Generative Grammar

FOUNDATIONS IN GENERATIVE GRAMMARAny native speaker of a address can be said to know the grammar of his/her testify language, they know how to form and interpret whatever expression. However, this grammatical knowledge is subconscious. Native speaker contract grammatical competency in their native language. This means that they have tacit knowledge of the grammar of their own lang. We have to make a difference between competence (the eloquent native speakers tacit knowledge of his lang) and performance (what people actu aloney theorise and understand, the use of the language). Criteria of adequacyBasically, the criteria of adequacy atomic number 18 2 descriptive adequacy ( linguistic universality) and explanatory adequacy. 1. A grammar is descriptively adequate if it correctly describes whether a sequence of wrangle is or isnt grammatical and also correctly describes what interpretation(s) this sequence has. 1. 1. The goal of a descriptive linguist is to devise particular gram mars of particular languages, while that of a theoretical linguist is to devise a hypothesis of grammar. This is a mark of hypotheses about the nature of possible and impossible grammars of innate(p) languages and about the inbred properties that inhering langs do and dont possess.An adequate theory of grammar mustiness satisfy the measure of adequacy know as universality. This means that a theory of grammar must enable us to devise a descriptively adequate grammar for both natural lang. The main goal of Generative Grammar is to build a theory of Universal Grammar. 2. This theory of UG will not only list the universal properties of natural lang grammars, scarce also explain the relevant properties i. e. why grammar have the properties they do. This requirement is referred to as explanatory adequacy. Language FacultyAccording to Chomsky, the most plausible chronicle for uniformity and rapidity lies in that the blood line of acquisition is busheld by a biologically endowed i nnate language aptitude inwardly the brain, which provides tykeren with a genetically transmitted set of procedures for developing a grammar on the basis of their linguistic experience (the speech in set apart they receive). The hypothesis that the course of lang acquisition is determined by an innate language faculty is known as the innateness hypothesis. The major tenets of this hypothesis be 1. The innate language faculty is unique to humans. . whole humans possess this ability of lang acquisition. 3. The uniformity record suggests that children have a genetic guidance in the labor movement of expression a grammar of their native lang. 4. Despite performance errors in the input, children carry a competence grammar, which again points to the fact that the acquisition ability must be genetically determined. 5. Although no special c ar is taken to teach them, children acquire languages successfully, which again supports the genetic character of lang acquisition. Principles We have claimed that children have a genetically endowed language faculty.If so, what are the defining properties of the language faculty? The lang faculty must include a set of rulers of Universal Grammar, in the perceive that the lang faculty must be such as to allow the child to develop a grammar of both natural lang on the basis of a sufficient speech input. If these principles are universal their application in 1 language should reveal evidence of their application in other langs. The central rule to construct a particular social organization in unmatchable language will be part of a ecumenic principle of UG. (1) a. Mary will distinguish me the truth. b. Will Mary tell me the truth? apparent movement the second word in a sentence in front of the first word) (2) a. The girl in the corner will tell me the truth. b. *Girl the in the corner.? STRUCTURE DEPENDENCE PRINCIPLE All grammatical operations are structure-dependent. To explain grammaticality and ungrammatica lity we should rely on general principles such as the Structure Dependence Principle, although in each language this principle will be turned into something more concreteMove an auxiliary in front of a preceding noun expression which functions as its subject. This rule makes use of structural information which is subconsciously available to all humans, although people dont know what an auxiliary is. Also this rule accounts for the contrast in (3) (3) a. Mary told me the truth. b. *Told Mary the truth? as we have applied anastrophe to a non-auxiliary. A theory of grammar which posits that the internal structure of words, phrases and clauses in natural lang is determined by innate UG principles minimizes the burden of grammatical learning obligate on the child.This is quite important given the learnability criterion of adequacy for any theory of grammar. The UG theory accounts for the rapidity of the childs grammatical development by positing that in that respect is a universal set of innately endowed grammatical principles which determine the nature of grammatical structure and the range of grammatical operations ready in natural lang. Since these UG principles dont have to be learned, the UG theory minimizes the learning lode placed on the child and as a consequence maximizes the learnability of natural language grammars. ParametersAlthough the lang faculty involves a set of UG principles, all aspects of the grammatical structure of language are not determined by innate gramm. principles. otherwise all languages would have the same structure and there would not be any structural learning in lang acquisition. So although there are universal principles which control the overall structure of a lang, there are also language-particular aspects of grammatical struct which children have to learn as part of acquiring their native lang. Acquisition involves structural learning, which is limited to a set of parameters.Parameters are those aspects of grammatical st ructure which are subject to lang-particular genetic mutation. Examples of parameters 1. Null subject parameter languages which permit omission of the subject of a finite verb and langs that do not. (4) a. mare come pasta. b. Come pasta. (5) a. Mary eats pasta. b. *Eats pasta. 2. Wh-parameter languages which permit fronting of the wh-phrase or not. (6) a What do you think he will say? b. ?Que piensas que el dira? c. Ni xiangxin ta hui shuo shenme you think he will say whatEnglish and Spanish Wh-phrases move to the beginning of the interrogative clause, but Chinese Wh-phrase remains in situ. 3. Head position parameter the relative positioning of heads with respect to their complements. Head-first languages and Head-last langs. (7) a. button up the door b. Moonul dadala. door close (8) a. desire for change. b. byunhwa-eadaehan kalmang change-for desire 4. Discourse/ engagement Prominence Miyagawa (2005) claims that languages can be classified according to whether they are concente r or agreement prominent.On the basis of his classification, there are languages which overtly represent the notion of topic (Korean or Japanese), there are also languages which put a special emphasis on agreement marking (English), but additionally there are languages which show both (Spanish). Jimenez (2008, 2009) 9) a. Taroo-ga hon-o katta. Taro-NOM book-ACC bought Taro bought a book. b. Hon-o Taroo-ga katta. Book-ACC Taro-NOM bought A book, Taro bought. 10) a. Mary likes syntax. b. *Syntax Mary likes. (11) a.Susana corto los tulipanes. (S-V-O) Susana dismisspast3sg the tulips Susana cut the tulips. b. Los tulipanes(,) los corto Susana. (O-cl-V-S) The tulips, CL3pl,masc cut Susana The tulips, Susana cut. Parameter-setting Parameters involve binary choices, so structural variation between langs is constrained. The only structural learning that children have to face is the task of setting the appropriate value for each of the relevant structural parameters allegory of the swit ch in the up or down position.