Part Ii: Generativism (Noam Chomsky) Chomsky's Principles
Part Ii: Generativism (Noam Chomsky) Chomsky's Principles
Part Ii: Generativism (Noam Chomsky) Chomsky's Principles
Recursiveness is the capacity to apply the rules of language more than once in
generating a structure. For example, whatever rule yields the component that chased
the cat in sentence this the dog that chased the cat, will have to be applied again to get
that killed the rat and any other similar structure which could continue the sentence
This is the dog that chased the cat that killed the rat…
According to Yule (2010), grammar is capable of revealing the basis of two other
phenomena:
1. How some superficially distinct sentences are closely related
2. How some superficially similar sentences are in fact distinct
Deep Structure and Surface Structure
Chomsky (1957), rejecting the formal analysis of sentences, distinguishes two levels
of syntactic structure in a sentence: the surface structure and the deep structure.
The surface structure (SS) is the syntactic structure of the sentence which a
person speaks or hears: it is the observable form of the sentence. Chomsky argues that
any analysis based on the surface structure encounters difficulties. Therefore, another
level of sentence structure should be taken into account.
The deep structure (DS) is much more abstract and is considered to be in the
speaker's mind. It refers to certain important generalizations about the structure of the
sentence which are different from its surface. The deep structure contains all the syntactic
information needed for the understanding of a given sentence. The deep structure is
converted into a surface structure after the application of a specific kind of rules called
transformational rules (TRs).
DS TRs SS
2. Introspection
This sentence implied internal relations which are identical to those found in the
sentence “John refused to come”, although there is nothing in the 1ST sentence which says
that the internal relations between (John and refusal) are the same as those between
(John and refused). In addition, the speaker of a language is able to perceive the ambiguity
in the sentence like: “Visiting relatives is a nuisance”. In this sentence there is only one
surface structure but at least two deep structures according to whether the speaker
means: He visits relatives or relatives visit him.
To convince himself that the sentence has a given meaning, the linguist recites it
several times with or without voicing. He/she thinks about the situations in order to
interpret the sentence:
The innateness hypothesis asserts that language ability is innate in humans. Humans
are genetically predisposed to acquire and use language. This principle claims that babies
are born with knowledge that languages have patterns and with the ability to seek out
and identify those patterns. The main arguments in favor of innateness hypothesis are:
Language acquisition would be difficult or even impossible without an innate
grammar.
The mere existence of language universals supports the hypothesis that language
is innate.
All humans acquire language and no other animals.
“Generative” on the other hand is an adjective formed from the verb “to generate”. It
means to describe. When it is said that a rule generates a sentence, what this means in
transformational grammar is that, a particular rule or set of rules describe how a
particular linguistic element or string is formed.
Chomsky develops a notation which both orders the analytic decisions and formally
relates them to each other by deriving each decision from some previous one (first level
of transformational grammar) (Adetuyi & Olusola, 2015). The way used by Chomsky in
syntactic structures, is as follows:
Example:
Passive transformations: alters the order of elements in active sentence and adds
three further elements:
a form of the verb `be' in the appropriate tense;
(The boy) (will kick) (the ball) (The ball) (will be kicked) (by) (the boy).
(NP1) + (Aux + Verb) + (NP2) (NP2) +(Aux + be +V) + (by) + (NP1)
(Warsi, 2015)
The syntactic component consists of two sub components - The base sub-component
and the transformational sub-component. The base corresponds to the earlier phrase
structure rule; its function is to represent the underlying representations of sentences,
which is what provides the deep structure information. Transformational sub-
component produces surface structure.
GENERAIVE RULES
Deep Structure
TRANSFORMATIONAL RULES
Surface Structure
Insert T-rules add a constituent into the SS should the DS lack the required
constituent. There are many different insertion operations in the grammar. Most
insertion operations add grammatical morphemes needed in the SS.
Insert T-rule “do-support” (obligatory):
DS: NP1 + V + NP2
SS: NP1 + Aux (do) + V + NP2
The emphasis was on Kernel sentences A more stringer TGG model than the
(simple, active, affirmative and original one called “The Standard
declarative sentences) by using Theory” which had noticed the insertion
obligatory transformations and of semantic component.
necessary morphological processes
needed to arrive at actual sentences.
The key terms used are: Re-write rules, The key terms used are: competence,
phrase structure rules, transformation performance, deep and surface structure
rules and Kernel sentences. and language acquisition device.
Case Grammar is an influential grammatical analysis that emerged out of TGG. It was
devised in the late 1960s by the US linguist Charles Fillmore (1929). It is primarily a
reaction against the STANDARD-THEORY analysis of sentences, where notions such as
SUBJECT, OBJECT, etc. are neglected in favor of analysis in terms of NP, VP, etc. Case
grammar considers semantic information prior to syntactic information.
Fillmore proposed that deep structure of any sentence consists of two aspects:
Modality: features of TENSE, MOOD, ASPECT and NEGATION, relating to the
sentence as a whole.
Proposition: within which the VERB is considered central, and the various
semantic roles that ELEMENTS of structure can have are listed with reference to
it, and categorized as cases). (Bagha, 2009)
Grammar case is a form of grammar in which the structure of sentences is analyzed
in terms of semantic case relationships. The list of cases and their definitions reads as
follows:
1. Agentive: instigator of the action, animate
Hymes (1972) suggested four different ways of language use in social contexts:
1. Formally possible: The linguistic system allows a given combination of sounds
and words to be judged as grammatically acceptable. For example, someone
might say “Oh you don’t say it like that” as a response to a particular language use,
and “Oh we don’t do that sort of thing around here” as a reaction to a specific
cultural behavior. Formally impossible language use is considered ungrammatical
(Van Compernolle, 2014).
2. Feasibility: refers to psycholinguistic dimension of a speaker’s capacity such as
memory limitation and comprehension to process possible formal utterances
either in production or comprehension (Van Compernolle, 2014). For example:
in a pharmacy patient consultation context, due to memory limitation, it might not
be feasible for a patient to repeat precisely the instructions the pharmacist has
given to him or her. Likewise, the pharmacist may not find it feasible to diagnose
the patient due to his lack of medical expertise to do so (Young 2008).
It is the knowledge of the phonology, grammar and lexicon of the language (Canale
& Swain’s, 1980).
Hauser, M.D., Chomsky, N, and Warren T. F. (2002). The faculty of language: What is
it, who has it, and how did it evolve? Science 298:1569–1579. Hockett, Charles F.
1955. A Manual of Phonology. Baltimore: Waverly Press.
Young, R. F. (2008). Language and interaction. London and New York: Routledge
Yule. G. (2010). The study of language. Cambridge: Cambridge Press.