By: MIMOUN SEHIBI

Generative grammar

Introduction Universal grammar Gennerative grammar Properties of generative grammar Generative defined Transformatinal rules defined Grammar Deep and surface stucture Structual ambiguity Labeled Tree diagrams Phrase structure rules Recursion Transformational rules conclusion

Table Of Contents

In the 1957 Avram Noam Chomsky published syntactic stuctures which turned out to be a landmark in the 20th centuries linguistics

Chomsky put forward a grammar of language called `generative transformatinal grammar which differ fundamentally from behaviourism and structualism of the first-half of the 20th century

He regards language faculty as a language organ

He wants linguistics to be a real science

Intoduction

All human languages are structured in a remarkably similar ways

Another remarkable fact about language is the apparent ease and speed with which children acquire it

Chomsky believes that grammar is hard-wired in our brains

Universal Grammar

It has a very explicit system of rules specifying what combinations of basic elements would result in a well-formed sentences

This explicit system of rules resembles the type of rules found in mathematics

Generative Grammar

it generates all the well-formed syntactic structures of language and it fails to generate any ill-formed structures (this is the all and the only criterion)

The grammar will have a finite number of rules,but will be capable of generating an infinite number of well-formed structures

the rules need the crusial property of recursion it should be able of revealing the basis of tow other

phenomena,first how some superficially distinct sentences are closely related and second how some superficially similar sentences are in fact distinct

Some Properties

It is defined as model of scientific representation of such linguistic knowledge.i,e. it`s a formal and explicit characterization of what a native speaker know

Grammar

Oxford dictionary defines generative as able to produce or productive

Technically generative is used to mean a rule acting as base for element for a given set,linguistic rules are generative because it represents the knowledge of native speakers to produce sentences

It is a process by which one constituent,such as a word or a phrase is adjoined or attached to another to form an extended constituent

Generative Defined

It emphasized the reletionships among sentences that can be seen as transforms or transformations of each other for example among simple active declarative and negative … ect sentences

It allows the speaker to convert basic kernel sentences into more elaborated dirived sentences as well as to arrange the element of the sentence into an acceptable form (well-formed sentences)

It serves to link deep stucture to the surface structure

It aims to to offer a logical,complete and self-consistent explanation of competence

Transformational Rules

Transformational grammar have tow kind of rules: those which specify how words should be combined to form sentences or phrases (phrase-structure rules)and those which specify how a sentence of one type can be converted into sentences of different type

For example : phrase structure rules would construct the sentence Teresa hit the ball

Chomsky showed that a transformational grammar was more efficient,since many sentences could be formed from other sentences using transformational rules .This not only made the phrase-structure rules more simple,but captured the fact that certain sentences (active/passive) seem to be related to each other

Tow superficially distinct sentences stuctures would for example Charlie broke the window and the window was broken by Charlie( traditionally: active/passive)

this difference in superficial form disguises the fact that the tow sentences are closely related.

The deep structure is an abstract level of

structual interpretation in other words the absract inderlying interpretation of a sentence

D-structure and Surface Stucture

A sentence has tow underlying interpretation which could be expressed in the deep structure ( sentences)

Phrases can also be stuctually ambigious

Grammar will have to be capable of showing the structural distinction between these underlying representations

Structual Ambiguity

Abbrivations for the grammatical categories involeved which are commomly used

N= nounArt =articleS = sentences Adv =adverbPro =pronounPrep = preposition Pp =prepositional phraseVp =verbal phrase

Symboles Used in Syntactic Description

.This structure it could be presented in a form of tree diagram which is also known as (tree structure,or phrase marker).

.We consider ways of describing the structure of the sentence that basically constructed on the linear sequence of the constituent it is ,of course possible to show the same sequence in a more explicit way,hierarchically organized.

.For example: the structure of the sentence John like ripe mangoes

Labeled Tree Diagram

Traditionally the tree diagram was treated as a static

representation of the structure of the sentence however alternative is to treat the diagram as a dynamic format in a sense that it represents a way of genereting not only that one sentence,but a very large number of sentences with similar structure with only a small number of rules.

Phrase Stucture Rules

The phrase structure rules (as presented),have no recursive elements.Each time we remote a symbole from the left.we did not include it on the right side of any arrow

We have to be able to repeat some symbols on the right side of the arrow,this is the essence of recursion

Back to recursion

See these sentences:1- George helped Mary yesterday2-yesteray George helped Mary And:1- Doobie picked up the magazine2-Doobie picked the magazine up

Transformational rules•

Chomsky`s revolution came against the short comings of structualism because it concentrated too much on data and failed to proceed from the known and unknown and it feared theoretical intangibles

TG model recognized the value of theory and the significance of what was going on the beneath the surface

As any theory TG model was not free from limitations since it focused on idealize competence and it ignored performance

Conclusion

Thank you

George,Y.1985.The Study of Languag,UK ,Cambridge Universty P ress.

Chomsky,N,2000 .The Architecture of Language,Saurabh printers.Oxford university press.

Brown, S. & Attardo, S. 2008. Understanding Language Structure, Interaction, and Variation. 2nd Ed. Ann Arbor, MI. University of Michigan Press.

Parker, F. & Riley, K. 2010. Linguistics for Non-Linguists . 5th Ed. Boston, MA. Pearson/Allen and Bacon.

Fromkin, V., Rodman, R. & Hyams, N. 2007. An Introduction to Language . 8th Ed. Boston, MA. Thompson.

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