Transformational generative grammar

Short Analysis of TGG

1. Transformational Generative Grammar by Noam Chomsky Presented by Ali Imran

2. Introduction Transformational grammar is a set of rules that indicates the structure and interpretation of sentences which native speakers of a language accept as belonging to the language. It involves the use of defined operations called transformations to produce new sentences from existing ones.

3. Definition of Sentence & Language According to Chomsky, A sentence is defined as being “ well formed” if the native speakers of that particular language feel that it is correct or grammatical . He defines language as; “ I will consider a language to be a set (finite or infinite) of sentences.” It means that any language is made up of a number of well formed sentences.

4. Two Aspects of Grammar 1- Transformational : It is called Transformational since a sentence can be transformed into number of sentences with either the same meaning or with different meaning, e.g “ I read the book” “ The book is read by me” “ Do I read the book”? “ I do not read the book.

5. Cont.… 2- Generative: It is Generative since it can create an infinite number of sentences. It means , we can produce as many sentences as possible of the language following the rules of the grammar. Hence, with a finite number of rules the infinite sets of sentences can be generated and this infinity is known as “ Recursion” Thus Grammar transforms and generates sentences. Therefore, it is called transformational generative grammar, or TG for short.

6. Properties It has the following properties. 1- It can generate only the well formed or grammatically correct sentences of a language which native speakers consider correct or well formed. 2- Recursivity: This grammar has recursive rules to be applied again and again in order to generate infinite number of well formed sentences of a language,e.g, This is the boy who rode the horse that chased the fox, that chased the jackal. Such kind of structure is called Embedding .

7. Deep and Surface Structure A sentence has a deep and a surface structure. 1- Deep structure is a basic, or a kernel sentence. It is simple, assertive, declarative and active in form. e.g, Ali reads a novel. It is the abstract structure that allows the native speaker to know what the sentence means. Hence, it expresses the semantic content of the sentence.

8. Cont.… 2- Surface structure is a transformed form of deep structure which shows how the speaker actually uses i t in communication. It expresses the phonetic content of the sentence. Consider the following examples, Ali reads a novel. Does Ali read a novel? Ali does not read a novel. A novel is read by Ali . Sentence 1 is a kernel sentence and shows deep structure while 2,3 and 4 are examples of surface structure.

9. Cont.… Deep Structure(abstract) Kernel Sentence Transformations Surface Structure Surface Sentence

10. Model of TG

11. Transformational Rules Transformational grammar can be best summarized by Inserting , Deleting , Moving and substituting of words . These changes take place through specific rules which are called transformational rules. We shall discuss them one by one with examples. 1- Insertion Transformation: Example: He knew she was here. He knew that she was here.

12. Cont.… 2- Deletion Transformation: 1-Imperative: You come here. Come here. 2-Verb Phrase: If he says he will study for the test, he will study for the test. If he says he will study for the test, he will.

13. Cont.… 3- Movement Transformation: Example, I took off my shoes. I took my shoes off. 4- Substitution Transformation: Example, Ali thought that Ali was the best. Ali thought that he was the best.

14. Some more T-rules 1- Interrogative rule: He will go. Will he go? 2- Negation rule: He goes. He does not go. 3- Do-support rule: He goes. Does he go? He does not go .

15. Cont.… 4- Passivation rule: George likes Juli. Juli is liked by George. 5- Prescriptive or Normative rules: These are based on traditional grammar like; It is I instead of I t is me . He came after me . He came after I did . 6- Descriptive rules: These are universally accepted valid rules e.g, Plural nouns are always followed by plural forms of verbs. The boys are sitting in the class.

16. Cont.… 7- Phrase Structure rules : These rules in TGG form the basic part of the grammar. These are technically described as ‘base component’. Normally, a sentence contains a Noun phrase and a Verb phrase which can be described as, S NP VP Similarly, there are PS rules regarding NP, VP, PP, Adj P, Adv P.