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 :
internal structure of words
syntax :
how words are combined to form phrases and sentences
phonology :
pronunciation
semantics :
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
Vs

Modern linguistics (since the 1970s) is purely

descriptive
i.e. it doesnt tell us whether a sentence is
correct/incorrect, but
grammatical/ungrammatical
well-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?
[Chomskys Generative Grammar ]
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
[Chomskys mentalist view]

Grammar is about

competence + performance
[Speaker/hearers knowledge of the language] [actual use of language in real
situations]

What is Grammar?
[Chomskys mentalist view]

Grammar is about

competence + performance
[Speaker/hearers knowledge of the language] [actual use of language in real situations]

[competence] [well-formed sentences Vs ill-formed sentences]

a)
My uncle realizes that Im a busy cook.
b)
My cat realises that Im a lousy cook.
c)
My goldfish realises that Im a lousy cook.
d)
My pet amoeba realises that Im a lousy cook.
e)
My frying pan realizes that Im a lousy cook.
f)
My sincerity realises that Im a lousy cook.
g)
My birth realises that Im a lousy cook.
**The oddity of some of these sentences is pragmatic, NOT linguistic.

What is Grammar?
[Chomskys mentalist view]

Grammar is about
competence + performance
[Speaker/hearers knowledge of the language] [actual use of language in real situations]

[performance]
Ability to mobilize rules to deal with a communication situation: Jean
Berkos wug example (1958, a childs 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 wont spill?

More examples of the generative capacity of grammar

(1)
(2)
(3)
(4)
(5)
(6)
(7)
(8)
(9)
(10)
(11)
(12)
(13)
(14)
(15)
(16)

This boy must seem incredibly stupid to this girl.

This boy must seem incredibly stupid to that girl.
That boy must seem incredibly stupid to that girl.
That boy must seem incredibly stupid to this girl.
This boy must seem incredibly stupid to this boy.
This boy must seem incredibly stupid to that boy.
That boy must seem incredibly stupid to that boy.
That boy must seem incredibly stupid to this boy.
This girl must seem incredibly stupid to this girl.
This girl must seem incredibly stupid to that girl.
That girl must seem incredibly stupid to that girl.
That girl must seem incredibly stupid to this girl.
This girl must seem incredibly stupid to this boy.
This girl must seem incredibly stupid to that boy.
That girl must seem incredibly stupid to that boy.
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 cant 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 in
Chinese)
(1) He is very slow [very + Adjective ]
(2) He walks very slowly [very + Adverb ]
(3) *Very girls love to have fun [very + Noun ]
(4) *He very adores her [very + Verb ]
(5) *It happened very after the party [very +
preposition ]
(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 Guron, 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.