gram desc

Branch of linguistics dealing with phrase structure rules and forming sentences

The knowledge allowing native speakers to produce and understand an unlimited number of grammatical sentences

Noam Chomsky

1957 - release of Chomsky's "Syntactical Structures"

Because we can generate unlimted grammatical sentences

It's a hierarchical structure

to learn a language, so that our mind can embrace it and understand it

Grammatical sentence follows grammatical and syntactic rules, a meaningful sentence has semantic sense. Grammatical sentence does not have to be meaningful

colorless green ideas sleep furiously - grammatical but not meaningful /Furiously sleep ideas green colourless - ungrammatical and not meaningful

It follows English syntactic rules

because it violates syntactic rules of English

Hierarchical relationships

it is independent of meaning.

Relates to different interpretations of the same syntactic structure

The fact that we have different D-structures which may correspond to the same surface form

Because they can have different D-structures

who wants to please whom here - she is eager - wants to please other, easy to please - it is easy to please her

The underlying meaning of a sentence

grammatical functions (e.g.subject-object relation)

The physical level of a sentence

Because a sentence can have different meanings but the same form. Form (s- actual linear structure ) vs interpretation (d- abstract level).

John ate the cake/The cake was eaten by John. Even though S-structure is different here, in both sentences John is the agent and cake is the theme. This showcases that D and S structures are different things

same as before - John ate the cake/The cake was eaten by John

Rules that generate the basic structures of sentences.

simple, active, declarative and positive (basic declarative sentences)

Rules that modify surface structures of sentences

They derive different sentences

move
add
delete
rearrange

No.

Through a transformational rule

ICA was a proposal of structural linguists. It could not explain the relationships among different sentence forms

Structuralism only explains surface patterns, while generative grammar explains hierarchy and underlying meaning

They are the backbone of generative grammar. They explain meaning beyond the surface of a sentence

surface word order alone cannot express the full range of grammatical, semantic, and structural relationships that human languages encode. They help us connect D-structure with S-structure

It treats language as rule-governed system, able to generate an infinite amount of sentences

The Base Component (Phrase‑Structure Component) and The Transformational Component

Hierarchical subparts of sentences

1. Structure (hierarchy, heads, complements)
2. Category (lexical/functional)
3. Distribution (where they can appear)
4. Function (subject, object, adjunct)
5. Diagnostics (tests that reveal constituency)
6. Dependencies (agreement, Case, binding)
7. Movement and constraints (how constituents behave under transformations)

Because there are layers of different structures in a sentence

It depends on function in the sentence, context (it is only a constituent if it behaves as a unit under syntactic operations)

Depends on how it functions in a particular sentence

Suzie took in the winter scene (in forms a constituent with the verb took, hence in the winter scene is not a constituent here)/They won't survive in the winter (you can replace in the winter with another unit)

They are ways of checking if a phrase is a constituent or not

Replacement constituency test, movement c t , conjunction c t , question-answer test.

Replace constituent with another constituent, pronoun etc

I received ... for my birthday

Moving the constituent in the sentence. Can be done by fronting, inversion, cleft sentence.

Jacques ate a hamburger for dinner/For dinner Jacques ate a hamburger

Constituents can be joined by conjunctions such as and or or

She read the newspaper and ate lunch

Creating a question out of the sentence, where the constituent would be the answer

Jacques ate a hamburger for dinner. --> What did Jacques eat for dinner? A hamburger.

modifier-head, governor-compliment

they have a one-way dependency

the head

because the modifier describes its atribute

modifying the head, giving some attribute to it

blue (modifier) eyes (head)

because "deep" modifies the colour (blue), not "eyes"

"You dance gracefully"

mutual dependency (the governor requires the complement to complete its meaning)

modifier-head have a one-way dependency, meaning head can exist without the modifier. Governor-complinent have mutual dependency.

it determines what kind of complement is needed for it

completes the meaning of the governor

relationship between subject and predicate

My grandma (subjects) is asleep (predicate)

on (governor) the table (complement) (prepositions always govern a complement, usually a noun phrase)

afraid (governor) of the dark (complement)

depend (governor) on her (compliment)

She read (governor) the book (complement)

They allow us to discover the hidden hierarchical structures of sentences

linear order does not reliably reveal hierarchical structure (D structure vs S structure)

Word order is what we see, and hierarchical structure shows word relationships within a sentence. (For instance, while various languages can have different linear orders of sentences, while constituency is universal)

modifier-head have one-way dependency (if we remove the modifier, the head still remains a grammatical phrase), while governor-complement have mutual dependency (removing the complement breaks the phrase's grammar)

By using constituency tests

pronouns

'do' or 'do too' (e.g. Sarah read the book in the library -> Sarah did so in the library)

'then' or 'there'

Single adjectives