This Paper covers the following

topics:
• Theory of Language
• What is Grammar?
• What is Generative-Transformational Grammar?
• Deep and surface structure
• The Syntactic component of Grammar
• Competence and Performance
• The Power of Generative-Transformational Grammar
• Critisizm to Generative-Transformational Grammar
• The implication of Generative-Transformational Grammar in ELT
 THEORY OF LANGUAGE
Theory of Language to formulate detailed descriptions
Structure of particular language that is the
study of PARTICULAR GRAMMAR.

Theory of Language
Acquisition

Theory of Language Use

 TRADITIONAL VIEW

Grammar is an account
of COMPETENCE

Ability of a speaker to Ability to produce an

understand an arbitrary appropriate sentence
sentence of his language on a given occasion
 GRAMMAR

PEDAGOGIC GRAMMAR LINGUISTIC/SCIENTIFIC

GRAMMAR

To provide the students To discover and exhibit

with the ability of how the mechanism that
to understand and to makes the achievement
produce sentences possible
It is emphasized that traditional grammars
make an essential appeal to the intelligence of the
reader. They do not formulate the rules
of the grammar, but rather give examples and
hints that enable the intelligent reader to determine
the grammar.
Generative grammar has adopted this
traditional framework of interest and concerns. It
attempts to go beyond traditional grammar in
fundamental way.
In the decade from 1955 to 1965 the foundation
of Generative Grammar were laid and a complex
technical formalism was developed (Horrocks,
1987:27).
Traditionally....
• Grammars have not been characterised with sufficient
precision
• The rules they embody have not been frame in a
sufficiently explicit way for observational adequacy to
be achieved.
To be observationally adequate,
a grammar must be fully explicit.
In 1957, Chomsky postulated the Generative –
Transformational Grammar.....
The objective is to construct models that would represent
the psychological process of language.
Noam Chomsky believed that grammar has recursive
rules allowing one to generate grammatically
correct sentences over and over.
Our brain has a mechanism which can create language by
following the language principles and grammar.
SO......

Generative-Transformational Grammar implies a

finite set of rules that can be applied to
generate sentences, at the same time
capable of producing infinite
number of strings from the set rules.
 DEEP STRUCTURE – SURFACE
STRUCTURE

 Deep Structures represents the meaning of the

sentence.
 Surface Structures represents sentences that
express those meanings (superficial
appearance).
Consider the following sentences....

• Charlie broke the window.

• The window was broken by Charlie.

These two sentences have the same deep

structure but are expressed in different surface
structure.
 Some Implication of DS and SS
 Meaning is contained in deep structure.
 Language has a deep structure which is often different in form
from the surface structure
 A small number of phrase structure rules can desribe the deep
structure.
 Surface structures usually consist of rearrangements and
reoccurrences of the elements of the deep strucure.
 For a grammar to be adequate, it must take all of these things
into account and provide a description whose rules will enable
us to generate an infinite number of surface structure
THE SYNTACTIC COMPONENTS OF
GRAMMAR

1. Phrase Structure Rules

2. Transformational Rules
Phrase Structure Rules
• A Phrase Structure is, in fact, a very natural device for
assigning a system of grammatical relations and
functions to a generate string.
• S ----> NP + VP
or S

NP VP
Basic Phrase Structure Rules
 S ----> NP + VP
 NP ----> {Det + (Adj) + N}
{PN}
 VP ----> V + NP + (PP) + (Adv)
 PP ----> Prep + NP
Examples
• N ----> (boy, girl, horse)
• PN----> (George, Myrna)
• Det ---> (a, the)
• Adj ---> (small, crazy)
V ---> (saw, followed, helped)
Prep --> (with, near)
Adv --> (yesterday, recently)

 The girl followed the boy.

 Myrna helped George recently. Grammatical
 George saw a horse yesterday.
 A small horse followed Myrna.
 The small boy saw George with a crazy horse recently.

 * Boy the Myrna saw. Ungrammatical

 * Small horse with a girl.
Transformational Rules
Phrase Structure rules are not adequate to handle certain
characteristic constructions in natural languages.
In order to provide a principled account of the syntax of these
construction, we need to posit an additional level of structure
known as deep structure.
Two level of structures (deep and surface structures) are
inter-related by a set of movement rules known technically
as Transformations.
Types of Transformation

1. Obligatory Transformation

2. Optional Transformation
Obligatory Transformations:
 Particle Separation Transformation (Pronoun)
 Number Transformation (NP singular, NP plural)
 Auxiliary Transformation
 Word Boundaries Transformation
 Do Transformation

KERNEL SENTENCE
(simple, declarative, active sentence)
Optional Transformation:
example: JOHN EATS AN APPLE.
 Transformation of Affirmation -- > John can eat an apple.
 Negative Transformation ---- > John does not eat an apple.
 Interrogative Transformation --> Does John eat an apple ?
 Wh Question Transformation -- > What does John eat?
 Passive Transformation ---- > An apple is eaten by John.
Besides, there are some other
transformations that are known as
generalized Transformations:

 Nominalizing Transformation
 Conjunction Transformation
 So-Transformation
Competence and Performance
(Chomsky, 1965: 4)

COMPETENCE the knowledge of the language

the actual use of language in concrete

PERFORMANCE
situations
 GRAMMATICAL
COMPETENCE

INTUITION (judgement)

WELL- SENTENCE
FORMED STRUCTURES
SENTENCE
 The POWER of Generative-Transformational
Grammar
 This grammar will generate well-formed syntactic structures (e.g.
sentences) of the language.
 This grammar will have a finite (i.e. limited) number of rules but
will be capable of generating an infinite number of well-formed
structures.
 The rules of this grammar give ‘recursiveness’, that is the capacity
to be applied more than once in generating a structure.
 This grammar is also capable of revealing the basis two other
phenomena:
 How some superficially distinct sentences are closely related.
 How some superficially similar sentences are in fact distinct.