Transformational Generative Grammar

Introduction:

Generative grammar is a linguistic theory that regards grammar as a system of rules that
generates exactly those combinations of words that form grammatical sentences in a given
language. It is a system of language analysis that recognizes the relationship among the various
elements of a sentence and among the possible sentences of a language and uses processes or
rules (some of which are called transformations) to express these relationships. A grammar that
generates the deep structures of a language and converts these to surface structures by means of
transformations is generally known as transformational-generative grammar or T-G or TGG.

It the study of linguistics, part of the theory of generative grammar, especially of naturally
evolved languages, that considers grammar to be a system of rules that generate exactly those
combinations of words which form grammatical sentences in a given language. TG involves the
use of defined operations called transformations to produce new sentences from existing ones.

Definition:

Noam Chomsky first used the term in relation to the theoretical linguistics of grammar that he
developed in the late 1950s. He believes that grammar has recursive rules allowing one to
generate grammatically correct sentences over and over.

“A grammar could be a device which generates all the grammatical sequence of language and
none of the ungrammatical ones. Such a grammar must be perfectly explicit and nothing may be
left to imagination.

Phrase Structures:

The term phrase structure grammar was originally introduced by Noam Chomsky. The defining
trait of phrase structure grammars is thus their adherence to the constituency relation, as opposed
to the dependency relation of dependency grammars. phrase structure grammars are all those
grammars that are based on the constituency relation, as opposed to the dependency relation
associated with dependency grammars; hence, phrase structure grammars are also known as
constituency grammars. The constituency relation derives from the subject-predicate division of
Latin and Greek grammars that is based on term logic and reaches back to Aristotle in antiquity.
Basic clause structure is understood in terms of a binary division of the clause into subject (noun
phrase NP) and predicate (verb phrase VP).

The binary division of the clause results in a one-to-one-or-more correspondence. For each
element in a sentence, there are one or more nodes in the tree structure that one assumes for that
sentence. A two word sentence such as Luke laughed necessarily implies three (or more) nodes
in the syntactic structure: one for the noun Luke (subject NP), one for the
verb laughed (predicate VP), and one for the entirety Luke laughed (sentence S). The
constituency grammars listed above all view sentence structure in terms of this one-to-one-or-
more correspondence.

One of the important aspects of phrase structure grammar is that any set of sentences that can be
generated by a finite state grammar can equally be generated by a phrase structure grammar.
Chomsky himself has attempted to construct a grammar on the basis of a carefully axiomatized
and consistently detailed level of phrase structure that is, roughly, bracketing as it is usually
termed in linguistics, immediate constituent analysis. Phrase structure grammar is more powerful
than finite state grammar as they do everything that finite state grammars do and more.

Consider the sentence;

The baby hits the girl.
 Now representation of the structure of this sentence is;

Phrase structure rules:

Phrase structure rules are a type of rewrite rule used to describe a given language's syntax and
are closely associated with the early stages of transformational grammar, being first proposed
by Noam Chomsky in 1957. They are used to break down a natural language sentence into its
constituent parts, also known as syntactic categories, including both lexical categories (parts of
speech) and phrasal categories. A grammar that uses phrase structure rules is a type of phrase
structure grammar. Phrase structure rules as they are commonly employed operate according to
the constituency relation, and a grammar that employs phrase structure rules is therefore
a constituency grammar; as such, it stands in contrast to dependency grammars, which are based
on the dependency relation.

Phrase structure rules are usually of the following form:

A B C

Meaning that the constituent A is separated into the two sub constituents B and C . Some
examples for English are as follows:

S NP VP
NP (Det) N1
N1 (AP) N1 (PP)
The first rule reads:
A S (sentence) consists of a NP (noun phrase) followed by a VP (verb phrase).
The second rule reads:
A noun phrase consists of an optional Det (determiner) followed by an N (noun).
The third rule reads:
N (noun) can be preceded by an optional AP (adjective phrase) and followed by an optional PP
(prepositional phrase). The round brackets indicate optional constituents.

Beginning with the sentence symbol S, and applying the phrase structure rules successively,
finally applying replacement rules to substitute actual words for the abstract symbols, it is
possible to generate many proper sentences of English (or whichever language the rules are
specified for). If the rules are correct, then any sentence produced in this way ought to be
grammatically (syntactically) correct. It is also to be expected that the rules will generate
syntactically correct but semantically nonsensical sentences, such as the following well-known
example:

Colorless green ideas sleep furiously.

This sentence was constructed by Noam Chomsky as an illustration that phrase structure rules
are capable of generating syntactically correct but semantically incorrect sentences. Phrase
structure rules break sentences down into their constituent parts. These constituents are often
represented as tree structures . The tree for Chomsky's sentence can be rendered as follows:

A constituent is any word or combination of words that is dominated by a single node. Thus each
individual word is a constituent. Further, the subject NP Colorless green ideas, the minor
NP green ideas, and the VP sleep furiously are constituents. Phrase structure rules and the tree
structures that are associated with them are a form of immediate constituent analysis.

