GRAMMAR

THE AIM

• To present the approach to the study of syntax taken in traditional and universal grammar as developed by N. Chomsky.

THE OBJECTIVES

• To define the key terms pertaining to grammatical terminology;

• To discuss the peculiarities of traditional grammar;

• To consider the study of Universal Grammar developed by Noam Chomsky.

CONTENTS

• Definitions concerned with the study of grammar;

• The syntactic analysis in the framework of traditional grammar;

• The approach to syntax within the theory of Universal Grammar.

DEFINITIONS

• Grammar – any systematic account of the structure of a

language (Matthews 2005, 150).

• Morphology - the study of how words are formed out of

smaller units (Radford 2005, 1).

• Syntax – the study of the way in which phrases and sentences

are structured out of words (ibid.).

TRADITIONAL GRAMMAR

• The syntax of language is described in terms of a taxonomy of the range of different types of syntactic structures found in language.

• Phrases and sentences are built up of a series of constituents each of which belongs to a specific grammatical category and serves a specific grammatical function.

• The tasks of a linguist:

to identify each of the constituents in the sentence;

to determine what category it belongs to;

to define what function it serves.

GRAMMATCAL CATEGORIES

• Words are assigned to grammatical categories called parts of speech on the basis of:

semantic properties (i.e. meaning);

morphological properties (i.e. the range if different forms they have) ;

syntactic properties (i.e. word-order properties relating to the positions they can occupy within sentences).

GRAMMATICAL FUNCTIONS

• Subject – a syntactic element which is traditionally seen as representing someone or something of which something is said or predicated (Matthews 2005, 358).

• Predicate – a part of the clause or sentence traditionally seen as representing what is said of, or predicated of, the subject (Matthews 2005, 291).

• Complement – a syntactic element seen as completing the construction of another element (Matthews 2005, 63).

• Adjunct – any element in the structure of a clause which is not part of its nucleus or core (Matthews 2005, 8).

UNIVERSAL GRAMMAR

• In contrast to the taxonomic approach Noam Chomsky takes a cognitive approach to the study of grammar.

• Native speakers have grammatical competence or tacit knowledge of the grammar of their language, i.e. of how to form and interpret words, phrases and sentences in the language.

• The study of grammar - a study of a cognitive internalised linguistic system within the brain of a native speaker.

• The ultimate goal - a theory of Universal Grammar/UG, i.e. the theory of human I-languages that identifies the I-languages that are humanly accessible under normal conditions (Radford 1995, 8)

THE LANGUAGE FACULTY

•A theory of language acquisition is concerned with the question of how children acquire grammars of their native language. •Innateness hypothesis – the course of language acquisition

is determined by the innate language faculty.

(Radford 1995, 11)

Experience of Language

Language Faculty

Grammar of

Language

PARAMETRIC VARIATION

• The language faculty incorporates a set of universal principles which guide the child in acquiring grammar.

• Language acquisition involves not only lexical learning but also grammatical.

• The grammatical learning is limited to those parameters of grammar which are subject to language-particular variation and hence vary from one language to another.

• The syntactic learning task which children face involves parameter-setting – i.e. determining which of two possible settings is the appropriate one for each parameter in the language being acquired.

TWO TYPES OF EVIDENCE

Evidence used to set parameters

POSITIVE EVIDENCE

NEGATIVE EVIDENCE

DIRECT NEGATIVE EVIDENCE

INDIRECT NEGATIVEEVIDENCE

CONCLUSIONS (1)

• The traditional grammar could be defined as taxonomic system in which the syntax of language is essentially described in terms of a list of phrase, clause and sentence types found in the language.

• Noam Chomsky applies the cognitive approach to the study of grammar. Thus, the study of language could be understood as the study of cognition.

• According to Chomsky, native speakers have grammatical competence in their native language that is internalised within the brain of the native speaker.

CONCLUSIONS (2)

• The attempt to uncover the internalised linguistic system led to the theory of Universal Grammar - universal, explanatory and constrained system which provides descriptively adequate grammars which are minimally complex and hence learnable.

• Language faculty incorporates a set of universal principles which guide the child in acquiring grammar. However, there are also language-particular aspects of grammar that children have to learn.

• The grammatical learning is limited to those parameters of grammar which are subject to language-particular variation and hence vary from one language to another.

• The syntactic learning task which children face involves parameter-setting with the help of certain type of evidence.

REFERENCES

•  Matthews, P.H. (2005). Concise Dictionary of Linguistics. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

• Radford, A. (2005). Minimalist Syntax: Exploring the Structure of English. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

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