There are rules of language that all humans are bornwith, they are internal, not imitated.

1. Compiled &Organized by Dr ShamimAli National University of Modern Languages Islamabad 1 UNIVERSAL GRAMMAR 5/17/2011 Subject: Foreign Language Acquisition Theories

2. Foreign/Second Language Acquisition Theories 2 Theory:Universal Grammar Theory Theorist: Noam Chomsky Created for: MPhil Class 2011 Course Code: 602 Semester: First Department of Advanced Integrated Studies National University of Modern Languages Islamabad Source :www.wisegeek.com/what-is-universal-grammar.html 5/17/2011 Subject: Foreign Language Acquisition Theories

3. Universal Grammar Theory 3 Is the theory introduced by Noam Chomsky There are rules of language that all humans are born with, they are internal, not imitated. 5/17/2011 Subject: Foreign Language Acquisition Theories

4. Universal Grammar Theory 4 Nowadays UG means the initial state of a language learner. It is the “innate” (genetically transmitted) aspect of grammatical rules; the language instinct It is that aspect of the human mind that causes one to learn the language. UG qua initial state is biologically determined. As such, it does not belong to a specific language. 5/17/2011 Subject: Foreign Language Acquisition Theories

5. Language Acquisition 5 Universal Conditions They are not learned and must exist for language knowledge to be explained. They are the pre-requisite leading to knowledge: 5/17/2011 Subject: Foreign Language Acquisition Theories

6. Universal Grammar Theory 6 This contrasts with the empiricist view that Our mind is a clean sheet, as though we obtained our capacity for dealing with objects from objects themselves The mind is not a tabularasa. 5/17/2011 Subject: Foreign Language Acquisition Theories

7. LAD- Language AcquisitionDevice 7 According to Chomsky LAD is the neurological system in the brain that facilitates language development. 5/17/2011 Subject: Foreign Language Acquisition Theories

8. General language-acquisition schema 8 InputLADOutput (primary (Grammar consisting of linguistic data) principles, parameters and lexicon) 5/17/2011 Subject: Foreign Language Acquisition Theories

9. 9 Language acquisition is a matter of growth and maturation of relatively fixed principles under appropriate external conditions and training. Growth and maturation of bones: the structure of the bones is genetically programmed, yet it needs exercise to develop. 5/17/2011 Subject: Foreign Language Acquisition Theories

10. Universal Grammar 10 When learning a new language we can rely on some structures common to our native language or even common to all language. According to the theories of Noam Chomsky there is an universal grammar which claims that all languages have a similar underlying abstract structure 5/17/2011 Subject: Foreign Language Acquisition Theories

11. Universal Grammar Theory 11 Two layers must be distinguished, the deep grammatical structure which is common to all language and the surface grammar applicable only to a specific language 5/17/2011 Subject: Foreign Language Acquisition Theories

12. 12 Deep structure is the abstract underlying form, which determines the meaning of a sentence. Surface structure is what we write or speak. The two are connected by transformations like combination, addition and deletion. There were two structures or trees: one for deep and one for surface sentences. Transformation rules linked the two. 5/17/2011 Subject: Foreign Language Acquisition Theories

13. Universal Grammar Theory 13 Ambiguous sentences had two deep structures. Now the sequence was: The base tree was constructed with building rules and a lexicon. The transformation component mapped deep structures onto surface structures. A phonological component intervened to convert surface structures to surface sentences. 5/17/2011 Subject: Foreign Language Acquisition Theories

14. Universal Grammar Theory 14 Chomsky's initial assumptions were fourfold. Firstly that transformations preserved meaning, i.e. that surface structure was linked to meaning only by deep structures. Secondly, that transformational rules were simple and did only one thing at a time. Thirdly that the deep structures were similar to surface structures. And fourthly that transformational rules were the only rules needed to link surface and deep structures. Now it appears that all four cannot be held jointly 5/17/2011 Subject: Foreign Language Acquisition Theories

15. Universal Grammar Theory 15 Generative Semantics holds to the first but not the third or fourth. Extended Standard Theory holds to the second, third and fourth. Trace Theory holds to the second, third and fourth again, but claims that all information on the deep structure is to be found in the surface structure. It envisages this generation sequence: deep structure to transformational component to surface structure to semantic component to semantic representation. Trace theory seems to be better supported by phonetic evidence, though complications arise with ambiguous sentences, which require two surface and two deep sentences 5/17/2011 Subject: Foreign Language Acquisition Theories

16. Universal Grammar Theory 16 Generative Semantics holds to the first that transformations preserved meaning, i.e. that surface structure was linked to meaning only by deep structures. 5/17/2011 Subject: Foreign Language Acquisition Theories

