10.Generative grammar

In theoretical linguistics, generative grammar refers to a particular approach to the study ofsyntax. A generative grammar of a language attempts to give a set of rules that will correctly predict which combinations of words will form grammatical sentences. In most approaches to generative grammar, the rules will also predict the morphology of a sentence.

Generative grammar originates in the work of Noam Chomsky, beginning in the late 1950s. Early versions of Chomsky's theory were called transformational grammar, and this term is still used as a collective term that includes his subsequent theories. There are a number of competing versions of generative grammar currently practiced within linguistics. Chomsky's current theory is known as the Minimalist program. Other prominent theories include or have included head-driven phrase structure grammar, lexical functional grammar, categorial grammar, relational grammar, link grammar and tree-adjoining grammar.

Chomsky has argued that many of the properties of a generative grammar arise from an "innate"universal grammar. Proponents of generative grammar have argued that most grammar is not the result of communicative function and is not simply learned from the environment (see poverty of the stimulus argument). In this respect, generative grammar takes a point of view different fromcognitive grammar, functional and behaviorist theories.

Most versions of generative grammar characterize sentences as either grammatically correct (also known as well formed) or not. The rules of a generative grammar typically function as analgorithm to predict grammaticality as a discrete (yes-or-no) result. In this respect, it differs fromstochastic grammar, which considers grammaticality as a probabilistic variable. However, some work in generative grammar (e.g. recent work by Joan Bresnan) uses stochastic versions ofoptimality theory.

There are a number of different approaches to generative grammar. Common to all is the effort to come up with a set of rules or principles that will account for the well-formed expressions of a natural language. The term generative grammar has been associated with at least the following schools of linguistics:

• Transformational grammar (TG)

  • Standard Theory (ST)

  • Extended Standard Theory (EST)

  • Revised Extended Standard Theory (REST)

  • Principles and Parameters Theory (P&P)

    • Government and Binding Theory (GB)

    • Minimalist Program (MP)

• Monostratal (or non-transformational) grammars

  • Relational Grammar (RG)

  • Lexical-Functional Grammar (LFG)

  • Generalized Phrase Structure Grammar (GPSG)

  • Head-Driven Phrase Structure Grammar (HPSG)

  • Categorial Grammar

  • Tree-Adjoining Grammar

The oldest known generative grammar that is still extant and in common use is the Sanskrit grammar of Pāṇini, called the Ashtadhyayi, composed by the middle of the 1st millennium BCE.^[1]

Generative grammar has been under development since the late 1950s, and has undergone many changes in the types of rules and representations that are used to predict grammaticality. In tracing the historical development of ideas within generative grammar, it is useful to refer to various stages in the development of the theory.

Standard Theory (1957–1965)

The so-called Standard Theory corresponds to the original model of generative grammar laid out in Chomsky (1965).

A core aspect of Standard Theory is a distinction between two different representations of a sentence, called Deep structure and Surface structure. The two representations are linked to each other by transformational grammar.

Extended Standard Theory (1965–1973)

The so-called Extended Standard Theory was formulated in the late 1960s to early 1970s. Features are:

• syntactic constraints

• generalized phrase structures (X-bar theory)

Revised Extended Standard Theory (1973–1976)

The so-called Revised Extended Standard Theory was formulated between 1973 and 1976. It contains

• restrictions upon X-bar theory (Jackendoff (1977)).

• assumption of the COMP position.

• Move α

Relational grammar (ca. 1975–1990)

Main article: Relational grammar

An alternative model of syntax based on the idea that notions like Subject, Direct Object, and Indirect Object play a primary role in grammar.

Government and binding/Principles and parameters theory (1981–1990)

Main article: Government and binding

Chomsky's Lectures on Government and Binding (1981) and Barriers (1986).

Minimalist Program (1990–present)

Main article: Minimalist Program