语言学TG grammar

TGgrammarBackgroundaboutTGgrammar•Inthelate1950s,NoamChomskyfoundedanewtheoryinAmericaandgaveviolentimpactonthestructuralistdescriptivelinguistics.Hetriedtoopenuparoutewhenhefoundthattheclassificationofstructuralelementsoflanguageaccordingtodistributionandsubstitutionhaditslimitations.FromthispracticeChomskygraduallyestablishedthewell-knownTGgrammar.NoamChomsky：HeisanAmericanlinguist.Sometimesdescribedasthefatherofmodernlinguistics.Chomsky'scontribution:InnatenessHypothesis,UniversalGrammarandParticularGrammar,CompetenceandPerformence,DeepstructureandSurfacestructure……WhatisTGGrammar?•TGgrammar,firstputforwardbyAmericanlinguistNoamChomskyinthe1950’s,isareactiontotraditionalandstructuralistlinguistics.Differentfromthestructuralismbasedonbehaviorisminpsychology,Chomskyarguesforamentalistapproachtostudylanguage.Inhisschool,thewordgrammarisgivenaspecialsignificance.Grammar,inChomskyansense,referstoone’sinnatecompetenceoflanguage.Themainfocusthenwastoaccountforthecreativityofhumanlanguage.Oneofhisfamoustenetsishumanbeingshavetheabilitytocreateandunderstandaninfinitenumberofsentenceswithafinitesetofrules.Thenewtheoryseemedtoworkwellinexplainingsomeofthesentencessuchasembeddedstructures,activev.passivestructuresetc.MainfeaturesofTGgrammar:•1.Rationalism•2.Innateness•3.Deductivemethodology•4.Emphasisoninterpretation•5.Formalization•6.Emphasisonlinguisticcompetence•7.Stronggenerativepowers•8.EmphasisonlinguisticuniversalsTwoAspectsofTGGrammar•SurfaceStructure:Thestructureofsentenceasitisactuallyproducedorunderstood,thesyntacticstructureofsentencewhichapersonspeaks,hears,readsorwrites.•DeepStructure:Thedeepstructureismuchmoreabstractandisconsideredtobeinthespeaker’s,hearer’s,writer’sorreader’smind.Competenceandperformance•Competence----theidealuser’sknowledgeoftherulesofhislanguage.•Performance----theactualrealizationofthisknowledgeinlinguisticcommunication.•Chomskylooksatlanguagefromapsychologicalpointofviewandtohimcompetenceisapropertyofthemindofeachindividual.FiveStagesofTGGrammar•1Theclassicaltheory(1955-1965)：aimstomakelinguisticsascience.•2Thestandardtheory(1965-1970)：dealswithhowsemanticsshouldbestudiedinalinguistictheory.•3Theextendedstandardtheory(1970-1980)：focusesdiscussiononlanguageuniversalsanduniversalgrammar.•4Therevisedextendedstandardtheory(GB)(1980-1992)：focusesdiscussionongovernmentandbinding.•5Theminimalistprogramtheory(1992-)：afurtherrevisionoftheprevioustheory.Languageacquisitiondevice•Thisisakeyconceptininnatistviewsoflanguagelearningwhichpostulatethatallpeoplearebornwithsomeknowledgeoflanguage.LAD,orcalledasUGsubsequently,isaninborncapacityforanykindoflanguage.However,thisshouldnotbetakenasthatwearebornwithknowledgeoftheparticularrulesofourownlanguage,butratherLAD/UGconsistsofgeneraloruniversalprinciplesofalllanguages.Thisinnateknowledgeallowsustoselectaparticularlanguagebasedonafewinstancesofinputandproduceverycomplexoutputthatwehehaveneverencounteredbefore.Chomsky’sinnatenesshypothesisisbasedonhisobservationsthatsomeimportantfactscanneverbeotherwiseexplainedadequately.•1.Chomskynoticedthatchildrenlearntheirnativelanguageveryfastandwithlittleeffort.•Consideringthefactthatthesmallchildrenarenotyetintellectuallymatureinanyotherfields,thisissurprisinglyfast.•Thefirstlanguageacquisitioninvariablytakesplacewithoutformal,explicitinstruction:theinputisdegeneratedata,buttheoutputisaperfectlanguagesystem.•2.Childrenintheworldlearntheirmothertongueinverydifferentenvironments,however,theyfollowmoreorlessthesamestagesintheirlinguisticdevelopment:babblingstage,nonsensewordstage,holophrasticstage,two-wordstage,developinggrammar,near-adultgrammarandfullcompetence.•3.Duringthelimitedperiodoftime,fromlimitedexposuretospeech,thechildlearnsthetotalgrammarofthelanguage.Hecannotonlyproduceandunderstandnotonlysentenceshehasheardbutalsothesentenceshehasneverheardbefore.Whathelearnsseemstobeasetofrulesratherthanindividualsentences.DifferencesbetweenstructualgrammarandTGgrammar.•First,Bloomfielddefineslanguageasasetofutterancesandasetof“lexicalandgrammaticalhabits”Chomskydefinesthelanguageasasetofrulesorprinciples.•Secondly,thetwogrammarshavedifferentaimsinlinguistics.ForStructuralGrammartheaimoflinguisticsistodescribeoneorsetoflanguages,suchdescriptionisoftenevaluatedintermsoftheusetowhichitisgoingtobeput.ForChomsky,theaimoflinguisticsistoproducegenerativegrammarwhichcapturesthetacitknowledgeofthenativespeakerofhislanguage.•Thirdly,thetwogrammarsmakeuseofdifferenttypeofdataintheiranalysis.Thestructralistsonlymakeuseofnaturallyoccurringutterances,observedandobservable.Theyarenotallowedtoconsulttheinformantwhetherasentenceisgrammaticalornot.•Incontrast,Chomskyandhisfollowersareinterestedinanydatathatcanrevealthenativespeaker’stacitknowledge.Theyseldomusewhatnativespeakersactuallysay;theyrelyontheirownintuition.•Fourthly,thetwogrammariansemploydifferentmethods.Thestructuralists’methodologyisessentiallyinductive.Bloomfieldsaid,“theonlyusefulgeneralizationaboutlanguageisinductive.”whereas,Chomsky’smethodologyishypothesis