CHOMSKY FOR BEGINNERS- QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

PRVA PARCIJALA (2017/2018)

1. Why is Chomsky important?

Noam Chomsky is an American linguist, philosopher, politician, cognitive scientist, activist and
lecturer. His work in the fields of linguistics and cognitive sciences is considered revolutionary. He is
extremely productive with 40 titles in the field of linguistics, over 40 in other fields and more than
100 articles overall. His academic career at MIT is impressive as well. He became full professor at
the age of 32 and at 47 he was given the highest academic position at MIT. He is the most cited
living person with 4000 citations in Arts and Humanities Citation Index 1619 citations in the Science
Index and is eighth on the list of ten most cited figures of all time.

2. Chomsky's childhood and his family

Avram Noam Chomsky is born in Philadelphia on 7.12.1928.
His father William Chomsky emigrated from Russia to the USA in 1913. His father was a teacher of
Hebrew who obtained Ph.D in the field of medieval Hebrew.
His mother Elsie Simonofsky was also a teacher of Hebrew and was involved into politics.
Noam and his younger brother David were from the early childhood exposed to the scholarship,
culture and traditions of Judaism and the Hebrew language through the work of both of their
parents. Their family was actively involved in Jewish cultural activities and Jewish issues, particularly
the revival of the Hebrew language and Zionism.

3. Elementary school
Chomsky attended an experimental school in Philadelphia called the Oak Lane Country Day school.

4. Secondary school
At the age of twelve, Chomsky enrolled to Central High School in Philadelphia.

5. Early trips to NY and influence of his uncle

At the age of 13, Chomsky began his frequent trips to NY to visit his uncle, who had a newsstand on
Manhattan and Chomsky was frequently there to help him. He taught Noam about Freud and
Marxist sectarian politics. The newsstand of his uncle was a meeting point for Jewish intellectual
emigrants from Europe and Noam was exposed to their lively discussions about Freud, Marx, the
Budapest String Quartet, literature etc.

6. Undergraduate studies and influence of Zellig Harris

Chomsky began his undergraduate studies at the University of Pennsylvania in 1945 when he was
only 16.
Chomsky met Zellig Harris in 1947, who was a structural lingnuist who founded the first department
of linguistics in the USA at the University of Pennsylvania and who also gave lectures on politics-
Chomsky met Harris at one of his political lectures, only later Chomsky began to attend the
linguistic courses that Harris taught. Chomsky's formal introduction to the field of linguistics was in
1947 when Zellig gave him proofs of his Methods in Structural Linguistics. Harris stimulated
Chomsky to do major in linguistics as an undergraduate student at the University of Pennsylvania.

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7. Graduate studies
In 1949 Chomsky began his graduate studies at the University of Pennsylvania. In two years he
fulfilled requirements for MA degree and completed his master's thesis in 1951.

8. Years spent at Harvard

After two years of graduated studies at the University of Pennsylvania, Chomsky was awarded a
scholarship to study at Harvard. This happened owing to the efforts of his philosophy teacher
Nelson Goodman who recognized that Chomsky is a promising talent and recommened him to the
Society of Fellows at Harvard. In 1951 Chomsky was named a Junior Fellow to this famous Harvard
Society. At Harvard he met many important and influential linguists and philosophers. One of them
was Roman Jakobson- their approaches to linguistics were radically different, but they became
friends. At Harvard, Chomsky also met one of the best Jakobson's students Morris Halle, who was
also a researchers at the MIT. Later Jakobson and Halle helped Chomsky to get a position at MIT.

9. Arrival at MIT
In 1955 Noam Chomsky arrived to MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) and remained in
this institution ever since. But there was no linguistic department at MIT when Chomsky arrived.
Therefore, Chomsky as an assistant professor was assigned to a machine translation project at the
MIT Research Laboratory of Electronics. In the beginning, Chomsky fulfilled his teaching obligations
by giving courses of French and German to graduate students. Chomsky discovered in the graduate
catalogue of courses that a course on language was offered and he asked to teach this course. He
was allowed to organize this course as he liked and this gave him the opportunity to present his
ideas of a generative grammar to his students.

10. First published book

His first book was published in 1957 in the form of a monograph called Syntactic Structures.

11. Confrontation with American structuralists, review of Skinner's book The Linguistic Society of
America organized two conferences in Texas, known as the Texas Conferences on Problems of
Linguistics Analysis in English- the purpose of these conferences was to topple down Chomsky's
theories. American structuralism was based on behaviorism, and this approach to language and
language learning was most clearly elaborated in B.F Skinner's book Verbal Behavior.
Skinners (Behaviorist) theory: The same external processes, like reinforcement, which are
employed to predict and control the behavior of animals, can be used to explain human behavior in
general, including verbal behavior.
Chomsky wrote a very critical review of this book. Chomsky's review was a direct attack on the
leading proponent of behaviorism of that time. Chomsky pointed out in his review that creativity is
the main characteristic of human language and therefore cannot possibly be explained by any
behaviorist theory- If very young children are able to understand expressions they hear for the first
time, then it is clear that behaviorist theory must be wrong.

