Lesson #14

Rule V: Passivisation
Passivisation Rule

NP1 – Aux. – V – NP2 Pass. NP2 – Aux. – en – V – by – NP1

Examples
1. Surface structure: She was seen by him.
Kernel: He saw her.
Analysis: he – past – see – her.
Pass.: she – past – be – en – see – by him.
Affix: she – be – past – see – en – by him.

(was) (seen)

2. Orders have been obeyed.

Kernel: (They) have obeyed the orders.
Analysis: they – pres. – have – en – obey – the orders.
Pass.: the ordered - pres. – have – en – be-en – obey – by them.
Affix: the orders – have – pres. – be – en – obey – en.

(have) (seen) (obeyed)

3. The match will be won by us.

Kernel: We will win the match.
Analysis: we – pres. – will - win – the match.
Pass.: the match – pres. – will – be – en – win – by us
Affix: the match – will – press – be – win - en – by us

(will) (won)
 Tree diagram
S

the girl will play ---->

Question the girl will play

will the girl play

Transformational rules, as have been seen, help us to understand the operations

that go on in the mind of the child as he frames complicated language structures in his
mind. TG rules are generative in the sense that with the help of TG rules one can
produce any number of possible sentences in the language.
It may, however, be pointed out that the TG grammar has its own limitations.
Research in the field of grammar is a continuing process. Many new theories, the
Montatiue Grammar, Fillmore’s Case Grammar, Scale and Category Grammar or
Systemic Grammar based on the Firthian School have come up. Maybe, in the years to
come, we may have better theories of grammar that provide more insight into the
learning and teaching of language.

What is Transformational Grammar (TG)?

The shortcoming and inadequacies of the phrase-structure grammar, particularly
its inability to account for transformational relationships led Chomsky to devise a
grammatical system that would ‘cover the entire language directly … by repeated
application of a rather simple set of translations to the strings given by phrase structure
grammar’. Transformation is an act of transforming one sentence into another, from
deep structure into surface structure. Chomsky’s theory claims that sentences have a
surface structure and a deep structure.
If we take a sentence like ‘I met her’ which is an active sentence we can
transform it into ‘she was met by me’ by rules of passivisation which can be shown as
below:
NP1 + V + NP2 (Active)
NP2 + IS + Ven + by +NP1 (Passive)
The two sentences are not considered different, the second one only a
transformation of the first.
In the same way Has she seen me? Is only a transform of she has seen me
obtained through a process of ‘permutation’.
Broadly, there are three basic components of transformational model.
(a) The Phrase-structure component which consists of a sequence of rules, or the
form X -- > Y. ‘it begins with the initial symbol sentence (S) and constructs derivation
through the application of the rules of F’.
Noam Chomsky formalized this system of analysis and also pointed out its basic
limitations. He formalized it by means of a system of generative rules which explicity
assign the correct constituent structure to sentences. Such systems are called simple
phrase-structure grammars. Consider the following system of rules which will generate
and characterize the sentence.
Example : The girl will write a letter.
1. S -- > NP + VP
2. VP -- > Verb + NP
3. NP -- > Det + N
4. Verb -- > Aux. + main verb
5. Det. -- > a…
6. N -- > girl, letter …
7. Aux. -- > will …
8. Main verb -- > write
 Each of these rules is in the form X – Y, where X is a single element and Y is a
string. (‘String’ is a technical term and means a sequence of elements or symbols). The
arrow is to be interpreted as an instruction to replace the element that occurs to its right
(rewrite ‘X’ and ‘Y’)
In the present case it is exemplified by the + girl + will + write + a + letter. The
labeled bracketing, associated with a terminal string generated by a phrase structure, is
called a phrase maker.

(b) The transformational component introduces changes in the morphemes of the

terminal strings produced by the P.S. component. Transformations are either obligatory
or optional (such as passivisation of an active sentence). A basic distinction between
Kernel sentences and transforms is made here. There are, in brief, core sentences, the
most primary having the S - - >NP + VP structure. All other structures, having a relative
or subordinate clause, interrogative, passives, etc. are said to be derived forms or
transformations of kernel sentences.
For examples.
1. She saw a dog
Its various derivations would be
2. She did not see a dog
3. Did she see a dog?
4. Didn’t she see a dog?
5. A dog was seen by her
6. A dog was not seen by her
7. Was a dog seen by her?
8. Wasn’t a dog seen by her
The different forms that we see from (2 – 8) are the derivations of the basic
kernel sentence (1) : they have been obtained or generated by applying the optional
transformation rules.
The notion of the Kernel sentence was abandoned by Chomsky later on (1965 –
Aspects of the Theory of Syntax). But, this motion still remains a very convenient step to
understanding the essential transformational process. Chomsky later on added a
semantic component too, to understand and explain the role of meaning. He also
changed the PS component and renamed it as base component which generated the
basic sentence patterns of a language.

(c) The morphophonemic component transcribes the transformational output by

rewriting the morphemic representation into a proper string of phonemes. The Syntactic
Structure cites these examples.
i) walk -- > //
ii) take + past -- > //
iii) hit + past -- > //
iv) /…D/+/past -- > /… D/ + /-id/ (where D= /t/ or /d/)
The transformational model thus may be shown as follows.

PS rules

Deep structure PMs

Transformational rules

Surface structure PMs

Morphophonemic PMs

Phonological representations

Transformation rules can rewrite a string as another string. To show how

the sentences of a language are interrelated. The components of grammar in
terms of this model are:
 Initial element (S)

Phrase structure component

Transformational component

Morphophonemic component

Phonological representation of sentence

The modified model of grammar can be show diagrammatically as follows:

//S//

PS rules

Pre-
lexical rules

Lexical Surface structure

Transformation constraints

semantic Base PMs non-lexical Surface Phono-

rules transformation structures logical
Deep rules
structures

semantic Phonetic
representations representations