Transformational -Generative GrammarIn the late 1950s,Chomsky gradually established the well known Transformational-Generative grammer.TG grammer has been five stages of development. The classical theory,the standard theory,the extend standard, the revised extended,the minimalist program.12.4.1 The Innateness Hypothesis 天赋假设Chomsky believes that children are born with what he calls LANGUAGE ACQUISITION DEVICE.Chomsky's INNATENESS HYPOTHESIS is based on his observation that some important facts can never be otherwise explained adequately.All these suggest that although babies are not born knowing a language,they are born with a predisposition to develop a language in much the same way as they are born with a predisposition to learn to walk.He argues that LAD probably consitis of three elements:a hypothesis-maker,linguistic universal,and an evaluation procedure.12.4.2 what is a Generative Grammar?By a GENERATIVE GRAMMAR,he simply means a system of rules that in some explicit and well-defined way assigns structural descriptions to sentence.he believes that every speaker of a language has mastered and internalised a generative grammar that express his knowledge of his language.Thus a generative grammar attmpts to specify what the speaker actually knows,not whay he may report about his knowledge.He puts forward three different levels to evaluate grammers on.They are the OBSERV ATIONAL ADEQUACY level, the DESCRIPTIVE ADEQUACY level , the EXPLANORY ADEQUACY level.On the first level,grammers are able to produce correct explanation for raw linguistic data.On the second level,it should not produce correct explanation for raw linguistic data,but also produce corrcet explanations for the linguistic competence of the speaker and hearer.On the third,grammers that are sufficiently described should reveal linguistic competence and then relate it with universal grammers in order to be related to the initial state of the human mind for the purpose of revealing human cognitive systems.He insists on the HYPOTHESIS-DEDUCTION method and his research is called evaluation process.Eg: John saw mary into Mary was seen by JohnNP1+AUX +V+NP 2 --------NP2 +aux +be +en+V+NP1Thus,TG method can not only describe the surface structure of a sentence,but also interprest the internal grammatical relationships within a sentence.12.4.3 The classical theoryThis theory is characterized by three features:1.emphasis on generative ability of language 2.introduction of transnational rules 3.grammermatical description regardless on meaning.He puts forward three kinds of grammer:finte state grammer,phrase structure grammar,and transformation grammar.A finite state grammer is the simplest type of grammar which,with a finite amount of apparatus,can generate an infinite number of sentence.but they are all very simple in their structure.Enhlish is not a finite stage language. The point of Chomsky's devising such a grammar is to show the impracticality of organising language from left to right order,and such a process isnot feasible in studying natural languages.he believes that it is necessary to work out a grammer that,with a finite set of rules ,can generate all the grammermatical sentences in a language without generating a single non-grammermatical sentence. The rules must meet the following requirements:(1).Generative:the rules must automatically generate sentences (2).Simple: the rules must be represented by symbols and formulate (3).Explict:everything must be ststed precisely,leaving nothing to chance (4)Exhaustive:the rules should over all linguistic facts,leaving nothing uncovered (5)Recursive: the rules can be repeatedly applied so as to generate an infinite number of sentences.This is what is called the PHARSE STRUCTURE GRAMMAR,this grammer has greater generative powers than a finite state grammer because it can process sentences that can not be processed by the latter.The generative process of a sentence is the process of rewriting one symbol into another.eg:NP(DET (the)N(man))VP (V((hit)NP(DET (the)N(ball)))).Chomsky has distinguished transformational rules into two kinds:obligatory and optional. The transformation of auxiliaries and passive voice,etc.are optional.12.4.4 The Standard TheoryChomsky found the first problem is that the transformational rules are too powerful.As ordinary sentence can be transformed at will,negated,passivised,with certain elements added or deleted,without restrictions. The second problem is that his rules may generate ill-formed sentences as well as well-found ones. The third problem is that the transformational rules for thepassive voice cannot be used at will,because some of the English verbs don't have structures. He noted that application of the transformational rules should not change the meaning of the original sentence,and that the noun must be restricted by the verb.The generative grammar should consist of three components:syntactic,phonological and semantic. The syntactic component can be called the base component,which consists of rewriting rules and the lexicon.It is the rewriting rules that generate the deep structure of the sentence,and the transformational rules,in turn,transform the deep structure intolerance surface structure.Firstly,transformations can only change the forms of sentences are not allowed to alter the meaning.Secondly,there is now a selectional to ensure that the animate noun appears before the verb and the inanimate noun appears after the verb.Thirdly,restrictions are put on transformations inorder not to generate ill-formed sentences.Forthly,the sentences can be embedded.Fifthly, the rules are properly ordered and there is a set order in which the rules apply.12.4.5 The Extended Standard TheoryChomsky revised his standard theory twice. The first revision is called the Extended Standard Theory. The second reason is called the Revised Extended Theory.There are still a lot of problems to solve.Firstly, the transformational rules are still too powerful,for they can move or delete linguistic segments,change the categories,keep the original meaning intact,and vary according to specific circumstances.Secondly, the standard theory holds that derived nouns have the same semantic properties with their corresponding verbs.Thirdly,the standard theory holds that semantic interpretations are determined by the deep structure,and transformational processes will not change the sentence ter this was found to be impossible,for any kind of transformations will certainly change the sentence meaning.Ex:(1)Everyone loves someone.(2)Someone is loved by everyone.Fifthly,many transformational rules must have complex constrains in order that they do not produce ungrammatical sentences. On the one hand,there should be one transformational rule for some universal phenomena. On the other hand,there are expections that have to be constrained.In his first revision of the standard theory,he moved part of semantic interpretation to the surface structure.Ex:(1)Not many arrows hit the target.(2)Many arrows did not hit the target.This shows that semantic interpretation does plays certain roles in the surface structure. He still believed that semantics is determined by the deep structure.12.4.6 The Government and Binding TheoryIt consists of X-bar Theory ,主位theory,Bounding theory,Government theory,Case theory,Control theory,Binding theory.It is still not certain whether the various principles concerning empty categories are applicable to all languages and whether these categories are universal.12.4.7 The minimalist Program and AfterThis new theory is characterized by several remarkable changes.First,some of the discrete analytical models in the previous theory are discarded and the two levels of analysis, the deep structure and the surface structure,are left out.Second, the important concept of government is rejected and the facts interpreted by the theory of government are replaced by several revised concepts,thus the theory of government has turned from a subsystem of universal grammar into the interpretative constraint of the output condition.He puts forward the strongest minimalist theories,Linguistic mechanism is the ideal solution to the problem of legibility conditions.。