12. Chomsky's classic period

In the 1960s Chomsky was extremely productive and this period is characterized as „Chomsky's
classic period“ by some historians of linguistics. In this period he participated at the Ninth

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 Inernational Congress of Linguists in 1962 and presented a paper entitled „The Logical Basis of
Linguistic Theory“, which elaborated his approach to language known as transformational
generative grammar.

13. Chomsky and Cartesian linguistics

In Cartesian Linguistics (1966) Chomsky elaborated the relationship between empiricist and
rationalist approaches. In it, Chomsky claims that modern linguistics had lost touch with an earlier
European tradition of linguistic studies, which he calls Cartesian linguistics. Chomsky's goal of this
book was to provide a preliminary and fragmentary sketch of some of the leading ideas of Cartesian
linguistics. He identifies himself as the follower of the 17 th and 18th centuries rationalist tradition.
Chomsky emphasized that his ideas of the distinction between deep sand surface structures might
be traced back to both the grammar and the logic described in the Port- Royal Grammaire generale
et raisonnee (1660)

14. Beginning of Chomsky's political activism

In 1960s and 1970s, Chomsky became known as a severe critic of American policy, especially
foreign policy (the invasion of Vietnam), but he was marginalized in the sense that the media didn't
give him space to make his views known to a wider audience. He constantly wrote letters to editors
of newspapers, but just a few were published. He continued to write, to participate in
demonstrations and marches. His political writings represent a careful and very accurate analysis of
American policy.

15. Collaboration with Herman and analysis of the role of media

In the early 1970s Chomsky decided to start collaboration with Edward S. Herman, and it resulted in
several books, including Counter- Revolutionary Violence: Bloodbaths in Fact and Propaganda
(1974). In this book Chomsky analyzed the role of media in society.
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16. Tittle and date of publication of the first book
Syntactic Structures (1957)

17. List three models for linguistic structure discussed in the first book
- The first model is a very simple communication theoretic model of language
-The second is a more powerful model that incorporates „immediate constituent analysis“
Chomsky claims that neither of these models can properly serve the purposes of grammatical
description- they cannot account for the active-passive relation between sentences. He explains
that such relations can be explained by developing
- A third transformational model for linguistic structure which is more powerful than the immediate
constituent model

18. What is the fundamental aim in the linguistic analysis of a language?

The fundamental aim in the linguistic analysis of a language L is to separate the grammatical
sequences which are the sentences of L from the ungrammatical sequences which are not
sentences of L and to study the structure of the grammatical sequences.

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19. What does Chomsky illustrate with the following contrast:
(a) Colorless green ideas sleep furiously vs. (b) *Furiously sleep ideas green colorless.
Explain this contrast. What does Chomsky conclude on the basis of this contrast?
Chomsky insists on the fact that the notion „grammatical“ cannot be identified with the notion
„meaningful“ in any semantic sense. As a proof for this claim he offers two sentences which are
equally nonsensical, but only one is grammatical (a)
Therefore, he concludes that the definition of „grammaticalness“ cannot be semantically based.
The ability of humans to produce and recognize grammatical utterances is not based on meaning.
Although (a) doesn't mean anything, native speakers recognize it as a grammatical sentence,
whereas (b) is recognized as both meaningless and ungrammatical.
On the basis of this he concludes that semantic studies of language are not directly relevant for the
problem of determining or characterizing the set of grammatical utterances.

20. What are „finite state Markov processes“, what do they produce, are they adequate for the
description of human languages, if not, why not?
Machines mathematically known as “finite state Markov processes“ produce sentences from left to
right. Any language that can be produced by a machine of this sort is called a finite state language,
and the machine could be called a finite state grammar. A device which would produce all and only
grammatical sentences is impossible to construct, it would also produce many non-sentences. In
addition, it cannot account for the ability of the speaker to produce and understand new utterances
while rejecting those that don’t belong to the language. A finite state grammar is the simplest type
of grammar which can generate infinite number of sentences, but it is also limited and inadequate,
and linguists must search for a more powerful and abstract type of grammar.

