Generative Transformation Alfredo Zulueta Professor Gestalt James Tobin

Generative Transformation Alfredo Zulueta Professor Gestalt James Tobin University January 12 th, 2019

Transformational grammar (TG) Transformational-generative grammar (TGG) GENERATIVE GRAMMAR ¨A system of language analysis that recognizes the relationship among the various elements of a sentence and among the possible sentences of a language and uses processes or rules (some of which are called transformations) to express these relationships. ¨ A theory process of how language is created by human from the brain to spoken or written form.

Transformational rule Is a rule that transforms syntactic structure. Deletion, Insertion, and movement. ¨Transformational Grammar can be best summarized by adding, deleting, moving, and substituting of words.

Surface structure and a deep structure Surface structure is how the sentence is actually represented. Deep structure is the abstract representation that identifies the ways a sentence can be analyzed and interpreted. Different surface same meaning.

STRUCTURES (1) You close the door. (active) (2) The door is closed by you. (passive) (3) Close the door! (imperative)

(1) You close the door. (active) (2) The door is closed by you. (passive) (3) Close the door! (imperative)

James D. Williams ¨Chomsky had identified a basic grammatical structure in Syntactic Structures [1957] that he referred to as kernel sentences… ¨In [Aspects of the Theory of Syntax, 1965], Chomsky abandoned the notion of kernel sentences and identified the underlying constituents of sentences as deep structure. The deep structure was versatile insofar as it accounted for meaning and provided the basis for transformations that turned deep structure into surface structure, which represented what we actually hear or read. Transformation rules, therefore, connected deep structure and surface structure, meaning and syntax. ¨

David Crystal ¨It seems that both deep and surface structures enter into the determination of meaning. Deep structure provides the grammatical relations of predication, modification, and so on, that enter into the determination of meaning. On the other hand, it appears that matters of focus and presupposition, topic and comment, the scope of logical elements, and pronominal reference are determined, in part at least, by surface structure. The rules that relate syntactic structures to representations of meaning are not at all well understood. In fact, the notion of 'representation of meaning' or 'semantic representation' is itself highly controversial. It is not clear at all that it is possible to distinguish sharply between the contribution of grammar to the determination of meaning, and the contribution of so-called 'pragmatic considerations, ' questions of fact and belief and context of utterance. ¨

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References www. britannica. com/topic/transformational-grammar Chomsky, Noam (1965). Aspects of the Theory of Syntax. MIT Press. www. glottopedia. org/index. php/Transformational_rule David Crystal, A Dictionary of Linguistics and Phonetics, 4 th ed. Blackwell, 1997 James D. Williams, The Teacher's Grammar Book. Lawrence Erlbaum, 1999 awinlanguage. blogspot. com/2012/04/deep-structure-vs-surface-structure. html en. wikipedia. org/wiki/Transformational_grammar