Page 340 - DENG504_LINGUISTICS

Linguistics Gowher Ahmad Naik, Lovely Professional University

Notes
Unit 27: Grammar: Traditional to Transformational

CONTENTS
Objectives
Introduction
27.1 Some Misconceptions about Grammar
27.2 What is Grammar?
27.3 Kinds of Grammar
27.4 Formal vs. Notional Grammar
27.5 Summary
27.6 Key-Words
27.7 Review Questions
27.8 Futher Readings

Objectives

After studying this Unit students will be able to:
• Discuss some Misconceptions about Grammar.
• Know Traditional to Transformational Grammar.
• Discuss Grammar.
Introduction

The hypothesis of generative grammar is that language is a structure of the human mind. The goal of
generative grammar is to make a complete model of this inner language (known as i-language). This
model could be used to describe all human language and to predict the grammaticality of any given
utterance (that is, to predict whether the utterance would sound correct to native speakers of the language).
This approach to language was poineered by Noam Chomsky. Most generative theories (although not all
of them) assume that syntax is based upon the constituent structure of sentences. Generative grammars
are among the theories that focus primarily on the form of a sentence, rather than its communicative
function. Among the many generative theories of linguistics, the Chomskyian theories are:
Transformational Grammar (TG) (Original theory of generative syntax laid out by Chomsky in
Syntactic Structures in 1957.
1. Government and binding theory (GB) (revised theory in the tradition of TG developed mainly by
Chomsky in the 1970s and 1980s)
2. The Minimalist Programme (MP) (revised version of GB published by Chomsky in 1995).
Phrase Structure Rules in Early Transformational Grammar
Chomsky in 1957, proposed the first kind of generative grammar which is popularly known as
transformational (generative) grammar. There were two basic rules which were proposed in this
grammar. These rules were:
1. Phrase structure rules and
2. Transformational rules, which are also simply known as transformations. The basic phrase structure
tree is constructed on the basis of phrase structure rules. Followings are the phrase structure rules
which help in the construction of a phrase structure tree:
(i) S ----------- NP Pred-P (ii) NP ----------- Det N
(iii) Pred-P ----------- Aux (iv) VP ----------- V PP
(v) PP ----------- P NP

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