21. Which type of grammar is more powerful than a finite state grammar? List some rules that are
postulated by this type of grammar, and how are these rules interpreted?
The type of grammar that is more powerful than FSG is called Phrase structure grammar.
Some rules of this grammar:
RULE INTERPRETATION
a) S -> NP + VP: Rewrite sentence as Noun Phrase and Verb Phrase
b) NP -> T + N: A Noun Phrase may consist of an article and a noun
c) VP -> Verb + NP: A Verb Phrase may consist of a verb and a noun phrase

22. What did Chomsky discuss in chapters three and four of his book and what did he conclude?
He discussed two models for the structure of language: a communicational theoretic model based
on a conception of a language as a Markov process, and a phrase structure model based on
immediate constituent analysis. He concluded that the theory of phrase structure is also
inadequate for the purposes of linguistic description.

23. Which rule is proposed for auxiliary verbs and what does that rule specify?
Rule: Aux -> C (M) (have + en) (be + ing) (be + en)
It specifies that the Aux element may be complex, consisting of Tense, Modal verbs, and „Helping
verbs“ have and be plus „aspectual suffixes“ –en and –ing. C (=Tense) is obligatory, whereas all
others are optional.

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24. What is grammatical transformation? Give a transformational rule for passives.
A grammatical transformation T operates on a given string (or a set of strings) with a given
constituent structure and converts it into a new string with a new derived constituent structure.
Transformational rules for passives:
If S1 is a sentence of the form: NP1 – Aux – V – NP2  active
Then the corresponding string of the form: NP2 – Aux + be + en – V – by + NP1 is also a grammatical
sentence.  passive

25. Chomsky claims that a grammar has three types of rules. Which rules, and how is a sentence
produced by such grammar?
Corresponding to the level of phrase structure, a grammar has a sequence of rules of the form X->Y,
and corresponding to lower levels (a morphophonemic level) it has a sequence of morphophonemic
rules of the same basic form. Linking these two sequences, it has a sequence of transformational
rules.

Production of a sentence: The rules of Phrase structure are applied to construct a terminal string
that will consist of a sequence of morphemes, not necessarily in the correct order. The next in step
comes the sequence of transformation, so that each obligatory transformation is applied and
certain optional ones. Finally, morphophonemic rules are applied on such a string of words, and
they convert this string of words into a string of phonemes.

26. Give the structural analysis of the string to which a passive transformation applies, and the
resulting structural change.
a) Structural analysis: NP – Aux – V – NP
b) Structural change: X1 – X2 - X3 - X4 -> X4 – X2 - + be + en – X3 – by + X1

27. List four transformations that Chomsky discussed in the chapter dealing with English
transformation.
Those are:
(1) Transformation Tnot  negation
(2) Transformation Tq  interrogatives (e.g. yes-no questions)
(3) Transformation Tw  wh-questions
(4) Transformation Tpassive

28. Describe the operation of the transformation that is responsible for the derivation of wh-
questions.
This transformation operates on any string of the form X-NP-Y, where X and Y stand for any string,
including the 'null' string. Tw1 converts the string of the form X-NP-Y into the corresponding string of
the form NP-X-Y, i.e. it inverts the first and the second segment of the string. T w2 converts the
resulting string NP-X-Y into who-X-Y if NP is animate, or into what-X-Y if NP is inanimate.

29. How is the question Who ate an apple derived?

The terminal string underlying this question is NP-C-V... (John-C-eat + an + apple). If we apply only
the obligatory transformations, we will only define C, and choose Past in this case. If we then apply
the transformation Tq to this string, the string derived will be past-John-eat+an+apple. If we then

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 apply the transformational rule Tw, we would first get the string John-past-eat+an+apple (derived by
Tw1) and then the string who-past-eat+an+apple (derived by Tw2).
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30. What is the title of the second book, when it was published and what does Chomsky point out in
the preface?
Aspects of the theory of syntax (1965)
In the preface Chomsky points out that the idea that a language is based on a system of rules
determining the interpretation of its infinitely many sentences is not new. He mention that the
origins of a generative grammar could be traced even in Panini's grammar, then within rationalistic
philosophy of language and mind, and finally in the introduction to general linguistics by Wilhelm
Von Humboldt.

31. What is linguistic theory primarily concerned with according to Chomsky?

Linguistic theory is concerned primarily with an ideal speaker-listener, in a completely homogenous
speech-community, who knows its language perfectly and is unaffected by such grammatically
irrelevant conditions as memory limitations, distractions, shifts of attention and interest and errors
in applying his knowledge of the language in actual performance.

32. Explain the distinction between competence and performance

Competence- the speaker-hearer's knowledge of his language
Performance- the actual use of language in concrete situations
The distinction is related to the langue-parole distinction of Saussure, but Chomsky emphasizes that
it is necessary to reject Saussure’s concept of langue as merely a systematic inventory of items. He
states that a grammar of a language purports to be a description of the ideal speaker-hearer’s
intrinsic competence.

