The ability to generate novel utterances compositionally using generative knowledge is a hallmark property of human language. At the same time, languages contain non-compositional or idiosyncratic items, such as irregular verbs, idioms, etc. This dissertation asks how and why language achieves a balance between these two systems--generative and…

This booklet is intended to enable the beginner in the field of transformational grammar to read and gain information about much of the contemporary scholarly literature on grammar (of foreign languages as well as of English). Sections in the book discuss phrase structure grammar; transformational rules--movement rules, insertion rules,…

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…

Discusses phrase structure and marking rules (for number and case) in Zuni transitive and intransitive verbs. (DD)

In order to mechanize the processing of natural language, the linguist must make the machine interpret the meaning, or semantic content of the language, in some way or other. This means that the machine should extract not only syntactic but also semantic information from the source sentence through the analysis of it. In this paper, the authors…

Special issue on "Changing Linguistics." (DD)

This generative-transformational model of Capanahua phonology aims (1) to make available to linguistic science data analyzed from the point of view of an explanatory, unified theory of language; and (2) to test some conclusions suggested by those data, with respect to language universals. Chapters treat phrase structure rules, transformational…

Paper presented at the 1972 Summer Meeting of the Linguistic Society of America, Chapel Hill, N.C. (DD)

The goal of these two seventh-grade language units is to provide some basic understanding about the structure and complexity of the English language and about the human ability to handle that language in ordinary speech situations. The first unit inductively presents a set of ordered rules which follow the conventions of modern symbolic logic and…

THE PAPERS IN THIS VOLUME--CATEGORIZED AS EITHER (1) AUTOMATIC ANALYSES OF NATURAL LANGUAGES, (2) STATISTIC AND SEMANTIC ANALYSES OF LINGUISTIC DATA, OR (3) ALGEBRAIC THEORIES OF LANGUAGES--ARE THE COLLECTIVE PRODUCT OF THE INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON COMPUTATIONAL LINGUISTICS HELD AT GRENOBLE, FRANCE, AUGUST 23-25, 1967. TOPICS RANGE FROM…

This volume presents a study of the clause as a verb-centered construction surrounded by certain nuclear constituents which serve to subcategorize it. Five India-Nepal languages are examined: Kotia Oriya, Kupia, and Maithili (Indo-Aryan family); and Dhanghar-Kurux and Kolani (Dravidian family). Dhangar-Kurux and Maithili are spoken in Nepal, the…

A collection of papers on linguistics includes: "Italian Comparatives of Inequality with 'Che' and 'Di'" (Adrian C. Battye); "A Note on Passives in GPSG [Generalized Phrase Structure Grammar]" (Robert D. Borsley); "Reduplicated Constructions in Chinese and Questions of Generative Power" (Jonathan Calder); "A Note on Subcategorization, Constituent…

This book attempts to provide a broad and not too highly technical coverage of linguistic theory, both historically and in its current status. Although no particular viewpoint is espoused, a penchant for transformation generative grammar is apparent. The text discusses language as a means of communication, the physiology of articulation,…