Laguna State Polytechnique University

San Pablo City, San Pablo City Campus

Vanessa Shyra G. Bon

Course: MaEd- English
Professor: Cecilia Diva M.A.T

Introduction to Linguistics
English 203

GENERATIVE- TRANSFORMATIONAL GRAMMAR

Who is the architect of Transformational Grammar?

Transformational Grammar also known as Transformational Generative Grammar (TGG)

refers to the theory of generative grammar of a natural language, developed by Chomsky.
Transformational grammar is basically a theory to understand the processing of grammatical
knowledge in the human brain. Noam Chomsky, the U.S. linguist, was the main propagator
of transformational grammar in the 1960’s.His theory opposed the earlier theories of
structuralism by rejecting the idea that each language is different fro the other. In fact
transformational grammaranalyses language on the basis of certain universal tenets in
language

Transformational grammar is an approach to the use of grammar in communications that

involves a logical and analytical process to fully grasp the meaning behind the words
selected. From this perspective, it goes beyond the process of structural grammar, which
tends to focus on the proper construction of sentences as the device for communication.
Along with sentence structure, this type of grammar will also attempt to explore the thought
behind the words.
Sometimes referred to as TG, transformational grammar attempts to apply logic to the task of
looking into the deeper meanings of the structure of sentences, and to analyze both the
surface and the underlying intent of the words used.

Transformational grammar is a form of language analysis that establishes a relationship with

the different elements in the sentence of a language and makes use of rules or
transformations to recognize these relationships. Transformational grammar which is usually
generative grammar describes a language with the help of transformational rules. It involves
logical reasoning to understand fully the meaning of the selected words. As such
transformational grammar goes a step ahead of structural grammar which focuses more on
the sentence structures used for communication. Apart from the use of correct sentence
structure, transformational grammar analyses the words with reference to its underlying
thoughts. Transformational grammar employs most of the linguistic tools such as syntax and
context to explore the possible meanings of words.
DIAGRAM STRUCTURE OF A SENTENCE

P VP
The boy ran to the park

D N Vi PP
The boy ran to the park

Prep NP
to the park

In this diagram the various constituents are labeled as follows

S SENTENCE
NP NOUN PHRASE
VP VERB PHRASE
D DETERMINER
N NOUN
Vi INTRANSITIVE VERB
PP PREPOSITIONAL PHRASE
P PREPOSITION

It is raised how do native speakers of English are able to assign such a structure to the
sentence. They can do so because as native speakers, they have the access to set of rules
which keep them to produce grammatical sentences and to avoid ungrammatical sentences.

Can we recast the above diagram in the form of set of rules? If so, what are the
consequences?

Rules helps us account for the fact that native speakers of English perceives the differences
of relationships.
Example: The boy reads well - the boy actually reads and does so with skill
The books reads well - unspecified person reads the book and does so easily
because the book is well written.

How can our rules capture such perception?

Examples:
I promised Fred to quit it is I who quit
I persuade Fred to quit it is Fred who will quit
I expected Fred to quit it is Fred who will quit
This differences can be seen in the following diagrams:

I promised Fred I persuade Fred I expected Fred

I quit Fred quits Fred quits

How can rules help us state such facts about this kind of knowledge of their language which
native language possess?

GENERATIVE GRAMMARS

Generative grammar, a precisely formulated set of rules whose output is all (and only)
the sentences of a language—i.e., of the language that it generates. Generative grammars do
not merely distinguish the grammatical sentence of a language from ungrammatical
sequences of words of the same language; they also provide a structural description, or
syntactic analysis, for each of the grammatical sentences. The structural descriptions
provided by a generative grammar are comparable with, but more precisely formulated than,
the analyses that result from the traditional practice of parsing sentences in terms of the parts
of speech.

Example:
Way of expressing relationship:

Such rule states that sentence is consists of noun phrase and a verb phrase. The same
procedure with verb phrase.