33. What is generative grammar according to Chomsky?

A system of rules that in some explicit and well-defined way assigns structural descriptions to
sentences. A generative grammar should attempt to specify what the speaker actually knows, now
what he may report about his knowledge. It is not a model for a speaker or a hearer but it attempts
to characterize the knowledge of the language that provides the basis for actual use of language by
a speaker-hearer.

34. How does Chomsky explain the distinction between the terms „acceptable“ and „grammatical“?
Give one example to illustrate this distinction
Acceptability is a concept that belongs to the study of performance, whereas grammaticalness
belongs to the study of competence.
Example: 1) I called up the man who wrote the book that you told me about
2) I called the man who wrote the book that you told me about up
The sentence (2) is less acceptable than the one in (1) but it is still grammatical

35. List three major components of a generative grammar

1) Syntactic component
2) Phonological component
3) Semantic component

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36. What does the syntactic component of a generative grammar consist of?
It consists of infinite set of abstract formal objects, each of which incorporates all information
relevant to a single interpretation of a particular sentence

37. What does the syntactic component of a grammar must specify for each sentence?
It must specify, for each sentence, a deep structure that determines its semantic interpretation and
a surface structure that determines its phonetic interpretation.

38. What does the phonological component of a grammar determine?

The phonological component determines the phonetic form of a sentence generated by the
syntactic rules. It relates a structure generated by the syntactic component to a phonetically
represented signal.

39. What does the semantic component of a grammar determine?

It determines the semantic interpretation of a sentence. It relates a structure generated by the
syntactic component to a certain semantic representation.

40. What does Chomsky illustrate with the following examples: I persuaded John to Leave and I
expected John to leave? At which level do these sentences differ and how?
Chomsky illustrates the difference between surface and deep structures, and also the elusiveness of
the speaker’s tacit knowledge. Examples are the same in surface structure but different in the
underlying deep structure that determines their semantic interpretation. In the first sentence, John
is the direct object of the verb and the grammatical subject of the embedded sentence. In the
second sentence, John has only a grammatical function internal to the embedded sentence, it is the
logical subject of that embedded sentence.

41. Which grammar is descriptively adequate, and which grammar is explanatory adequate?
Descriptively adequate grammar is one that correctly describes the intrinsic competence of the
idealized native speaker. The grammar is justified on external grounds, on grounds of
correspondence to linguistic fact.
A grammar is explanatory adequate if it is a principled descriptively adequate system. The grammar
is justified on internal grounds, on grounds of its relation to a linguistic theory.

42. Chomsky makes a distinction between two types of universals. Give examples for each type in
the domain of syntax.
A theory of substantive universals claims that items of a particular kind in any language must be
drawn from a fixed class of items. For example, certain fixed syntactic categories (N, V etc) can be
found in the syntactic representations of the sentences of any language and they provide the
general underlying syntactic structure of each language.
A theory of formal universals claims that the grammar of every language must meet certain
specified formal conditions, implying that all languages are cut to the same pattern. For example,
the syntactic component of a grammar must contain transformational rules mapping semantically
interpreted deep structures into phonetically interpreted surface structure.

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43. Chomsky considers the analysis of the English Verbal Auxiliary phrase as an example of
„significant generalization“. What does such a phrase must and may contain? Give a relevant rule
that represents an abbreviation for eight rules, and list eight possible forms.
Such a phrase must contain Tense (Past or Present) and then may or may not contain a Modal and
either the Perfect or Progressive aspect, where these elements must appear in this order.
Abbreviation: Aux -> Tense (Modal) (Perfect) (Progressive)
Forms: 1) Tense, 2) Tense-Modal, 3) Tense-Perfect, 4) Tense-Progressive, 5) Tense-Modal-Perfect,
6) Tense-Modal-Progressive, 7) Tense-Perfect-Progressive, 8) Tense-Modal-Perfect-Progressive

44. Explain the distinction between rationalist and empiricist approaches to language learning
Rationalist approach holds that there are innate ideas and principles of various kinds that
determine the form of the acquired knowledge. This approach assumes that various formal and
substantive universals are intrinsic properties of the language-acquisition system.
Empiricist approach relies on the corpus of data and subsequent data processing for determining
the grammar of a language. This approach claims that the grammars which result from application
of the postulated procedures to a sufficiently rich selection of data will be descriptively adequate.

45. What is rewriting rule? Explain such a rule, how is it interpreted?

The mechanism for generating Phrase-markers is a system of rewriting rule
A –> Z/X___ Y
Here X and Y are possibly null strings of symbols, A is a single category symbol, and Z is a non-null
string of symbol.
Interpretation: the category A is realized as the string Z when it is in the environment consisting of
X to the left and Y to the right.

