This is a copy of our report in our Major Subject, Grammatical Structure of English Language...

1. GENERATIVE
GRAMMAR
LEOPOLDO FRONDA
AUBREY SOMERA
JENNIFER SACULLES
Lecturers
Master in Education, Major in English
Grammatical Structure of English
MA. MARTHA A. MADRID, Ed. D.
(Professor)

2. GENERATIVE GRAMMAR
• refers to a particular approach to
the study of syntax.
• attempts to give a set of rules that
will correctly predict which
combinations of words will form
grammatical sentences.
• originates in the work of Noam
Chomsky, beginning in the late
1950s.

3. A. MODELS OF
TRANSFORMATIONAL GRAMMAR
1. Standard Theory (1957-1965)
2. Extended Standard Theory (1965-1973)
3. Revised Extended Standard Theory (1973-4. Relational Grammar (1975-1990)
5. Government and Binding/Principles and Parameters 6. Minimalist Program (1990-Present)

4. 1. Standard Theory (1957-1965)
It corresponds to the original model of
generative grammar laid out by 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.

5. ACCORDING TO GROVER HUDSON,
ESSENTIAL INTORDUCTORY LINGUISTICS.
BLACKWELL, 2000…

7. 2. Extended Standard Theory
(1965-1973)
Its features are:
• syntactic constraints
• generalized phrase
structures (X-bar theory)

8. 3. Revised Extended Standard
Theory (1973-1976)
Is a strict delimitation of the different
grammatical components, that is syntax,
semantics, as well as phonology, stylistics
and pragmatics.

9. 4. Relational Grammar (ca.
1975-1990)
An alternative model of
syntax based on the
idea that notions like
Subject, Direct Object,
and Indirect Object play
a primary role in
grammar.
In Relational Grammar,
constituents that serve as the
arguments to predicates are
numbered. This numbering
system corresponds loosely to
the notions of subject, direct
object and indirect object. The
numbering scheme is subject
→ (1), direct object → (2) and
indirect object → (3). A
schematic representation of a
clause in this formalism might
look like:
1 P 3 2
John gave Mary a kiss

10. 5. Government/Binding
Principle (1981-1980)
It is based on the principles
and parameters theory,
which states that there is a
finite set of fundamental
principles common to all
natural languages and a finite
set of binary parameters that
determine the range of
permissible variability in
language, language
acquisition and language
understanding.
Its main aim is to find
the principles and
parameters common to
all languages so that the
syntax of a particular
language can be
explained along these
lines.

11. • Binding theory poses locality
conditions on certain processes and
related items. The central notion of
government theory is the relation
between the head of a construction
and categories dependent on it.
• It is also concerned with relations of
anaphors, pronouns, names and
variables to possible antecedents.

12. 6. Minimalist Program (1990-
Present)
In The Minimalist Program (1995), the latest step in the
continuous development of transformational
generative grammar, Chomsky provided a radically
new approach to the implementation of his underlying
ideas. The well-established concepts of D-structure
and S-structure have been discarded as well as
government, the central element in GB-theory. Even
the ubiquitous phrase-structure rules have been
eliminated from the theory to a large degree

13. B. Context-Free Grammar
Essentially, the tree model works something like this
example, in which S is a sentence, D is a determiner, N
a noun, V a verb, NP a noun phrase and VP a verb phrase:

14. STRENGTHS OF
GENERATIVE GRAMMAR
 This grammar will generate well-formed syntactic
structures (e.g. sentences) of the language.
 This grammar will have a finite (i.e. limited) number of
rules but will be capable of generating an infinite
number of well-formed structures.
 The rules of this grammar give ‘recursiveness’, that is
the capacity to be applied more than once in generating
a structure.
 This grammar is also capable of revealing the basis two
other phenomena:
 How some superficially distinct sentences are closely related.
 How some superficially similar sentences are in fact distinct.

15. WEAKNESSES OF
GENERATIVE GRAMMAR
• It is far from clear what
contribution Generative-
Transformational Grammar is
likely to make to language
teaching methodology."
• Silalahi (1993), "

16. WEAKNESSES OF
GENERATIVE GRAMMAR
Many teachers of English as a Second
Language assume that Generative-
Transformational Grammar is
pedagogically unadaptable to the needs
of a secondary curriculum.
It means that it is not applicable to
language teaching.

