Generative Grammar

Generative Grammar

1. is

   • The study of the sequences of words which form the structure of sentences
     • One fundamental of the generative grammar is that not only do words occure in a lineal order, they also enter into hierarchical relationships with one one another within coherent units known as "constituents".
       • It is important to distinguish between the two levels for two reasons:
         • 1. different sequences on the surface – as in an active sentence and its passive counterpart such as The dog uncovered the bone and The bone was uncovered by the dog – may have (roughly) the same meaning and hence identical D-structures, but different S-structures
         • 2. similar or identical sequences on the surface – as in a case of structural ambiguity such as Flying planes can be dangerous – may have different meanings and hence different D-structure, though their S-structures are the same.

2. was born

   • In 1957 when the book Syntatic Structures was published by Noam Chomsky who argued that immediate constituent analysis, though not wrong, was insufficient since it dealt with the surface order.
     • It couldn't account for the relation between an active and corresponding passive sentence or a declarative and corresponding interrogative sentence which have different linear orders.

3. in

   • The classical “standard” form of generative grammar, it was argued that syntax consisted of two types of rules, phrase structure rules and transformations. 2 Phrase structure rules account for the form of D-structures which are:
     • 1. Simple (as opposed to complex). 2. Active (as opposed to passive). 3. Declarative (as opposed to interrogative or imperative). 4. Positive (as opposed to negative) sentences.
       • The phrase structure rules specify what is a constituent of what, or in other words, they reveal the hierarchical structures of sentences. Transformations perform various syntactic operations on the output of the phrase structure rules to produce surface structures. They may move, transpose, add, and delete elements, but they may not change meaning.
         • Generative grammar is concerned exclusively with the form of sentences, distinguishing between “grammatical” (or “acceptable”) and “meaningful”.

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