46. What is a phrase structure grammar, what does it consist of, what is a context-free grammar and
is it adequate for natural languages?
An unordered set of rewriting rules is called a constituent structure grammar or phrase structure
grammar. The grammar is called context-free if in each rule of the form X and Y are null. Such
systems are inadequate as grammars for natural languages. Rewriting rules constitute part of the
base of the syntactic component. These rules are arranged in a linear sequence.
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47. In which book did Chomsky evaluate past linguistic contributions to the study of mind?
Language and Mind (1968)

48. Cartesians emphasized „the creative aspect of language use“. What is it and which important
observations are made in relation to it by Descartes and his followers?
It is distinctively human ability to express new thoughts and to understand entirely new expressions
of thought, within the framework of an „instituted language“, a language that is a cultural product
subject to laws and principles partially unique to it and partially reflections of general properties of
mind.
Descartes argued that the only sure indication that another body possesses a human mind is its
ability to use language in normal way.

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49. What did Descartes correctly observe regarding language and use of language?
Descartes correctly observed that language is a species-specific human possession. Even at low
levels of intelligence, a human being has a command of language that is totally unattainable by an
ape that may surpass a human imbecile in problem-solving ability.

50. In which grammar from 17th century was the distinction between deep and surface structure
introduced? How did that grammar explain that distinction? Which sentence is given as an
example and how is it analyzed?
The Port-Royal Grammar (1660).
Surface structure responds only to sound-to the corporeal aspect of language
Deep structure- the production of signal, with its surface structure, is accompanied by a
corresponding mental analysis.
example: Invisible God created the visible world the deep structure consists of a system of three
proportions 1) that God is invisible, 2) that he created the world 3) that the world is visible

51. How did Wilhelm von Humboldt explain the fact that the speaker is able to make infinite use of
finite means?
The grammar must contain a finite system of rules that generates infinitely many deep and surface
structures, appropriately related. It must contain rules that relate these abstract structures to
certain representations of sound and meaning.

52. Who was the founder of modern structural linguistics and what did he argue? Elaborate
Ferdinand de Saussure was the founder of modern structural linguistics. He argued that the only
proper methods of linguistic analysis are segmentation and classification.
Applying these methods, the linguist determines the patterns into which the units so analyzed fall.
These patterns are either sintagmatic- patterns of literal succession in the stream of speech or
paradigmatic- relations among units that occupy the same position in the stream of speech.

53. Who influenced Saussure, and what should be the task of the linguist according to him?
William Dwight Whitney - The task of the linguist should be to list the linguistic forms and to study
their individual histories.

54. Which traditions of research influenced the contemporary study of language?

The tradition of philosophical grammar (17th century)
Structuralist tradition (20th century, dominated research until the 1950s)

55. What does Chomsky consider as a positive contribution of structural linguistics?

The major contribution is the attempt to construct discovery procedures, the techniques of
segmentation and classification. In addition, they have broadened the scope of data available and
increased its reliability and it was able to show that there are structural relations in language that
can be studied abstractly.

56. Why is Chomsky critical towards structuralist and behaviorist approaches to the study of
language?
In these approaches it is taken for granted that a language is a habit structure or a network of

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 associative connections. Knowledge of language must develop slowly through repetition and
training and he believes that an attempt to account for knowledge and use of language in these
terms has no particular plausibility or justification.

57. What are surface structure and deep structure according to Chomsky and how are they related?
Surface structure- the organization into categories and phrases directly associated with the physical
signal
Deep structure- a system of categories and phrases with a more abstract character. In the
traditional view, it is a system of propositions, neither of which is asserted, but which interrelate in
such a way as to express the meaning of the sentence.
They are related in the sense that it is possible to form the surface structure from the deep
structure by performing certain operations.

58. Use labeled bracketing to represent the deep structure and surface structure of the sentence a
wise man is honest. Which operations are performed in order to derive the surface structure of
this sentence from the corresponding deep structure?
[s [NP a man [s [NP man] [VP is wise]]] [VP is honest]] – the deep structure
[S [NP a wise man] [VP is honest]] – surface structure
Operations:
a) assign the marker –wh to the most deeply embedded NP (man)
b) replace the NP so marked by who
c) delete who is
d) invert man and wise

59. What does the knowledge of language involve according to Chomsky?

It involves the control of a grammar that generates the infinite set of potential deep structures,
maps them onto associated surface structures and determines the semantic and phonetic
interpretations of these abstract objects.

