Page 42 - DENG504_LINGUISTICS

Linguistics

Notes of phones is represented on each of the several linguistic levels (phonological, lexcical, syntactical
and semantic). Further, this grammar is a device to generate all and the only grammatical sentences
of a language, is not only explicit but also precise, and is full of observational, descriptive and
explanatory adequacies. It does not rely on imagination, intelligence or intuition of the speakers,
but is verifiable. It is the ability of the native speaker to use, produce and understand a natural
language, the ability to distinguish between grammatical and ungrammatical, between grammatical
and less grammatical string, the ability to perceive ambiguity in a grammatical string, the ability
to perceive when two or more strings are synonymous. It is an innate system, and may be regarded
as ‘a proposal concerning certain fundamental and specific skills that the child brings to language
learning.’ It has the following types of data with it: (a) phonemic transcription, judgements of
conformity of utterance tokens, (b) judgments of well-formedness, (c) ambiguity that can be traced
to structural origin, (d) judgements of sameness or difference of sentence types, (e) judgements
concerning the propriety of particular classification or segmentation.
Chomsky’s basic assumptions and ideas may be summarized in the following way:
1. The speaker of a language should be the source of all linguistic study.
2. A fundamental distinction should be made between competence and performance.
3. Linguistic theory should be mentalistic.
4. By grammar is meant a finite grammar which generates an infinite number of sentences.
5. The grammar of a language is not a classification of some examples, nor an inventory of
various units or items. If it were to be a model of the natural processes that go on in the mind
of the speaker and the hearer, it must explain the cognitive process. This can be done only by
establishing relationships between sentences and parts of sentences.
6. A grammatical theory should state linguistic goals clearly and explicitly; it should have
observational, descriptive and explanatory adequacy. At the same time it should establish
linguistic universals too. ‘The statements in the grammars of earlier linguists amounted to
more or less observations and hints about scattered phenomenon. Chomsky’s grammar, on
the other hand, has a method and a goal, and is explicit. It is a unified, coherent, constituent
system related to other systems and in this sense, is revolutionary. It is more than a notational
gimmick; it is a philosophy.’
7. Linguistics, psychology and philosophy are interrelated.
8. There are linguistic universals and linguists should ascertain the universals and essential
properties of languages.
9. There must be a universal grammar of all natural languages, and all languages must be
described in terms of these similar principles.
10. Human beings are born with an innate capacity to learn language and man is unique among
all animals in possession of speech. Successive generations seem to acquire it without special
training from parents. In this sense, language exists, and what really ‘happens’ is only the
external manifestation of the innate capacity.
11. Human beings possess an innate system that generates infinite utterances. This system enables
them to accept some sentences as grammatically acceptable and reject some as grammatically
unacceptable.
12. The sentence, rather than sound, is the natural and proper place to begin work on grammar,
and that language, however, is a relationship between sound and meaning,
3.6.6 Others
Now-a-days America is farther ahead than any other country in the world in the field of linguistics.
Among the structuralists, the works of Harris, Bloch, Trager, Smith, Wells, Hockett, etc. deserve a
special mention. Among the transformational generative grammarians the work of Katz and Fodor
and that of Fillmore is becoming the centre of attraction and attention now-a-days.

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