S S→NP+VP VP VP→Vi +VP

N P Vi PP
The total set of rules is called Phrase structure rules. it requires to express relationship as
follows:
S →NP+VP
VP →Vi +VP
PP →PREP +NP
NP →D+N
D → the
N →boy, park
Vi →ran
Prep →to

Such set of rules, or grammar, requires interpretation; consequently, we must have a set of
conventions for interpreting the rules.

SENTENCE BASIS

One generalization apparently captured by a set of rules of this kind is that a language
consists of a set of sentences. Such a generalization is captured by the first symbol, S, which
stands for sentence.
A “language” is, therefore, a set of sentences, and a sentence itself is anything that is
produced by the grammar. As we have previously indicated, the arrow means “consists of”
so that a sentence consist of noun phrase and a verb phrase- two grammatical constituent
that must be present in a sentence.

GENERATIVENESS

Rules given in the the boy run to the park is extremely limited in variety of ways.

Example:
1. The boy run to the park.
2. The boy run to the boy.
3. The park run to the boy.
4. The park run to the park.

Sentence 3 and 4 turn out to be strange. Sentence 2 is peculiar with its twofold occurrence of
boy. A native speaker can generate infinitely many sentences.
What we need is a grammar that will generate any sentence in the language and no sentence
which is not in the language; that is the grammar should generate all and only sentences of
what ever language it is the grammar of . just as a native speaker does.

To generate means to produce possible sentences, in so doing to produce grammatical

descriptions of these sentences.
Grammar should not produce sentences which native speakers clearly rejects, for such
sentences being ungrammatical, will deviate from the rules.

TYPES OF RULES

The goal now is to write one set of rules that will generate all five sentences.
It shouldnot produce ungrammaticla sentences.

The boy ran

The boy was young
The girl won a prize
The girl won.

X The girl won to the park

X The boy ate young

Rules:

S →NP+VP

VP → Vi +(PP)
Vt+ (NP)
Be+ adj

PP → PREP +NP
NP →D+N
D → the, a
N →boy, girl, park, prize
Vi →won
Be →was
Prep →to
Adj →young

First convention or formula - braces{ }means consist of and one of the three must be chosen
second convention- parentheses ( ) indicate an option that may or may not chosen

Language learning is a task of internalizing the same set of PSR.

DEEP AND SURFACE STRUCTURE

Define the Deep Structure and Surface Structure of Transformational Grammar?

According to Chomsky an theory, transformational grammar involves two levels to represent

the structure of sentences known as the “deep structure” and the “surface structure”. The
“deep structure” implies a more abstract form underlying the structure of a sentence. It is
represented by a “phrase structure tree” in which the abstract relations between words and
phrases of a sentence are depicted in a “hierarchical tree diagram”. The “surface structure”
refers to the actual form of the structure of a sentence used. Besides the two levels of
sentence structure, transformational grammar consists of a body of formal rules to enable
transforming deep structures to surface structures.

What is a Phrase Structure Tree in Transformational Grammar?

A phrase structure tree in transformational grammar is a diagrammatic representation of

sentences distinguished

by their syntactic characteristics. Thus we have verb phrases (VP), noun phrases (NP),
prepositional phrases (PP)

and so on. Most of the sentence structures in a language are governed by phrase structure
rules. For example,

sentences in English are governed by the rule that they should contain a Noun Phrase (NP)
and a Verb Phrase (VP)

A. One is actually produced-- pronounce or written

B. Contrains all the units and relationship that are necessary for interpreting the meaning of
the sentence.-- abstract structure that allows the native speaker to know the meaning of the
sentence.
Example:
The old house fell down-- it means the old house was old.
S

The house S fell down.

The house was old

 S

NP VP

NP S Vi Adv
FELL DOWN

D N NP VP

THE HOUSE D N BE ADJ

THE HOUSE WAS OLD

{THE HOUSE (THE HOUSE WAS OLD)FELL DOWN}

REFERENCES:

https://www.britannica.com/topic/generative-grammar
https://www.britannica.com/science/linguistics/Transformational-generative-grammar