In transformational grammar, systems of phrase structure rules are supplemented by

transformation rules, which act on an existing syntactic structure to produce a new one
(performing such operations as negation, changing into passive tense etc.). These transformations
are not strictly required for generation, as the sentences they produce could be generated by a
suitably expanded system of phrase structure rules alone, but transformations provide greater
economy and enable significant relations between sentences to be reflected in the grammar.

According to Chomsky any PM with certain rules can be considered as a derivation of a string.
The rule will have the form XY, where X can be rewritten as another symbol or string of
symbol Y. So the rule sentence NP + VP tells us that the symbol sentence can be re- written as
the symbols NP + VP. Any rule of this kind is said to be a phrase- structure rule (PS-rule).

Accordingly the following PS-rule will allow us to derive the above given sentence
the boy hits the girl.

1. S  NP+VP
2. NP  DET+ VP
3. VP  V+NP
4. DET  'the'
5. N  'boy', 'girl'
6. V  'hit'

Following these rules, the sentence under consideration can be derived in the following way. The
number of rule employed in course of derivation is placed on the right.

1. NP+VP
2. ART+N+VP
3. ART+N+V+NP
4. The+N + V +NP
5. The boy + V + NP
6. The boy + V +DET + N
7. The +boy + V +DET + N
8. The boy hit the girl

It is important to point out here that the above derivation corresponds exactly to the derivation
that we have in the PM of the sentence. It is also to be noticed here that both in the derivation as
well as in the phrase marker a NP can be composed of ART +N, or that /the /s an DET and so on.

We are now in a position to define a grammatical sentence within the framework of a phrase
structure grammar. According to Chomsky any line, which we obtain by applying PS-rules is
called a string. A string is said to be well formed if all of its components traced back to the level
sentence at the top of a tree diagram .The last line of a PM is called a terminal string. The boy
hits the girl, for example, is said to be a terminal string as it is placed at the bottom of the tree
diagram. A string is called terminal when there are no more PS-rules, which can be applied to the
sentence. A terminal string is said to be grammatical if and only if it is originated in accordance
with the PS-rules of the grammar. Since the sentence under consideration is a terminal string of a
PM, it is supposed to be a grammatical sentence being used in English. The PS-rules, which we
have so far discussed is simple. But it is supposed to be more complicated. As far as the verb
position of the PS-rules is concerned, there we have different types of verb, viz., transitive verb
and intransitive verb. A verb phrase may be composed either of a transitive verb together with an
object noun, or simply of an intransitive verb. Secondly, a PS-rule is said to be context sensitive
in the sense that one symbol may be rewritten as another irrespective of what other symbols
occur in the string to which the rules are applied. Usually, it is not allowed to replace one symbol
instead of other if that symbol occurs in a string of a certain sort. For example, there is a rule in
PS, which asserts that at times the verb in English language must end in S when the subject noun
is singular; otherwise the verb must end without S.

Deep Structures and Surface Structures:

Noam Chomsky’s 1965 book Aspects of the Theory of Syntax developed the idea that each
sentence in a language has two levels of representation — a deep structure and a surface
structure. The deep structure represents the core semantic relations of a sentence, and is mapped
onto the surface structure (which follows the phonological form of the sentence very closely)
via transformations. Chomsky believed there are considerable similarities between languages'
deep structures and that these reveal properties, common to all languages that surface structures
conceal. However, this may not have been the central motivation for introducing deep structure;
transformations had been proposed prior to the development of deep structure as a means of
increasing the mathematical and descriptive power of context-free grammars. Similarly, deep
structure was devised largely for technical reasons relating to early theory. The deep structure of
a linguistic expression is a theoretical construct that seeks to unify several related structures.

For example, the sentences "Pat loves Chris" and "Chris is loved by Pat" mean roughly the same
thing and use similar words. Some linguists, Chomsky in particular, have tried to account for this
similarity by positing that these two sentences are distinct surface forms that derive from a
common deep structure. In transformational and generative grammar, surface structure is the
outward form of a sentence. In contrast to deep structure (an abstract representation of a
sentence), surface structure corresponds to the version of a sentence that can be spoken and
heard. A modified version of the concept of surface structure is called S-structure.

In transformational grammar, deep structures are generated by phrase-structure rules, and surface
structures are derived from deep structures by a series of transformations."Deep and surface
structure are often used as terms in a simple binary opposition, with the deep structure
representing meaning, and the surface structure being the actual sentence we see."

Transformational rules:

Transformational process of the syntactic structures according to Chomsky’s Transformational

Grammar can be best summarized by adding, deleting, moving, and substituting of words. These
changes take place through specific rules which are called Transformational Rules.

Generally, any sentence structure contains a noun phrase (NP) and a verb phrase (VP).