generative grammar

GENERATIVE GRAMMAR

LEOPOLDO FRONDA

AUBREY SOMERA

JENNIFER SACULLESLecturers

Master in Education, Major in English

Grammatical Structure of English

MA. MARTHA A. MADRID, Ed. D. (Professor)

GENERATIVE GRAMMAR• refers to a particular approach to

the study of syntax.• attempts to give a set of rules that

will correctly predict which combinations of words will form grammatical sentences.

• originates in the work of Noam Chomsky, beginning in the late 1950s.

A. MODELS OF TRANSFORMATIONAL GRAMMAR

1. Standard Theory (1957-1965)2. Extended Standard Theory (1965-1973)3. Revised Extended Standard Theory (1973-1976)4. Relational Grammar (1975-1990)5. Government and Binding/Principles and Parameters Theory (1981-1990)6. Minimalist Program (1990-Present)

1. Standard Theory (1957-1965)

It corresponds to the original model of generative grammar laid out by Chomsky (1965).

A core aspect of Standard Theory is a distinction between two different representations of a sentence, called Deep Structure and Surface Structure. The two representations are linked to each other by transformational grammar.

ACCORDING TO GROVER HUDSON, ESSENTIAL INTORDUCTORY LINGUISTICS.

BLACKWELL, 2000…

2. Extended Standard Theory (1965-1973)

Its features are:• syntactic constraints• generalized phrase

structures (X-bar theory)

3. Revised Extended Standard Theory (1973-1976)

Is a strict delimitation of the different grammatical components, that is syntax,

semantics, as well as phonology, stylistics and pragmatics.

4. Relational Grammar (ca. 1975-1990)

An alternative model of syntax based on the idea that notions like Subject, Direct Object, and Indirect Object play a primary role in grammar.

In Relational Grammar, constituents that serve as the arguments to predicates are numbered. This numbering system corresponds loosely to the notions of subject, direct object and indirect object. The numbering scheme is subject → (1), direct object → (2) and indirect object → (3). A schematic representation of a clause in this formalism might look like:

1 P 3 2

John gave Mary a kiss

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constituent_(linguistics)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Argument_(linguistics)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Predicate_(grammar)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subject_(grammar)

5. Government/Binding Principle (1981-1980)

It is based on the principles and parameters theory, which states that there is a finite set of fundamental principles common to all natural languages and a finite set of binary parameters that determine the range of permissible variability in language, language acquisition and language understanding.

Its main aim is to find the principles and parameters common to all languages so that the syntax of a particular language can be explained along these lines.

• Binding theory poses locality conditions on certain processes and related items. The central notion of government theory is the relation between the head of a construction and categories dependent on it.

• It is also concerned with relations of anaphors, pronouns, names and variables to possible antecedents.

6. Minimalist Program (1990-Present)

In The Minimalist Program (1995), the latest step in the continuous development of transformational generative grammar, Chomsky provided a radically new approach to the implementation of his underlying ideas. The well-established concepts of D-structure and S-structure have been discarded as well as government, the central element in GB-theory. Even the ubiquitous phrase-structure rules have been eliminated from the theory to a large degree

B. Context-Free Grammar

Essentially, the tree model works something like this example, in which S is a sentence, D is a determiner, N a noun, V a verb, NP a noun phrase and VP a verb phrase:

STRENGTHS OF GENERATIVE GRAMMAR

This grammar will generate well-formed syntactic structures (e.g. sentences) of the language.

This grammar will have a finite (i.e. limited) number of rules but will be capable of generating an infinite number of well-formed structures.

The rules of this grammar give ‘recursiveness’, that is the capacity to be applied more than once in generating a structure.

This grammar is also capable of revealing the basis two other phenomena:

How some superficially distinct sentences are closely related. How some superficially similar sentences are in fact distinct.

WEAKNESSES OF GENERATIVE GRAMMAR

• It is far from clear what contribution Generative-

Transformational Grammar is likely to make to language teaching methodology."

• Silalahi (1993), "


Many teachers of English as a Second Language assume that Generative-Transformational Grammar is pedagogically unadaptable to the needs of a secondary curriculum.

It means that it is not applicable to language teaching.


There are two important reasons:• The first reason is that the explication of

the theory is directed more towards linguists, psychologists and mathematicians than toward teachers of English.

• The second reason is that the criticism of this theory by other linguists made the concept more complicated.

IMPLICATIONS OF GENERATIVE GRAMMAR

Saporta (in Silalahi,1993)

claims that the main contribution of Generative-Transformational Grammar is to provide relevant data which enables textbook writers to base their material

on the most adequate description.


• It contributes to the teaching-learning process.

• It helps in dealing with the process of learning and acquisition.

… These two terms are different in case they are used to separate between the first language acquisition and the second language acquisition learning.


• In learning second language, it is a conscious activity, while the first language acquisition deals with unconsious one.

• In language acquisition the focus is communication or reception of a message as opposed to syntax and grammar as in language learning.


If someone wants to apply this Generative-

Transformational Grammar, there should be a clear

difference between scientific grammar and pedagogical

grammar.


SEMANTIC INTERPRETAT

ION

STRUCTURAL DESCRIPTIO

N

WHAT IS A SCIENTIFIC GRAMMAR?


WHAT IS A PEDAGOGICAL GRAMMAR?

A COLLECTION OF MATERIAL


GENERATIVE-TRANSFORMATIONAL

GRAMMAR CAN BE APPLIED IN THE FORM

OF PEDAGOGICAL GRAMMAR (IN

TEACHING ENGLISH GRAMMAR)


Thomas (in Silalahi,1993) who is convinced with his contribution of Generative-Transformational Grammar, suggests that in the beginning of teaching, the teachers should teach the kernel sentence first.

Kernel sentences consist of:• Simple;• Declarative;• Active with no complex verb or noun phrase.

Later on the students are taught to construct passive, negative sentences in the form of Transformational Grammar.


Why should the teacher know the theory of language structure?

Do not only teach the language

TEACHERS

Teach the rules how the

sentences are produced


The stages of teaching second language

The teachers should use relatively uncomplicated construction ideally.

The teachers would begin with the simplest meaningful utterences in language.

The teachers present simple construction first before moving on to the more complex ones


Other matters that need be considered:

• Meaningfulness to the learners;• Utility of the structure being learned;• Appropriateness for age group.

But the concept of progressing from the simple to the more complex should not be

ignored


There are some rules for students to create (generate)

utterances

The structural rules in Transformational Grammar are the

following:

Teachers of English may also prepare the following exercises

1. Phrase structural rules can be considered kernel. In presenting of a foreign language sentences representing kernels ought to be taught first. Examples:

• The girl laugh (Det N V)• The children swim in the beach (Det N V Prep Det N)

2. Expansion of the verb section by applying auxiliary. Examples:

“The man laughed” is expanded as follows:• The man could laugh.• The man has laughed.• The man is laughing.• The man could have laughed.

3. Interrogative Transformation. Example:• The man is here = Is the man here?• The man hits the ball = Does the man hit the ball?

4. Expansion of verb section by adding adverb. Example:

• The man hits the ball = The man hits the ball accurately

5. Negative Transformation. Example:• The man can hit the ball = The man cannot hit the ball• Ali speaks English = Ali does not speak English

6. Passive Transformation. Example:• The boy buys a bicycle = A bicycle is bought

So, in language teaching and learning process, Generative

Transformational Grammar is also the most important one for the students to know the rules how

they produce sentences grammatically.

REFERENCES:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Generative_grammar