17. WEAKNESSES OF
GENERATIVE GRAMMAR
There are two important reasons:
• The first reason is that the explication of
the theory is directed more towards
linguists, psychologists and
mathematicians than toward teachers of
English.
• The second reason is that the criticism of
this theory by other linguists made the
concept more complicated.

18. IMPLICATIONS OF
GENERATIVE GRAMMAR
Saporta (in Silalahi,1993)
claims that the main contribution of
Generative-Transformational Grammar is
to provide relevant data which enables
textbook writers to base their material
on the most adequate description.

19. IMPLICATIONS OF
GENERATIVE GRAMMAR
• It contributes to the teaching-learning
process.
• It helps in dealing with the process of
learning and acquisition.
… These two terms are different in case
they are used to separate between the first
language acquisition and the second
language acquisition learning.

20. IMPLICATIONS OF
GENERATIVE GRAMMAR
• In learning second language, it is a
conscious activity, while the first
language acquisition deals with
unconsious one.
• In language acquisition the focus is
communication or reception of a
message as opposed to syntax and
grammar as in language learning.

21. IMPLICATIONS OF
GENERATIVE GRAMMAR
If someone wants to apply
this Generative-
Transformational Grammar,
there should be a clear
difference between scientific
grammar and pedagogical
grammar.

22. IMPLICATIONS OF
GENERATIVE GRAMMAR
WHAT IS A SCIENTIFIC
STRUCTURAL
DESCRIPTIO
N
SEMANTIC
INTERPRETAT
ION
GRAMMAR?

23. IMPLICATIONS OF
GENERATIVE GRAMMAR
WHAT IS A PEDAGOGICAL
GRAMMAR?
A COLLECTION
OF MATERIAL

24. IMPLICATIONS OF
GENERATIVE GRAMMAR
GENERATIVE-TRANSFORMATIONAL
GRAMMAR CAN BE
APPLIED IN THE FORM
OF PEDAGOGICAL
GRAMMAR (IN
TEACHING ENGLISH
GRAMMAR)

25. IMPLICATIONS OF
GENERATIVE GRAMMAR
Thomas (in Silalahi,1993) who is convinced with his
contribution of Generative-Transformational
Grammar, suggests that in the beginning of
teaching, the teachers should teach the kernel
sentence first.
Kernel sentences consist of:
• Simple;
• Declarative;
• Active with no complex verb or noun phrase.
Later on the students are taught to construct
passive, negative sentences in the form of
Transformational Grammar.

26. IMPLICATIONS OF
GENERATIVE GRAMMAR
Why should the teacher know the theory of language
structure?
Do not only teach
the language
TEACHE
RS
Teach the rules
how the
sentences are
produced

27. IMPLICATIONS OF
GENERATIVE GRAMMAR
The stages of teaching second
language
The teachers should use relatively
uncomplicated construction ideally.
 The teachers would begin with the simplest
meaningful utterences in language.
The teachers present simple construction first
before moving on to the more complex ones

28. IMPLICATIONS OF
GENERATIVE GRAMMAR
Other matters that need be
considered:
• Meaningfulness to the learners;
• Utility of the structure being learned;
• Appropriateness for age group.
But the concept of progressing from the
simple to the more complex should not be
ignored

29. IMPLICATIONS OF
GENERATIVE GRAMMAR
There are some rules for
students to create (generate)
utterances
The structural rules in
Transformational
Grammar are the
following:

34. Teachers of English may also
prepare the following exercises
1. Phrase structural rules can be considered kernel. In
presenting of a foreign language sentences representing
kernels ought to be taught first. Examples:
• The girl laugh (Det N V)
• The children swim in the beach (Det N V Prep Det N)
2. Expansion of the verb section by applying auxiliary.
Examples:
“The man laughed” is expanded as follows:
• The man could laugh.
• The man has laughed.
• The man is laughing.
• The man could have laughed.

35. 3. Interrogative Transformation. Example:
• The man is here = Is the man here?
• The man hits the ball = Does the man hit the ball?
4. Expansion of verb section by adding
adverb. Example:
• The man hits the ball = The man hits the ball accurately
5. Negative Transformation. Example:
• The man can hit the ball = The man cannot hit the ball
• Ali speaks English = Ali does not speak English
6. Passive Transformation. Example:
• The boy buys a bicycle = A bicycle is bought

36. So, in language teaching and
learning process, Generative
Transformational Grammar is also
the most important one for the
students to know the rules how
they produce sentences
grammatically.

37. REFERENCES:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Generative_grammar