60. The sentence I disapprove of John's drinking is ambiguous. How can this ambiguity be resolved? At
which level is the distinction represented, and how is it obliterated?
The sentence can refer either to the fact of John's drinking or to its character. The ambiguity can be
resolved by extending the sentence into either a) I disapprove of John's drinking the beer or b) I
disapprove of John's excessive drinking. However it is not possible to extend it simultaneously in
both ways (*I disapprove of John's excessive drinking the beer). This distinction is represented only
at the level of deep structure. It is obliterated by the transformations that map the deep structures
onto the surface structure form.

61. What must be indicated in the deep structure underlying the sentence John was persuaded to
leave? What does Chomsky conclude on the basis of this example?
It must indicate that the subject-predicate relation holds in an underlying proposition of the form
[S[NP John] [VP leave]], whereas the verb-object relation holds in an underlying proposition of the
form [S[NP…] [VP persuade [NP John]]]. Chomsky concludes that the surface structure is often
misleading and uninformative and that the knowledge of language involves properties of a much

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 more abstract nature, not indicated in the surface structure.

62. Explain the derivation of the wh-question Who did John expect to meet Tom?. Which processes
are involved in the formation of this question, and which form of the sentence is derived after
application of each of these processes?
The processes are:
a) wh-placement : assign the marker wh- to the NP someone in John expected someone to meet
Tom
b) wh-inversion: place the marked NP at the beginning of the sentence  wh-someone John
expected to meet Tom
c) auxiliary attraction: move a part of the verbal auxiliary or the copula to the second position in the
sentence  wh-someone did John expect to meet Tom
d) phonological interpretation: replace the marked noun phrase by an appropriate interrogative
form  Who(m) did John expect to meet Tom?

63. Grammatical transformations are structure- dependent. What does it mean? What are structure-
independent operations? How are interrogatives formed in english, and what could be potential
structure-independent operations in forming interrogatives?
It means that they apply to a string of words organized as phrases. Structure-independent
operations are those that are applicable to a string of words independently of its abstract structure
as a system of phrases. The rule that forms the interrogatives from the corresponding declaratives
is a structure-dependent rule interchanging a noun phrase with the first element of the auxiliary.
Structure-independent operations could invert the first and last words of a sentence or arrange the
words of a sentence in increasing length in terms of phonetic segments or move the left- most
occurrence of the word will to the extreme left.
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64. What is the title of the book which contains an elaborated version of the Whidden Lectures,
which Chomsky delivered at McMaster University?
Reflections on Language (1975)

65. What is the most compelling reason for Chomsky to study language? Elaborate
The most compelling reason for Chomsky is because language may be „a mirror of mind“. He
believes that by studying language we may discover abstract principles that govern its structure and
use. These principles are universal, derived from mental characteristics of the species.

66. How should we study the acquisition of a cognitive structure such as language according to
Chomsky? What kind of analogy does he suggests?
Chomsky claims that human cognitive systems are as intricate as physical structures of an organism.
We should study them as complex bodily organs. Despite the variety found in languages people
have developed essentially the same language by following a system of principles which are species
property. He suggests that the idea of regarding the growth of language as analoguous to the
development of a bodily organ is quite natural and plausible.

67. According to Chomsky, each grammar is a theory of a particular language. What does such a
grammar specify? Elaborate.

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 It specifies formal and semantic properties of an infinite array of sentences. These sentences
constitute the language generated by the grammar. The languages so generated are those that can
be learned in the normal way. The language faculty, given appropriate stimulation, will construct a
grammar. The person knows the language generated by the constructed grammar. This knowledge
can then be used to understand what is heard and to produce discourse as an expression of
thought.

68. What is UG and how does Chomsky define it? Elaborate.

UG is „universal grammar“. Chomsky defines it as the system of principles, conditions, and rules
that are elements or properties of all human languages. UG can be taken as expressing „the
essence of human language“. UG will be invariant among humans. UG will specify what language
learning must achieve, if it takes place successfully. What is learned, the cognitive structure
attained, must have the properties of UG. Each human language will conform to UG.

69. Formulate a tentative hypothesis about the acquisition of yes-no questions in English on the basis
of the question Is the man tall? and the corresponding declarative The man is tall. What kind of
rule is employed by a child according to this hypothesis? Explain.
The tentative hypothesis: The child processes the declarative sentence from its first word, i.e. from
left to right, continuing until he reaches the first occurrence of the word is (or others like it: may,
will...). The child then preposes this occurrence of is, producing the corresponding question, with
some modifications of form. The child employs a structure independent rule, one that involves only
analysis into words and the property earliest/leftmost defined on word sequences.

70. Formulate a revised hypothesis about the acquisition of yes-no questions in English on the basis
of the fact that the question corresponding to the declarative The man who is tall is in the room is
Is the man who is tall in the room? and not *Is the man who tall is in the room? What kind of rule is
employed by a child according to this hypothesis? Explain.

