Noam Chomsky

Generative Theory
A Brief Summary
Generative Grammar

• Generative Theory is a school of thought within Linguistics based on the concept of ‘Generative
Grammar`

Chomsky ‘‘…. has shown that there is really only one human language: that the immense complexity of the
innumerable languages we hear around us must be variations on a single theme. He has revolutionized
linguistics, and in so doing has set a cat among the philosophical pigeons.” (Smith, 2004: 16).

Chomsky’s Ideas about Language

Definition of Language

• A language is a set (finite/infinite) of sentences, each finite in length and constructed out of a finite set of
elements.

• Language is a system represented in the mind/brain of a particular individual.

Chomsky’s Idea of Competence & Performance

Chomsky distinguishes between:

• Competence: speaker‘s/ hearer‘s unconscious knowledge of language (phonological, semantic and

syntactic rules)

• Performance: actual use of language in concrete situations

Competence is a mental reality and not directly observable whereas performance is observable.

Chomsky’s Ideas about the Aims of Linguistics

Chomsky summarizes the major aims of linguistics in the following questions:

• What constitutes language?

• How is such knowledge acquired?

• How is such knowledge put to use?

• What are the physical mechanisms that serve as the material basis for this system of knowledge and for its
use?

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 According to Chomsky (1965:3) “linguistic theory is concerned with an ideal speaker-listener in a
completely homogeneous 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 (random or characteristic) in applying his knowledge of the language in actual performance.”

Chomsky’s Ideas about Syntax

Language is Structure-Dependent

• A principle common to all languages: Syntax is more relevant than meaning.

• Chomsky asserts that knowledge of language relies on the structural relationships in the sentence rather
than on the sequence of words.

• Example: The man who is tall is John.

Is the man who is tall John?

*Is the man who tall is John?( wrong)

Syntax is more relevant than meaning.

• Well-formed sentence without meaning:

- Colorless green ideas sleep furiously.

• Syntax as well as meaning deprived of inner logic:

- Ideas furiously green colorless sleep.

Deep & Surface Structures

Syntactic Relationships have two levels of representation:

• Surface Structure (SS): derived (surface) representation of a Deep Structure; how the sentence is actually
represented.

• Deep Structure (DS): represents syntactic relations (underlying representation); the deep structure is an
abstract level of structural organization in which all the elements determining structural interpretation are
represented.

Transformational Generative Grammar

Transformational Generative Grammar has two aspects:

• Transformational

• Generative

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Transformational Grammar

• Transformational Grammar is a method of stating how the structures of many languages can be generated
or explained as the result of specific transformations applied to certain basic structure.

Transformations:

• I helped John. (Active)

• John was helped by me. (Passive)

• He will come. (Affirmative)

• Will he come? (Interrogative)

Generative Grammar

Formally, a generative grammar is defined as one that is fully explicit. It is a finite set of rules that can be
applied to generate all those and only those sentences (often but not necessarily, infinite in number) that
are grammatical in a given language.

• Explicit means what are possible sentences of language

• A grammar generates a sentence means a grammar assigns a structural description to sentences.

• “all and only”= all grammatical sentences and only grammatical sentences

• Finite rules: infinite number of well-formed sentences

Properties of Generative Grammar

• Generative Grammar includes whatever is in phrase structure grammar and transformational grammar
and further takes into account all possible syntactic structures.

The grammar has finite number of rules but capable to produce infinite number of structures. Thus,
productivity in language is covered.

Chomsky against Behaviorism

• In the late 1950s, Skinner constructed his cognitive learning model: behaviorism which correlates with the
notion. Stimulus → response→ reinforcement and habit formation.

• According to Skinner, children learn language by imitating and repeating and the mind is a blank slate at
birth.

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• According to Chomsky, Children are biologically and cognitively programmed to acquire language.
Language develops in the child’s mind in just the same way that other biological functions develop.

Chomsky’s First Language Acquisition Theory

“We are designed to walk… That we are taught to walk is impossible. And pretty much the same is true of
language. Nobody is taught language. In fact you can’t prevent a child from learning it” Chomsky 1994

“We are born with a Language Acquisition Device (LAD) and access to Universal Grammar (UG)”

Language Acquisition Device

Language Acquisition Device (L.A.D.) is a function of the brain responsible for learning language. It is an
innate biological and cognitive function of human beings just like learning to walk.

L.A.D plays two roles in Chomskyan theory:

• 1. It accounts for the striking similarities among human languages.

• 2. It accounts for the speed, ease and regularity with which children learn their first language.

If the sequence order is the same in all children, it is then quite normal to speak about language universals.

Chomsky’s Idea of Universal Grammar

Concept of Universal Grammar: … the system of principles, conditions, and rules that are elements or
properties of all human languages, … the essence of human language. (Chomsky, 1976)

All human beings share part of their knowledge of language: universal grammar (existing as part of
language competence)

Speaker knows a set of:

• Principles that apply to all languages,

• Parameters that vary within clearly defined limits from one language to another.

Universal Grammar is an attempt to integrate grammar, mind and language.

Rationalism

Chomsky refers to that fact that we have prior knowledge not learned from experience;

He does not use his senses to make his theories on language;

He uses reason to come up with theory;

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 He responds to Descartes and Plato because they are the corner stones of rationalism.

Intuitions

Linguistic knowledge of language lies well beyond the level of consciousness. One way of investigating
this knowledge is to ask speakers of a language for their judgments about sentences of their language:
not directly but indirectly.

Ask them, for example, about the grammaticality or ungrammaticality of certain sentences.

Chomsky’s Deductive Approach

o Deductive reasoning/ deductive logic follows a process of reasoning from one or more statements
(premises) to reach a logically certain conclusion.

o Deductive reasoning goes in the same direction as that of the conditionals. If the rules of deductive
logic are followed, then the conclusion reached is necessarily true.

o In deductive reasoning, a conclusion is reached reductively by applying general rules narrowing the
range under consideration until only the conclusion(s) is left.

References

• Chomsky, N. (1965). Aspects of the Theory of Syntax. MIT Press.

• Chomsky, N. ‘A Review of B. F. Skinner’s Verbal Behaviour’. Landmarks in American Language

and Linguistics. Smolinski, F. (1986). Washington, D.C.
• Deneen, F. P. (1967). An Introduction to General Linguistics. Washington, D.C: Georgetown
University Press.
• Newmeyer, F. (1986). Linguistic Theory in America. Orlando: Academic Press.
• Smith, N., Wilson, D. (1990). Modern Linguistics: The results of Chomsky’s Revolution.
Harmondsworth, Middlesex, England: Pelican Books.
• Smith, N. (2004). Chomsky: Ideas and Ideals. New York: CUP.

Relevant Sites
• http://www.uni-kassel.de/fb8/misc/lfb/html/text/2frame.htm
• www.chomsky.info