely descriptive…

i.e. it doesn’t tell us whether a sentence is correct/incorrect, but –

grammatical/ungrammaticalwell-formed/ill-formed

Generative Grammar

Founded by Noam Chomsky in the late 1950s…

Language is a rule-governed system:i.e. a restricted set of principles (a grammar) can

account for a wide range of concrete language practices.

Generative grammar studies concentrate on sentence grammar..

i.e. principles that distinguish possible English sentences from impossible ones.

What is Grammar?

[Chomsky’s Generative Grammar “ 生成语法” ]

Competence = infinite rule-governed creativity

Not only about knowledge of familiar sentences, but also for those we have never heard of before

i.e. the ability to produce comprehensible new sentences…

[Chomsky’s mentalist view]

Grammar is about… competence + performance

[Speaker/hearer’s knowledge of the language] [actual use of language in real situations]

What is Grammar?[Chomsky’s mentalist view]

Grammar is about… competence + performance

[Speaker/hearer’s knowledge of the language] [actual use of language in real situations]

[competence] [well-formed sentences Vs ill-formed sentences]a) My uncle realizes that I’m a busy cook.b) My cat realises that I’m a lousy cook.c) My goldfish realises that I’m a lousy cook.d) My pet amoeba realises that I’m a lousy cook.e) My frying pan realizes that I’m a lousy cook.f) My sincerity realises that I’m a lousy cook.g) My birth realises that I’m a lousy cook.

**The “oddity” of some of these sentences is pragmatic, NOT linguistic.

What is Grammar?[Chomsky’s mentalist view]

Grammar is about… competence + performance

[Speaker/hearer’s knowledge of the language] [actual use of language in real situations]

[performance]Ability to mobilize rules to deal with a communication situation: Jean

Berko’s wug example (1958, “a child’s learning of English morphology”)

Many cases of grammatical errors are actually positive examples of the use of grammar. (Akmajian and Henry, 1975, on a 3-year-old girl producing “yes-no” questions)

e.g. Is I can do that?Is you should eat the apple?Is the apple juice won’t spill?

More examples of the generative capacity of grammar

(1) This boy must seem incredibly stupid to this girl.(2) This boy must seem incredibly stupid to that girl.(3) That boy must seem incredibly stupid to that girl.(4) That boy must seem incredibly stupid to this girl.(5) This boy must seem incredibly stupid to this boy.(6) This boy must seem incredibly stupid to that boy.(7) That boy must seem incredibly stupid to that boy.(8) That boy must seem incredibly stupid to this boy.(9) This girl must seem incredibly stupid to this girl.(10) This girl must seem incredibly stupid to that girl.(11) That girl must seem incredibly stupid to that girl.(12) That girl must seem incredibly stupid to this girl.(13) This girl must seem incredibly stupid to this boy.(14) This girl must seem incredibly stupid to that boy.(15) That girl must seem incredibly stupid to that boy.(16) That girl must seem incredibly stupid to this boy.

Generative Grammar: the X-bar theory

X-bar theory is about phrase structure.

It assumes that all syntactic constituents are organized around a head, X.

X can be any word or morpheme category.

X is expanded by the addition of a complement to form a larger unit, X’ (X-bar)…

Constraints of rules

…some rules have to be banned…

“Restricted distribution”: a word can’t just turn up anywhere, e.g.:

(1) Pigs love truffles.

(2) Humans love to eat pigs.

(3) Peter is pigs

(The type of “sentence frames” decides the mode of restriction of distribution…)

X-bar theory + constraints

Consider the word “very” in English (or “十分” in Chinese)

(1) He is very slow [very + Adjective 形容词 ]

(2) He walks very slowly [very + Adverb 副词 ]

(3) *Very girls love to have fun [very + Noun 名词 ]

(4) *He very adores her [very + Verb 动词 ]

(5) *It happened very after the party [very + preposition 前置词 ]

(Note also other restrictions in distribution.)

Generative principles beyond grammatical competence

Automatic writing…

A challenge of restricted distribution

Japanese Haiku…

A literary form that demands a grammar that is different from that of the actual spoken language in daily life.

Reference

Adger, David, 2003: Core Syntax: a Minimalist Approach. Oxford University Press.

Haegeman, Liliane; and Guéron, Jacqueline, 1999: English Grammar: a Generative Perspective. Blackwell Publishing.

Hornstein, Norbert, 2001: Move! A Minimalist Theory of Construal. Blackwell Publishing.

Radford, Andrew, 1988: Transformational Grammar, a First Course. Cambridge University Press.