Mental Grammar

‘Chomsky’s Grammar priority’

Arranged by

Ernawati
Henri Rinansyah
Risa Tiarazani
Vinda Agustaria
1. Introduction

Psycholinguistic involves mental grammar

which is the grammar exists in our mind.
It concerns with the discussion of how we
produce and understand sentences, what is
the process of sentence patterns.
Chomsky’s theory is presented as the
highest priority.
The Body

2. Chomsky’s competence and performance

distinction

Definition of competence:
The knowledge that people have of the
grammar of their language.
The activities involved in producing and
understanding sentences are performance
processes.
 Major goals of psycholinguistics
according to Chomsky:
1. To specify how people use competence so
that they are able to produce and understand
the sentences.
2. To specify how people acquire competence
(grammatical knowledge).
• Aspects that should be explained in
the theory of performance

1. Sentence production
2. Sentence comprehension
The relationship of competence to
performance for Chomsky is that
competence being a part or
component of the whole which is
performance.
Chomsky’s Grammatical Conceptions

Chomsky’s Grammatical Conception is one

of various conceptions of mental
grammar.
It is regarded as the foremost grammatical
theorist.
Chomsky’s history
• In 1957 his book, Syntactic Structures has
revolutionized linguistics and influenced a number
of the social sciences.
• In 1960s there was the Aspects’ (Standard Theory)
Grammar
• In the 1970s, the Extend Standard Theory grammar
• In the 1980s, the Government/ Binding grammar.
• In 1990s, Chomsky suggested that to abandon D-
structure (deep level of structure which has been
very familiar in linguistics).
1. The Standard Theory
Theory of grammar became known as the
Standard Theory (ST) which is has been
revised in Government/ Binding (GB)
theory.
The ST grammar consists of syntax
semantic and phonological.
Four different levels of Chomsky’s Standard
Theory

Sound Level (Phonetic Interpretation)

Meaning Level (semantic Interpretation)
Deep Structure
Surface Structure
The syntactic component consists of two types of syntactic
rules:

1.
Phrase structure Rules (base rules) provid
es Deep Structure
2. Transformational Rules provides Surface
Structure
 The various components of the grammar
(Standard Theory)
1. Phrase Structure Rules, Lexicon and Deep
Structure
2. Transformational rules and Surface Structure
3. Phonological rules and Phonetic Interpretation
4. Semantic rules and Semantic Interpretation
1. Phrase Structure Rules, Lexicon and Deep
Structure

The Phrase Structure (PS) rules provide

the basic constituent structure of a
sentence. Essentially, they provide an
analysis of a sentence into its underlying
phrases which are further analysis into
words and word parts.
2. Transformational rules and Surface Structure

Surface Structure is the outcome of

Transformational rules operating on the
Deep Structure.
Open the door
VP V + NP
D + N
Open the door
 3. Phonological rules and Phonetic Interpretation
Phonetic Interpretation of the sentence is a process
of Surface structure to interpret structure into a
sequence of sound symbols.
‘Mares eat oats’
When it spoken at a natural speed, this sentence is
pronounced [merziydowts].
By the Phonological rule , the /i/ gets a ‘y’ glide,
the /o/ gets a ‘w’ glide, the /t/ of eat change to /d/.
 4. Semantic rules and Semantic Interpretation

In this case the Semantic rule is the Surface Structure

which comes to the rules of Semantic Component to
interpret the structure into meaning elements and
logical relations.
‘The shoe hurts’
1. The shoe is in some predicate condition
(the shoe may be tight)
2. Some living creature is in pain
II. (GB) Chomsky’s Theory
It was first synthesized in 1981.
The conception is the underlying
relationship of syntax, meaning and sound
remains the same only syntax is
generative.
D-structure requires a description of the
Phrase Structure and this is achieved by
the X-bar syntax, an elaboration of earlier
Phrase Structure syntax.
Linguistic challenges to Chomsky’s grammar

- Disagreement with the organization of his

grammar where syntax is given a primary role
over semantics. (This one that we will be dealt
with)
- Disagreement with the adequacy of his
structural characterization of such basis
syntactic relations and constituents,
particularly Subject, Direct Object, Indirect
Object and Verb Phrase.
 Meaning-based grammars
Chomsky begins his description of grammar
with the specification of syntax, a syntax
which functions independently with the
meaning and sound forms of the sentence
being the output of that syntax.
This was strongly attacked by a Generative
Semanticists in 1970s. They regarded meaning
or semantics as the basis for grammatical
theorizing. Logical semantic served as the
conceptual starting point for grammar.
Lexical Semantic Representation

Transformational Rules

Lexicon

Surface Structure

Phonological Rules

Phonetic Representation
Conclusion
 Mental grammar is the
generative grammar stored in the brain that
allows a speaker to produce language that
other speakers can understand.
There are two conceptions that
Chomsky’s notion for grammar.
1. The Standard Theory
2. The Government/Binding (GB) theory
of grammar