IDB 157 # 2

1. IDB 157# 2 Grammar Types of Grammmar Universal Grammar S. Nalan Büyükkantarcıoğlu

2. What is Grammar?

3. What is yourdefinition? • How manydifferenttypes of grammar can youidentify?

4. Types of Grammar • Prescriptive Grammar: • Descriptive Grammar: • Universal Grammar: • Mental Grammar: • Developmental Grammar: • Pedagogical Grammar: ?

5. Prescriptive Grammar: a set of prescribed rules which tells people how to speak/write • A set of “rules” about how you SHOULD speak or write; gives judgments on which structures are CORRECT and which are INCORRECT • Their influence lives on in the handbook of usage widely found today. e.g. double negative(=affirmative), *ain’t *it’s me, ending sentences with preposition (*Who are you talking to?) * I don’thavenothing, etc.

6. Descriptive Grammar: how people do speak in actual utterances • Linguistic description of the structures of a language as they are observed to be used, with no evaluation (non-judgmental) of social correctness. • Collins Cobuild dictionary example—huge corpus analyzed and described e.g.Either of the dictionaries are/is good. (but should be “is” according to prescriptive view) e.g. Neither of the books were/was a good buy.

7. Prescriptive vs. Descriptive • Rules of etiquette or laws of society • Rules about correct or socially accepted sentences • Rules explicitly taught • Based on the more favored variants • Rules of scientific observations • Rules about all sentences of a language • Rules followed effortlessly and consistently • Document all variants without discrimination

8. Descriptivegrammars • A corpus of data • Analysis • Derivation of rules • Confimation of sampleswithrules • Descriptivegrammar

9. American Structuralism • How is descriptive linguistics done? • IC Analysis

10. American Structuralism: A brief history • Descriptive linguistics is the study and analysis of spoken language. The techniques of descriptive linguistics were devised by German American anthropologist Franz Boas and American linguist and anthropologist Edward Sapir in the early 1900s to record and analyze Native American languages. • Franz Boas: Handbook of American Indian Languages (1911 • He saw grammar as a description of how human speech in a language is organized. A descriptive grammar should describe the relationships of speech elements in words and sentences. • Leonard Bloomfield, • best known for his commitment to linguistics as an independent science and his insistence on using scientific procedures. • His major work, Language (1933) is regarded as the classic text of structural linguistics, also called structuralism.

12. IC analysis • The basic concern of the descriptive approach is to investigate the distribution of forms in a language. The method used is one of substitution. • Constituent: a grammatical unit which is part of a larger grammatical unit -- e.g., sentence = noun phrase + verb phrase; noun phrase = determiner + noun; "subject", ”verb", "determiner" and "noun" etc. are constituents • IC analysis is designed to show how small constituents in a sentence combine to form larger constituents. • My || parents | bought ||| two tickets || at ||| Christmas.

13. Mental Grammar: Internal linguistic knowledge Grammar Phonology (Morphology) Syntax Semantics • Linguistic knowledge in the mind • Here, we’ll just consider grammatical knowledge as structural knowledge; but NOTE you also must know how to USE the structural knowledge.

14. Grammar mental grammar ling. etiquette the nature of lang. (psycholing. view) (socioling. view) (ling. view in general) Internal ling. knowledge social attitudes a description of the grammar (what goes on in lang. and values (study and analysis of the user’s mind; sub- (proper or best structures found in a lang.) conscious, not result structures to be of any teaching) used in a lang.)

15. Pedagogical Grammar: teaching grammars widely used in schools • A “teaching grammar”—designed for developing NS students’ awareness of their mother tongue, or for teaching a language as a foreign language. • Often a combination of descriptive & prescriptive grammars; more contemporary pedagogical grammars moving away from prescriptive. e.g. M. Swam. Practical English Usage or a textbook ; a grammar book.

16. Universal Grammar • Grammaras a form of internal linguistic knowledge that operates in the appropriate production and comprehension of natural languages.

17. Universal Grammar • Grammaras a form of internal linguistic knowledge that operates in the appropriate production and comprehension of natural languages.

18. Universal Grammar • Knowledge of Language • Lexicon -Grammar • Knowledge of words -Knowledge of rules • Learned -Innate • Language specific -Language Universal • Universal Grammar • The grammar which characterizes the innate predisposition to learn language. UG is a set of rules that all human possess by virtue of having certain common genetic features which sitinguish them from other species.

19. Universal Grammar • Definition: “a set of limits” on the formof mental grammar. • Two kinds of limits: 1. Principles: invariable principles which dictate the form that grammar can take. 2. Parameters: strictly defined possibilities of variation across languages. (There is limited number in choices)

20. UG: the linguisticsystem involvesrules too abstract and complex to be learned without the aid of innate knowledge about the nature of the system. • The child is equipped with a set of blueprints that define and limit what a human language can be like.

21. The child is assumed to be biologically equipped with knowledge of universal grammar—the basics of lang. structure. • The child has blueprints for all the possible types of lang. in his/her head. In the course of languagedevelopment s/he settles on the particular grammar of the languagesurrounding him/her.

22. Goals of a theory of grammar • Universality: a theory of grammar should provide us with the tools needed to describle the grammar of any natural language adequately. • Descriptive adequacy: a grammar of a given language has descriptive adequacy if it explains observed language data and the intuitions of native speakers about the grammaticality of sentences of a language. • Explanatory adequacy: a theory of grammar has explanatory adequacy if it explains how native speakers of a language can arrive at the knowledge of that language. • Learnability: an adequate linguistic theory must provide adequate grammars which are learnable by young children in a relatively short period of time. i.e., it must account for the uniformity and rapidity of language acquisition, given the poverty of stimulus.

23. Generative-Tranformational Grammar • TG developed in the 1950s in the context of “cognitive revolution”, which marked a shift of focus from a concern with human behaviour to the mental processes underlying human behaviour.

24. Chomsky and UG • Chomskyanrevolution

25. Chomskyan revolution • Chomsky, • has attracted worldwide attention with his ground-breaking research into the nature of human language and communication. • has become the center of a debate that transcends formal linguistics to embrace psychology, philosophy, and even genetics. • his "formulation of 'transformational grammar' has been acclaimed as one of the major achievements of the century. • his work has been compared to the unraveling of the genetic code of the DNA molecule." • his discoveries have had an impact "on everything from the way children are taught foreign languages to what it means when we say that we are human." • is also an impassioned critic of American foreign policy, especially as it affects ordinary citizens of Third World nations.

26. Central Claims • Main features of TG Grammar • Chomsky’s TG Grammar differs from the structural grammar in a number of ways: • (1) rationalism; • (2) innateness; • (3) deductive methodology; • (4) formalization; • (5) emphasis on linguistic competence; • (6) strong generative powers; • (7) emphasis on linguistic universals.

27. A historical review of UG • 50-60s • Standard theory • Extended Standard Theory • 80s • Government and Binding Theory • Principle and Parameter Theory • 90s • MinimalistProgram

28. Deep Structure and Surface Structure