1) The man who is tall is in the room. Is the man who is tall in the room?
2) The man who is tall is in the room. *Is the man who tall is in the room?

The revised hypothesis: The child analyzes the declarative sentence into abstract phrases, then
locates the first occurrence of is (etc.) that follows the first noun phrase, and then preposes this
occurrence of is forming the corresponding question. The child employs a structure-dependent
rule, one that involves analysis into words and phrases, and the property earliest defined on
sequences of words analyzed into abstract phrases.

71. How can we explain the fact that a child employs a more complex rule in forming yes-no
questions in English?
The only reasonable conclusion we can make is that UG contains the principle that all rules must be
structure-dependent. The principle of structure-dependence is not learned but forms part of the
conditions for language learning. This principle of structure-dependency must hold universally and
not only for English, since humans are not specifically designed to learn one rather than another
language.

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72. How does Chomsky formulate the „innateness hypothesis“?
Linguistic theory, the theory of UG, is an innate property of the human mind. In principle, we
should be able to account for it in terms of human biology.

73. What is the greatest defect of the Chomskyan theory according to philosopher John Searle?
The greatest defect would be the failure to see the essential connection between language and
communication, between meaning and speech acts.

74. How does Chomsky respond to Searle's criticism, especially regarding the communicative
function of language?
Searle's concept of communication includes communication with oneself, that is, thinking in words.
But Chomsky claims that we do think without words too. Chomsky essentially agrees with the view
that language is a system for expression of thought, but also argues that it is impossible to account
for or explain the structure of UG or of specific grammars on the basis of their functionality. In
addition, Chomsky claims that it is possible to use language without intending to communicate and
so he views communication as only one function of language.

75. How does Chomsky react to Strawson's theory of communication-intention?

Chomsky points out that the learner has no reason for acquiring the language. They do not chose to
learn, and cannot fail to learn under normal conditions. Having acquired the system of language,
the person can choose to use it or not. Communication is one function that the system of language
may serve, but it is by no means the only function, according to Chomsky.

76. Use labeled bracketing to assign a phrase marker to the string The man who is tall is here. Which
occurrence of is is preposed to produce a yes-no question? How is the rule that carries out this
operation called and where do we find such rules?
[S[NP[DET the] [N man] [S who[VP is tall]]] [VP is here]]
Is is the one following the first noun phrase (the man who is tall), and this is the occurrence that is
preposed to give the corresponding yes-no question. The rule is called a „(grammatical)
transformation“ and we find it in the „transformational component“ of the syntax of a language.

77. What is the base component of grammar? What does it consist of?
That is a component that generates a class of initial phrase markers. It consists of a „categorial
component“ and a lexicon.

78. What does the lexicon consist of?

It consists of the lexical items that belong to the lexical categories, each with its phonological,
semantic and syntactic properties. It also contains rules of „word formation“ that delimit the class
of lexical items and express their general properties.

79. How are initial phrase markers generated, what does the transformational component do and
what is derived at the end?
The various components of the base interact to generate initial phrase markers, and the
transformational component converts an initial phrase marker, step by step, into a phonologically
represented sentence with its phrase marker.

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80. How did Chomsky call the initial phrase markers in the so-called Standard theory? Where is the
meaning of the sentence determined?
They were called „Deep structures“. The meaning of the sentence was determined by surface
structure.

81. What does Extended Standard Theory postulate regarding the semantic interpretation?
It postulates that surface structures contribute in a definite way to semantic interpretation. The
theory thus dissociates the syntactic and semantic properties of the deep structures.

82. What does Trace theory postulate?

Trace theory of movement rules postulates that when a transformation moves a phrase P from
position X to position Y it leaves in position X a trace bound by P.
_______________________________________________________________________________
83. What is the title of the book in which Chomsky discusses the nature, origin, and use of language
knowledge and when was it published?
Knowledge of Language (1985)

84. What are two problems concerning human knowledge and how does Chomsky call them?
The first is the problem of explaining how we can know so much given that we have such limited
evidence- Plato's problem
The second is the problem of explaining how we can know so little, given that we have so much
evidence- Orwell's problem

85. How does Chomsky explain the notion of generative grammar?

The generative grammar of a particular language is a theory that is concerned with the form and
meaning of expressions of this language. It is concerned with those aspects of form and meaning
that are determined by the language faculty, which is understood to be a particular component of
the human mind.

86. What are three basic questions for the study of language according to Chomsky?
1) What constitutes knowledge of language?
2) How is knowledge of language acquired?
3) How is knowledge of language put to use?

87. What is commonsense notion of language?

Commonsense notion of language has sociopolitical dimension. For example, Chinese is regarded as
a language, although the various Chinese dialects are as diverse as the several Romance languages,
and Dutch and German are regarded as separate despite the similarities of their dialects. No
coherent account can be given of language in this sense.

