Generative grammar

GENERATIVE GRAMMAR AND COMPETENCE/PERFORMANCE DISTINCTION

Milijana Stošić Galina Vasiljčuk

GENERATIVE GRAMMAR AND COMPETENCE/PERFORMANCE DISTINCTION

In theoretical linguistics, a generative grammar refers to a particular approach to the study of syntax.

A generative grammar of a language attempts to give a set of rules that will correctly predict which combinations of words will form grammatical sentences.

Generative grammar arguably originates in the work of Noam Chomsky, beginning in the late 1950s.

Most versions of generative grammar characterize sentences as either grammatically correct (also known as well formed) or not.

GENERATIVE GRAMMAR AND COMPETENCE/PERFORMANCE DISTINCTION

Avram Noam Chomsky (December 7, 1928) is an American linguist, philosopher, cognitive scientist, logician, political commentator and anarcho-syndicalist activist. Sometimes described as the "father of modern linguistics",Chomsky is also a major figure in analytic philosophy

GENERATIVE GRAMMAR AND COMPETENCE/PERFORMANCE DISTINCTION

This theory which is often given the blanket name Generative Grammar has had many different names through its development : •Transformational Grammar (TG), •Transformational Generative Grammar, •Standard Theory, •Extended Standard Theory, •Government and Binding Theory (GB), •Principles and Parameters approach (P&P) and •Minimalism (MP)),.

GENERATIVE GRAMMAR AND COMPETENCE/PERFORMANCE DISTINCTION

Chomsky introduced two central ideas relevant to grammatical theories.

The first was the distinction between competence and performance.

The second idea explains how we produce and understand sentences we haven’t heard before

GENERATIVE GRAMMAR AND COMPETENCE/PERFORMANCE DISTINCTION

 Central to Chomsky’s approach to the study of language is a distinction drawn between a native speaker’s competence and his performance Since the publication of Noam Chomsky's Aspects of the Theory of Syntax in 1965

COMPETENCE

PERFORMANCE

The unconscious knowledge of grammar that allows a speaker to use and understand a language.

The ability to produce and comprehend sentences in a language.

GENERATIVE GRAMMAR AND COMPETENCE/PERFORMANCE DISTINCTION

Central to his theory was explanation of knowledge that underlies the human ability to speak and understand.

One of the most important of his ideas is that humans have an innate ‘’language faculty’’ with the result that a baby is born wired to acquire language and needs only actually learn the idiosyncratic features of the language's he or she is exposed to.

In learning their native languages, children acquire specific rules that determine the sound and meaning of utterances in the language.

These rules interact with each other in complex ways, and the entire system is learned in a relatively short time and with little or no apparent conscious effort.

GENERATIVE GRAMMAR AND COMPETENCE/PERFORMANCE DISTINCTION

Generative transformational grammar tries to explain language creativity: how we are able to utter and interpret sentences we have not heard before.

Creativity is made possible by the generative nature of transformational grammar.

In order to create and understand newly generated sentences, we must depend on our language competence.

GENERATIVE GRAMMAR AND COMPETENCE/PERFORMANCE DISTINCTION

Chomsky's theory offers math-based rules that we can use to visually illustrate how speakers of English -- and all languages -put sentences together.

In generative grammar, the means for modeling these procedures is through a set of formal grammatical rules.

They tell you the order in which to put your words.

In English, for example, we put the subject of a sentence before its verb. This is the kind of information encoded in generative rules. These rules are thought to generate the sentences of a language, hence the name generative grammar.

GENERATIVE GRAMMAR AND COMPETENCE/PERFORMANCE DISTINCTION

In 1957, Noam Chomsky published Syntactic Structures, in which he developed the idea that each sentence in a language has two levels of representation — a deep structure and a surface structure In contrast to deep structure (an abstract representation of a sentence), surface structure corresponds to the version of a sentence that can be spoken and heard.

In transformational grammar, deep structures are generated by phrasestructure rules, and surface structures are derived from deep structures by a series of transformations.

Chomsky believed there are considerable similarities between languages' deep structures, and that these structures reveal properties, common to all languages that surface structures conceal.

GENERATIVE GRAMMAR AND COMPETENCE/PERFORMANCE DISTINCTION Consider these sentences:

Deep structures represents the meaning of the sentence.

Surface structures represents sentences that express those meanings (superficial appearance)

(1) You close the door.

(2) The door is closed by you.

(3) Close the door!

Surface structure can be defined as the syntactic form they take as actual sentences.

They seem to be identical, since they have the same undelying abstract representation that is called deep structure.

GENERATIVE GRAMMAR AND COMPETENCE/PERFORMANCE DISTINCTION

GENERATIVE GRAMMAR AND COMPETENCE/PERFORMANCE DISTINCTION TREE-DIAGRAM

S --> NP + VP "a sentence consists of a noun phrase followed by a verb phrase"

John snores.

Everyone likes the show.

A book lay on the table.

The dogs chased after the children.

GENERATIVE GRAMMAR AND COMPETENCE/PERFORMANCE DISTINCTION

S --> NP + VP NP --> Det + NP NP --> N VP --> V + NP

GENERATIVE GRAMMAR AND COMPETENCE/PERFORMANCE DISTINCTION

These phrase structure rules fulfill at least three roles: 1.they show how sentences can be broken down to illustrate their structure 2.they show a general manner of creating sentences 3.they provide a way for us to compare languages

Generative grammar is a branch of theoretical linguistics that works to provide a set of rules that can accurately predict which combinations of words are able to make grammatically correct sentences.

The rules set out by this branch of theoretical linguistics can be considered a type of algorithm designed to predict grammaticality with a "yes" or "no" result.

GENERATIVE GRAMMAR AND COMPETENCE/PERFORMANCE DISTINCTION

Sources (12/18/2014) : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noam_Chomsky https://www.princeton.edu/~browning/gg.html http://grammar.about.com/od/fh/g/gengrammterm.htm http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Generative_grammar http://grammar.about.com/od/rs/g/Surface-Structure-term.htm http://www.slideshare.net/NailunNaja/presentation-generatiftransformational-grammar-recovered http://awinlanguage.blogspot.com.tr/2012/04/deep-structure-vs-surfacestructure.html Introduction to the study of English, Workbook, pg39-40