Special issue devoted to the study of generative grammar in German-speaking countries. (VM)

Sketches Noam Chomsky's conception of language, the ways it can and should be studied, and how it works as a scientific enterprise. (Author/GT)

Eight experiments evaluated a core assumption of several theories of text processing, the shared resource assumption, which states that component text processes share limited processing resources. Short texts each contained two critical sentences that together warranted a causal inference. The syntactic structure of the second sentence was either…

In early transformational generative grammar, it was assumed that all semantic interpretation would be done off deep structure, but with the proposals for the extended standard theory (EST) of Chomsky (1968, 1972) came the realization that certain aspects of semantic interpretation, such as focus and presuppostion and scope of quantifiers, must be…

Paper presented before the linguistic section of The Siam Society on May 12, 1971. Stresses the need for grammar theories which do not prevent linguists from identifying unusual syntactic structures in the less-studied languages of the world. (VM)

Earlier version of this paper was read at the Kansas Regional Linguistics Conference in Lawrence, Kansas, October 1968. (DS)

AN IMPORTANT HYPOTHESIS OF GENERATIVE GRAMMATICAL THEORY IN RECENT YEARS HAS BEEN THAT GRAMMATICAL TRANSFORMATIONS ARE MEANING-PRESERVING. THIS THESIS IS AN ATTEMPT TO SHOW THAT IF CERTAIN OTHER COMMON THEORETICAL ASSUMPTIONS ARE HELD CONSTANT, THAT HYPOTHESIS IS UNTENABLE. RULES OF WORD-DERIVATION--SUFFIXATION, PREFIXATION,…

In the past, linguistic descriptions of the relationships common to passive sentences have not been universally applicable. Junction grammar, a type of generative grammar, is a model that may provide a means of describing universal passive relationships. Junction grammar differs from transformational grammar in that its rules (1) claim other…

This first volume of a three-part language research study states and illustrates that the point of departure for comparative analysis of two languages rests on a comprehensive typology in each of a number of areas of grammar. The report suggests that a limited set of functions can be isolated, and that the range of grammatical possibilities open…

Examines the level of explanatory adequacy outlined by Chomsky's theory of transformational grammar and finds it inadequate. (CK)

Noam Chomsky's transformational-generative grammar model may effectively be translated into an equivalent computer model. Phrase-structure rules and transformations are tested as to their validity and ordering by the computer via the process of random lexical substitution. Errors appearing in the grammar are detected and rectified, and formal…

This paper discusses the validity and role of linguistic theory in terms of philosophy and logic and considers the relationship among these fields of human knowledge. The main objective of linguistic science is to discover the composition laws actually used by speech communities at any given moment in history. Linguistics is therefore not…

The eight papers in this issue are addressed to issues in pragmatics, semantics, syntax, discourse analysis, morphology, and particularly to issues touching on two or more of these areas at once. The final paper touches on phonology as well. The papers are: "The Myth of Semantic Presupposition," by Steven Boer and William Lycan; "A…

Three grammars that, since the 50's, have supplemented or offered alternatives to traditional grammar are discussed in this article. The role of grammar in communicative utterances and the underlying considerations in describing a grammatical system are analyzed. Then, brief summaries about and comments on structural linguistics, tagmemic grammar,…

The possible usefulness of computer poetry is concerned with what the programmer can learn about language, about poetry, and about poets. The problems in designing computer programs to construct poetry include considerations in generating well-formed sentences which have the added restrictions that poetry requires: meter, rhyme, logic, diction,…