transformational grammar p.33 - p.43
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Transformational Grammarp.33 - p.43
Jack
October 30th, 2012
Table of Contents
• Language and Grammar
• Deep and Surface structure
• Transformational Rules
• Issues in Grammatical Theory
• The Centrality of Syntax
• Is Language Innate?
Language and Grammar
• From a linguistic perspective, a grammar is a description of a person’s linguistic knowledge.
Language and Grammar
• Definition of Language :– A language can be defined as an infinite set
of well-formed sentences.
• Grammar:– A formal device with a finite set of rules that
generates the sentences in the language.
Language and Grammar
• Evaluation of Grammars:– Chomsky (1972) has suggested three criteria:
• First, observational adequacy
• Second, descriptive adequacy
• Third, explanatory adequacy
Deep and Surface structure
• Deep structure:– the underlying structure of a sentence that
conveys the meaning of a sentence
• Surface structure:– the superficial arrangement of constituents
and reflects the order in which the words are pronounced
Deep and Surface structure
• Three arguments for usefulness of distinction:
– First, deep-structure ambiguity
– Second, underlying structure
– Third, active vs. passive
Transformational Rules
• Transformational rules (transformations):– applied to the deep structure and the
intermediate structures, ultimately generating the surface structure of the sentence
Transformational Rules
• Examples:
– First, particle-movement transformation• blocked with pronoun
– Second, passive transformation
Issues in Grammatical Theory
• Psychological Reality of Grammar
– Belief:• Structure and rules of transformational grammar
were psychologically real.
– Assumption:• Surface structure was the starting point for
comprehension and the deep structure was the ending point.
Issues in Grammatical Theory
• Derivational Theory of Complexity (DTC):
– The distance between surface and deep structure would be an accurate index of the psychological complexity.
Issues in Grammatical Theory
• Early studies:– Negative were more difficult to comprehend.
• Later Studies:– Affirmative were more difficult to comprehend.
* No intuition and experiment has revealed the relationship of possessing difficulty, so some assumptions guiding DTC are faulty.
Issues in Grammatical Theory
• Recent grammatical theory:
– Using the leaving trace of passive voice
– Proved that passive voice are more difficult or slow to understand comparing to active sentence.
– Zurif and Swinney (1994) suggest that traces have psychological reality.
The Centrality of Syntax
• Chomsky (1995)– syntactic structure is the heart of our linguistic
knowledge.
It’s controversial.
The Centrality of Syntax
• Two alternative approaches:– Bresnan (1978)
• lexical functional grammar/psychologically realistic grammar
• Greater emphasis on individual lexical items
• Storing syntactic information in the lexical entry simplifies the process of comprehending sentences.
The Centrality of Syntax
• Two alternative approaches:– Jackendoff (2002)
• Grammars have multiple sets of function rules and a complete account of grammar requires attention to the interfaces between different systems.
• These systems operates in parallel.
• It might be easier to understand the evolution of language.
Evolution of Language
• The relationship between grammar and evolution:– Hauser, Chomsky, and Fitch (2002):
• FLB (faculty of language in the broad sense)– memory– cognitive skills– intentional behaviors between humans
• FLN (faculty of language in the narrow sense)– the capacity of recursion– mapping meanings onto sound
Evolution of Language
• Criticize:– Pinker and Jackendoff (2005):
• There are many aspects of grammar that are not recursive, such as morphology.
Is Language Innate?
• Nativists assert that children are born with some linguistic knowledge and empiricists.
Are there any
evidence?
Is Language Innate?
• Evidence:
– Without presenting consistent linguistic model, they have the capacity to invent some aspects of language.
– Deaf children invented hands gestures that are similar to ASL (American Sign Language)
Is Language Innate?
• Parameter:– a grammatical feature that can be set to any
of several values.
• example: null-subject parameter» English is a subject language» Italian is a null subject language
Is Language Innate?
• Parameter-setting theorists– Chomsky (1981) ; Hyams (1986)
• Children are born with parameters and values.
• the importance of experience
• shows a tidy solution of how innate processes interact with a child’s language experience.
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