Descriptive grammar
(Syntax and Morphology)
The scope and nature of grammar.
Theories of syntax, Chomsky and theoretical
linguistics.
Transformational-generative grammar. Reasons for
studying syntax.
Grammar is
the description of syntax
But grammar may also include:
morphology (the internal structure of
words)
word formation (how new words are
formed)
Phonetics & phonology
orthography (the conventional spellings)
semantics (the meanings of words)
pragmatics (the meaning in context)
1
Descriptive and prescriptive
grammar
Descriptive grammar attempts to
describe the rules of the language
objectively, accounting for what actually
occurs.
Prescriptive grammar is evaluative,
guiding readers as to what is correct or
incorrect.
Theories of grammar
Every grammatical description
presupposes an underlying theory
Grammatical theories:
make assumptions about the nature
of natural languages,
present goals for describing them,
develop methods of argumentation,
formulation, and explanation
2
Universal grammar
Universal grammar concerns the
properties that are common to all
human languages
language universals may be absolute
without exceptions (for example, that
all languages have nouns)
Traditional grammars describe solely,
or chiefly, the written language
Chomsky and Theoretical
Linguistics
Chomsky: the goal of linguistics to be
a description of the internalized
grammar of native speakers their
mental grammar
native speakers acquire unconscious
knowledge through exposure to the
language during childhood. They do
not need to study grammar to be able
to communicate in their own
language
3
Chomsky:
competence vs. performance
Competence in language is the
underlying knowledge
Performance is the actual use made of
that knowledge
Chomsky restricts the goal of
linguistics to a description of
linguistic competence
Chomsky's
conception of competence
Chomsky's conception of competence
is the knowledge that enables a
native speaker to produce an
indefinitely large number of
sentences, some of which are novel in
the sense that they do not replicate
sentences that the speaker has
produced before
Chomsky s grammar is intended to
represent the mental grammar of the
native speaker
4
Chomsky s
innate language faculty
Chomsky claims that his theory explains
how children acquire the ability to speak at
an early age
Children are able to construct an
internalized grammar that abstracts from
the data that they are exposed to
Because children are equipped with this
innate faculty, they are able to construct an
internalized grammar quickly when they are
exposed to a particular language
According to Chomsky, the principles
required to abstract from the raw data to
construct an internalized grammar are
universal
Language universals
and parametric variations
in addition to innate absolute universals
that are common to all languages, there is
also an innate set of parameters that vary
among languages
children have to recognize which settings of
parameters are applicable to that language
Example of parametric variation: the
ordering of verbs and objects. In languages
such as English, the verb ordinarily comes
before the object, but the reverse order is
normal in a language such as Japanese
5
Transformational generative
grammar
Chomsky's theory is a type of
transformational-generative grammar
 Syntactic Structures (published in 1957)
Generate is a term introduced into linguistics
from mathematics, where it means 'provide a
precise specification for membership in a
set'
A generative grammar is intended to specify
precisely the membership of the set of all
the grammatical sentences in the language,
excluding from the set all the possible
ungrammatical sentences
The formulations of rules in
Chomsky's theory
very simple set of rules generates a large
number of sentence structures
(i) S --> NP + VP
(ii) NP --> (Det) + (Adj) + N
(iii) VP --> V + (NP)
The rules are instructions for rewriting the
symbol on the left of the arrow as a string of
one or more symbols on the right of the
arrow. The symbols stand for Sentence, Noun
Phrase, Verb Phrase, Determiner, Adjective,
Verb, and Noun
6
The lexicon & the rules
The lexicon (ideal mental dictionary) has
a list of all the possible words in the
language, their word category, and the
structures they can fit in
The combination of the rules and the
vocabulary (lexicon) allows the following
sentences, among many others:
Norman loved Sheila.
Sheila saw Norman.
Sheila called the child.
The hierarchical organization
of a sentence
7
Transformational grammar -
transformations
A transformational grammar makes use of
transformations to relate structures
phrase structural rules alone are
inadequate for language description and
transformational rules are also needed to
capture generalizations
Four types of transformational rules were
proposed: these change one structure into
another by moving, inserting, deleting,
and replacing items
(i) S --> NP + VP
(ii) NP --> (Det) + (Adj) + N
(iii) VP --> V + (NP)
Rule (i) is read as 'Rewrite S as NP plus
VP'. Put informally,
rule (i) specifies that a Sentence consists
of a Noun Phrase and a Verb Phrase.
Rule (ii) specifies that the Noun Phrase is
a Noun preceded optionally by a
Determiner and/or an Adjective.
Rule (iii) specifies that the Verb Phrase
consists of a Verb plus an optional
following Noun Phrase.
8
Transformational rules
The rule for changing an active sentence into
a passive sentence:
Passivization converts the active sentence [a]
into the passive sentence [b]
[a] Martha may take the newspaper.
[b] The newspaper may be taken by Martha
the structure to which the rule applies is:
NP1 AUX V NP2
The structural change is:
NP2 AUX + be + en V by + NP1
[a] Martha may take the newspaper.
[b] The newspaper may be taken by Martha
The rule NP2 AUX + be + en V by + NP1 involves several
components of change:
The second NP (the newspaper), which was the object of
the verb in [a], is the subject of the verb in [b] and has
accordingly been moved to the front of the sentence.
The first NP (Martha), which was the subject of the verb in
[a], becomes part of a prepositional phrase introduced by
the preposition by, and that phrase follows the verb.
May take, which consists of the auxiliary (AUX) may and
the infinitive take, is expanded by the addition of a form of
the auxiliary be (here simply be), and the main verb is
changed into the passive participle form ending in -en
(taken).
9
Deep structure and surface structure
The operation of phrase structure rules resulted
in deep (or underlying) structure, and the
operation of transformational rules on deep
structure resulted in surface structure
Examples:
active sentences are basic (deep str.), and
passive sentences are described in relation to
them (surface structure)
negative sentences are related to positive
sentences,
questions are related to statements
Grammatical and acceptable
grammatical is used to designate conformity
to the rules of a grammar based on a
particular grammatical theory
Judgements on whether sentences are well-
formed or not are judgements on their
acceptability. In a generative grammar,
sentences are either grammatical or
ungrammatical either included by the rules or
excluded.
Acceptability: not only are there disagreements
among native speakers, but also they may
evaluate certain sentences as neither completely
acceptable nor completely unacceptable
10