Generative approaches to language have long recognized the natural link between theories of knowledge representation and theories of knowledge acquisition. The basic idea is that the knowledge representations provided by Universal Grammar enable children to acquire language as reliably as they do because these representations highlight the…

Riemer (2009) complains that a large number of sentences, despite appearing to be acceptable to many native speakers of English--including himself--are treated as ungrammatical in recent works that subscribe to the generative approach to (the English) language. In his opinion, this need not be considered "as evidence of an overly narrow…

This book presents an overview of the history of the English language and of English grammars; describes and evaluates traditional grammar, transformational-generative grammar, tagmemic grammar, and stratificational grammar; and proposes sector analysis as a practical way of describing both the structure of English and the native speaker's…

THE SPECIFIC FAILINGS ARE DISCUSSED IN THE SEMANTIC THEORY OF KATZ AND FODOR PROPOSED WITHIN CHOMSKY'S CURRENT TRANSFORMATIONAL FRAMEWORK. THE FIRST DEALS WITH THE SO-CALLED "RELATIONAL" CONCEPTS. FOR EXAMPLE, IT IS NOT EASY TO SEE HOW ANY SLIGHT MODIFICATION OF THE NOTION OF "SEMANTIC FEATURE" CAN LEAD TO THE CORRECT INTERPRETATION OF COMPARATIVE…

This paper considers the way in which a grammar must account for the speaker's knowledge of sentence force as opposed to sentence form or meaning and the way in which this force is related to a sentence. According to the performative analysis approach, the force of each sentence should be stated explicitly as a part of the underlying…

THE PAPER QUESTIONS THE ADEQUACY OF CHOMSKY'S PROPOSALS FOR FORMALLY RECONSTRUCTING THE DISTINCTION BETWEEN GRAMMATICAL CATEGORIES AND GRAMMATICAL FUNCTIONS. THE DEEP STRUCTURE VALIDITY OF THE NOTIONS "SUBJECT" AND "OBJECT" IS ALSO QUESTIONED. THE WRITER PROPOSES TO RECOGNIZE, INSTEAD, VARIOUS INTRODUCED NOUN PHRASES SUGGESTIVE…

THE VARIOUS TYPES OF PRENOMINAL MODIFIERS IN ENGLISH ARE STUDIED WITHIN THE GENERAL FRAMEWORK OF A TRANSFORMATIONAL GRAMMAR. TWO DISTINCT, BUT INTERRELATED PROBLEMS ARE INVOLVED--THE DERIVATION OF EACH OF THE TYPES OF SINGLE MODIFIERS, EITHER TRANSFORMATIONALLY OR FROM CONSTITUENT STRUCTURE RULES, AND THE GRAMMATICAL IMPLICATIONS OF COMBINING THEM…

AN ATTEMPT IS MADE, WITHIN THE GENERAL FRAMEWORK OF A TRANSFORMATIONAL GRAMMAR, TO ACCOUNT FOR THE PREDICTABILITY OF STRESS IN TERMS OF ITS UNDERLYING PHRASE STRUCTURES, TO PROVIDE SOME EXPLANATION FOR THE CONSTRUCTIONAL HOMONYMITY OF CONTRASTIVE STRESS IN SOME CASES, AND TO ILLUSTRATE WITH EXAMPLES FROM AMERICAN ENGLISH AND MANDARIN CHINESE…

This collection of articles written over a period of 10 years concerning the transformational syntax of English has been divided into six sections. The articles in the first section provide background material for the reader with no specialized linguistic preparation. They present the fundamental questions that linguists are now asking, some of…

The authors present for the undergraduate and graduate linguistics student a transformational approach to the study of English grammar. Their discussion begins with a description of the structure of sentences, outlined according to the transformational grammarian's framework of linguistic universals. This set of principles "makes possible the…

This article attempts to justify the surface presence of English split infinitives in terms of the deep structure of the language posited by current transformation theory." (FWB)

This dissertation is an attempt to characterize the notion "exception to a rule of grammar" within the context of Chomsky's conception of grammar as given in "Aspects of the Theory of Syntax." This notion depends on a prior notion of "rule government"--in each phrase marker on which a transformational rule may…

Proposes a simple grammar of modern English stressing the independence of grammar from the logical structure of sentences. Available from Liber Laeromedel, Box 1205, S-22105 Lund, Sweden. (TL)

THE DEFINITE AND INDEFINITE DETERMINERS AND THEIR RELATIONSHIPS TO MODIFYING CLAUSE STRUCTURES IN ENGLISH AND MANDARIN CHINESE ARE STUDIED WITHIN THE GENERAL FRAMEWORK OF TRANSFORMATIONAL GRAMMAR, AS PRESENTED BY KATZ AND POSTAL. A BRIEF SURVEY OF THE FORM-CLASS AND EARLIER TRANSFORMATIONAL APPROACHES TO THE PROBLEM IS MADE WITH THE CONCLUSION…

This paper is concerned with the grammar of cognate constructions, which are defined as those in which the object and verb have the same meaning ("I drank a drink of water"). In the transformational process of dissimilation the verb is replaced by "have" or "do," so that verb and object are less alike. The model used…