This document discusses key concepts in generative grammar, including syntax, deep structure, surface structure, recursion, and the use of rules and symbols like arrows and brackets. It explains that generative grammar aims to produce an explicit system of rules like mathematics to model the creativity of language. Figures are included showing phrase structure rules, tree diagrams representing sentence structure, and an example showing recursion and complement phrases.

2. When we concentrate on the structure and
ordering of components within a sentence, we
are studying the syntax of a language.

3. Generative grammar
 Linguistics have attempted to produce a
particular type of grammar that has a very
explicit system of rules.
 This very explicit system of rules would have a
lot in common with the types of rules found in
mathematics.

4. Noam Chomsky

5.  His most influential contribution to the fiel is
the claim that modeling knowledge of
language using a formal grammar accounts for
the “ productivity “ or “creativity” of
language.
 Chomsky seems to have taken the view that
the essential structure of language can be
expressed in mathematical terms.
 “I will consider a language to be a set ( finite
or infinite) of sentences (1957:13).

6. Syntactic structures
 The grammar will generate all the well-formed
syntactic structures of the language and will not
generate any ill- formed structures.
 This has been called the “all and only” criterion,
that is all the grammatical sentences and only the
grammatical sentences will be produced.
 The grammar will have a finite number of rules,
but will be capable of generating an infinite
number of well- formed structures.

7. Deep and surface structure
Two superficially different sentences are shown in
these examples:
Charlie broke the window.
The window was broken by Charlie.
Surface structure: how superficially sentences are
closely related.
Deep structure: is an abstract level of structural
organization in which all the elements
determining structural interpretation are
represented.

8. Structural ambiguity
Annie whacked a man with an umbrella.
 It has two distinct underlying interpretations
that have to be represented differently in
deep structure.
 The grammar will have to be capable of
showing the structural distinction between
these underlying interpretations.

9. Recursion
• The rules of the grammar will also need the
crucial property of recursion.
• Recursive ( repeatable any number of times) rules
have the capacity to be applied more than once
in generating a structure. For example,
The gun was on the table.
 We must be able to repeat the rule that creates a
prepositional phrase over and over again.

10. • We must also be able to put sentences inside
other sentences. For example,
Cathy knew that Mary helped George.
Mary helped George.
Jhon believed that Cathy knew that Mary helped
George.
 The grammar will have to capture the fact that
a sentence can have another sentence inside
of it or that a phrase can be repeated as often
as required.

11. Symbols used in syntactic description
• There are three more symbols that are commonly
used in syntactic description:
• The first is the form of an arrow →.It can be
interpreted as “consist of” or “rewrite as”.
NP→Art N
 The second symbol is a pair of round brackets ( ).
 NP→ Art. ( Adj.) N
 The third symbol is in the form of curly brackets
{ }.
 These indicate that only one of the elements
enclosed within the curly brackets must be
selected.

12. S
N
V
Art.
NP
VP
Adj
Pro
PN
Adv
Prep
PP

13. Tree diagrams
S
NP
Art
VP
N
V
NP
Art
The
girl
saw
N
a
dog

14. Phrase structure rules
NP
Art
Art N
NP
N
Lexical rules
PN
N
Art
Mary, George
girl, dog, boy
a, the
V
adj
Prep.
followed, helped
small, crazy
near, with
Pro
it, you
Adv
recently, yesterday
1 A boy helped the dog
2 You saw it yesterday.
3 George saw a dog
4_ You it saw
5 _ Followed the dog

15. Back to recursion
Mary helped George
Cathy knew that Mary helped George
John believed that knew that Mary helped George
Complement phrases
CP
CS

16. S
NP
VP
V
CP
C
S
VP
NP
V
CP
C
S
VP
NP
PN
PN
PN
V
NP
PN
John believed that Cathy knew that Mary helped George