88. Chomsky makes a distinction between E- language and I-language. Explain

Externalized language (E-language) –the observable language outside people´s mind, it's the
language that people actually produce as it is perceived. The construct is understood independently
of the properties of the mind/brain.

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 Internalized language (I-Language)- refers to the internal linguistic knowledge in the mind of every
speaker. It refers to some notion of structure in the mind of the speaker.

89. There was the shift of focus from E-language to I- language in generative studies of language.
Explain.
It was the shift from the study of language regarded as an externalized object to the study of the
system of knowledge of language attained and internally represented in the mind\brain. A
generative grammar purports to depict exactly what one knows when one knows a language, that
is, what has been learned, as supplemented by innate principles.

90. What is the language faculty, what is an initial state, what is a steady state, what is UG, what is I-
language
The language faculty- a distinct system of the mind\brain, with an initial state S0 common to the
species and apparently unique to it in essential respects. Given appropriate experience, this faculty
passes from the state S0 to some relatively stable steady state Ss, which then goes peripheral
modification (acquiring new vocabulary). The attained state incorporates an I-language (it is the
state of having or knowing a particular I-language). UG is the theory of S0.

91. Specify a system of phrase structure rules necessary to generate the string John hit the boy.
a) S  NP VP ; b) VP  V NP ; c) NP  DET N ; d) NP  N ; e) V  hit ; f) N  boy ; g) N  John ; h)
DET  the; i) X ...
Rules a-d are syntactic rules, e-h are lexical rules, i stands for a collection of lexical-phonological
rules that associate each symbol X with its phonological representation.

92. What kind of PSRs (Phrase Structure Rules) are distinguishable by Chomsky? Give examples for
both types
Phrase structure rules: S-> NP VP; VP-> VNP; NP-> DET N; NP-> N ; (they form phrase-markers,
namely, representations in which categorial structure is indicated)
transformational rules: [N[NP[N John]] [vp [v hit] [NP [DET the] [N boy]]]] ; (they convert phrase-markers
into other phrase-markers)

93. Chomsky points out that there is an asymmetry in the relation of subject and object to the
transitive verb. Explain. How does Chomsky explain the fact that the string V-NP can be moved by
transformational rule, whereas the string NP-V cannot?
The object is paired directly with the verb, whereas the subject is related to the verb only directly,
being paired directly with the verb phrase consisting of the verb and its objects.
English allows the string V-NP to move as a unit, as in the sentence John wanted to win the race,
and [win the race] he did e, where the symbol e fills the position from which the string V-NP is
moved.
There are no rules that move the string NP-V of an NP-V-NP sentence- The verb- object is a phrase,
a VP, the subject- verb string is not a phrase.

94. What are D-structures, transformational rules, and S- structures?

D- structures- a class of abstract underlying structures generated by phrase structure rules with
only simple categories. These D- structures are then mapped by rules of a different type,

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 transformational rules, into structures (S-structures) that correspond more closely to the actually
observed forms with their surface structures. The Transformational rules derive complex structures
from the D-structures that correspond directly to simple sentences.

95. Each transformational rule is defined by a „structural description“ and a „structural change“.
Explain.
The structural description identifies the class of phrase-markers to which the transformation
applies and specifies how they are analyzed for the purpose of the transformation in question.
The structural change indicates what is done to this phrase-marker to yield a new phrase-marker.

96. How does the transformational rule for forming interrogatives operate? Illustrate with an
example. Give the formal rule (including SD and SC).
It applies to a phrase-marker of the form (X,wh-,Y), where X and Y are any expressions and wh- is a
wh-phrase. This rule moves the second term, wh-, to the front of the sentence. The structural
description of the rule states that it applies to the sentence „you think – who – saw John (X wh- Y)“,
with the analysis indicated, and the structural change states that the rule moves who to the front,
giving „who – you think – saw John“. A subsequent transformation yields the surface form Who do
you think saw John.
The formal rule:
(1) a. SD: (X, wh-, Y) ; b. SC: (1,2,3)  (2,3,1,) or
(2) (X, wh-, Y)  (2,3,1)
________________________________________________________________________________
97. What is the title of the book in which Chomsky developed his latest theoretical approach and
when was it published?
The Minimalist Program (1995)

98. What are two major assumptions of the Minimalist Program that it shares with its predecessors,
such as Standard Theory and Extended Standard Theory?
One is that there is a component of the human mind/brain dedicated to language- the language
faculty- interacting with other systems.
Another is that the language faculty has at least two components: a cognitive system that stores
information, and performance system that access that information and use it in various ways.

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