17. Generative Semantic Theory 17 Based on the doctrine that syntactic and semantic structure are of the same formal nature and that there is a single system of rules that relates surface structure to meaningGenerative semanticists took Chomsky's concept of Deep Structure and ran with it 5/17/2011 Subject: Foreign Language Acquisition Theories

18. Generative semanticists 18 Argued that interpretations were generated directly by the grammar as deep structures, and were subsequently transformed into recognizable sentences by transformations Offered a powerful mechanism for explaining synonymity. In his initial work in generative syntax, Chomsky motivated transformations using active/passive pairs such as “I hit John” and “John was hit by me”, which despite their identical meanings have quite different surface forms 5/17/2011 Subject: Foreign Language Acquisition Theories

19. Universal Grammar Theory 19 Extended Standard Theory holds to the second, third and fourth. Second, Transformational rules were simple and did only one thing at a time. Third, That the deep structures were similar to surface structures. And Fourth that transformational rules were the only rules needed to link surface and deep structures. 5/17/2011 Subject: Foreign Language Acquisition Theories

20. Universal Grammar Theory 20 Standard Theory is a distinction between two different representations of a sentence, called Deep Structure and Surface StructureThe two representations are linked to each other by Transformational Grammar 5/17/2011 Subject: Foreign Language Acquisition Theories

21. Deep Structure 21 The deep structure of a sentence is its underlying semantic content, an abstraction decoded from the actual syntactic sequence of its surface structure . eg: She wrote an article or An article was written by her . Shares the same deep structure. 5/17/2011 Subject: Foreign Language Acquisition Theories

22. Surface Structure 22 The structure that corresponds with the actual form of a sentence Is the final stage in the syntactic representation of a sentence It provides the input to the phonological component of the grammar 5/17/2011 Subject: Foreign Language Acquisition Theories

23. Transformational Grammar 23 A theory of grammar that accounts for the constructions of a language by linguistic transformations and phrase structures. transformationalists wanted to unlock the secrets of language: to build a model of our internal rules, a model that would produce all of the grammatical--and no ungrammatical--sentences." 5/17/2011 Subject: Foreign Language Acquisition Theories

24. Universal Grammar Theory 24 The deep structure is converted by transformational rules into a Surface Structure that corresponds more closely to what is pronounced and heard. 5/17/2011 Subject: Foreign Language Acquisition Theories

25. Transformational Rules 25 Transformation Rules There are transformation rules operating from deep to surface structure. It is the linguist’s job to figure out these rules. 1. A base system generating deep structure. 2. A transformational system mapping these deep structures into surface structure. 5/17/2011 Subject: Foreign Language Acquisition Theories

26. Extended Standard Theory 26 Extended Standard Theory was formulated in the late 1960s to early 1970s. Features are: a)Syntactic Constraints b)Generalized phrase structures (X-bar Theory) 5/17/2011 Subject: Foreign Language Acquisition Theories

27. Universal Grammar Theory 27 Trace Theory holds to the second, third and fourth again, but claims that all information on the deep structure is to be found in the surface structure. It envisages this generation sequence: deep structure to transformational component to surface structure to semantic component to semantic representation 5/17/2011 Subject: Foreign Language Acquisition Theories

28. Trace Theory 28 Theory about traces left by movement. This theory assumes that if an element X has been moved in the course of a derivation, it has left a trace in its original position. 5/17/2011 Subject: Foreign Language Acquisition Theories

29. X-Bar Theory 29 Theory which attempts to identify syntactic features presumably common to all those human languages that fit in a presupposed framework. It claims that among their phrasal categories, all those languages share certain structural similarities 5/17/2011 Subject: Foreign Language Acquisition Theories

30. I -Language &E-Language 30 I-language vs. E-language I(Internal) language knowledge of a particular speaker embodied in the mind/brain (relatively) systematic E(External) language abstract notion set of grammatical sentences individual speakers have imperfect knowledge of it 5/17/2011 Subject: Foreign Language Acquisition Theories

31. Universal Grammar Theory 31 Competence vs. Performance Competence knowledge of a particular speaker embodied in the mind/brain (relatively) systematic Performance utterance in a particular situation Acoustically ,perceptible, subject to accidental and non-linguistic,constraints 5/17/2011 Subject: Foreign Language Acquisition Theories

32. Evidence32 32 People can “lose their intelligence” and yet they do not loose their language: substantial retarded children (e.g. Williams syndrome) manifest a good grammatical and linguistic competence. On the other hand, highly intelligent people may lack linguistic capacity (e.g. aphasia). 5/17/2011 Subject: Foreign Language Acquisition Theories