Transformational grammar explains how formal grammatical rules can relate different forms of a sentence. This lesson introduces the two levels of sentence representation, the phrase-structure rules that generate structures, and transformations that connect or build those structures.
Transformational grammar represents a sentence at two related levels. Deep structure captures core semantic relations, such as which participant is the agent and which is affected. Surface structure is the form associated more closely with the sentence's pronunciation and word order.
All flashcards
What is deep structure?
A level of representation that captures a sentence's core semantic relations, such as the relationships between participants and actions.
What is surface structure?
The sentence representation that corresponds more closely to its expressed form and phonological pattern.
What does subject-auxiliary inversion do?
It places an auxiliary before the subject in many English questions, as in “John has eaten” becoming “Has John eaten?”
How do generalized transformations work?
They combine smaller structures or kernels to build a larger structure, rather than merely changing an already-built structure.
What are Merge and Move in Minimalism?
Merge combines elements, while Move relates positions; both are operations in Minimalist syntax.
Quiz questions
Why is “Colorless green ideas sleep furiously” often cited in discussions of grammaticality?Answer: Its grammatical form is unusual in meaning.
What is the main role of phrase-structure rules in transformational grammar?Answer: They generate basic sentence structures and constituent relationships.
How does subject-auxiliary inversion form a question from “John has eaten all the heirloom tomatoes”?Answer: It places the auxiliary “has” before the subject “John.”
What does explanatory adequacy add to a grammar's account of a language?Answer: It seeks insight into mental representations and language acquisition.
What does a generative grammar aim to characterize?Answer: All and only the grammatical sentences of a language.