Transformational Grammar p.33 - p.43

1. Transformational Grammarp.33 - p.43 Jack October 30th, 2012

2. Table of Contents • Language and Grammar • Deep and Surface structure • Transformational Rules • Issues in Grammatical Theory • The Centrality of Syntax • Is Language Innate?

3. Language and Grammar • From a linguistic perspective, a grammar is a description of a person’s linguistic knowledge.

4. 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.

5. Language and Grammar • Evaluation of Grammars: • Chomsky (1972) has suggested three criteria: • First, observational adequacy • Second, descriptive adequacy • Third, explanatory adequacy

6. 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

7. Deep and Surface structure • Three arguments for usefulness of distinction: • First, deep-structure ambiguity • Second, underlying structure • Third, active vs. passive

8. Transformational Rules • Transformational rules (transformations): • applied to the deep structure and the intermediate structures, ultimately generating the surface structure of the sentence

9. Transformational Rules • Examples: • First, particle-movement transformation • blocked with pronoun • Second, passive transformation

10. 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.

11. 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.

12. 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 revealedthe relationship of possessing difficulty, so some assumptions guiding DTC are faulty.

13. 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.

14. The Centrality of Syntax • Chomsky (1995) • syntactic structure is the heart of our linguistic knowledge. It’s controversial.

15. 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.

16. 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.

17. 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

18. Evolution of Language • Criticize: • Pinker and Jackendoff (2005): • There are many aspects of grammar that are not recursive, such as morphology.

19. Is Language Innate? • Nativists assert that children are born with some linguistic knowledge and empiricists. Are there any evidence?

20. 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)

21. 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

22. 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.