Transcript Introduction: The Chomskian Perspective on Language Study

Introduction: The Chomskian
Perspective on Language Study
What does a grammar mean?
(Berk 1999)
Prescriptive Grammars
In the old time, the term grammar refers to set of
prescriptive rules, i.e. rules that dictate which
forms and structures are “correct” and which are
not. “Correctness” was associated with the forms
and structures of classical Latin. But,
unfortunately, English and Latin are only
remotely related and the two languages are very
different structurally.
Descriptive Grammars
In the 19th and 20th centuries, Western scholars
began to study languages that were hitherto
unfamiliar to Europeans and most North
Americans. Description, not prescription,
became the goal of those who were seeking to
write grammars for those previously unrecorded
languages. Because of this, linguists
revolutionalized the study of English as well. By
the 1930s, a strong tradition of descriptive
linguists stood in opposition to the traditional
prescriptive approach.
Chomsky’s revolution
(Berk 1999)
In 1957, Noam Chomsky published Syntactic
Structures, a book that launched another
revolution in the study of grammar. Chomsky
called his approach generative grammar and
his goal was to provide the structural
descriptions necessary to generate all the
grammatical sentences and only the
grammatical sentences in a given language.
Chomsky’s approach went well beyond
description; he hoped to formalize the system of
unconscious rules that we all exploit in speaking
our native language.
The ultimate goal Chomsky’s framework has is
to explain how language is acquired.
The ultimate goal Chomsky’s framework has is
to explain how language is acquired.
Chomsky’s work has had a profound impact on
the study of syntax and today there are a
number of formal theoretical models which owe
some debt to Chomsky’s generative grammars.
Three Questions
1. What constitutes knowledge of language?
2. How is knowledge of language acquired?
3. How is knowledge of language put to use?
Formal grammar vs. Functional grammar
(Berk 1999)
Formal grammars were criticized as only
focusing on sentences in isolation. In the late
1970s and 1980s, functional grammars were
developed in order to explore rules that govern
language use in a communicative context.
Functional grammars often focus on discourse,
i.e. chunks of language larger than the individual
sentences (conversations, narratives, letters,
etc.)
Principles and Parameters Theory
This is the framework proposed in Chomsky
(1981). It is also known as ‘Government and
Binding Theory’ (GB-theory) because
government and binding are two central notions.
In order to distinguish this approach from the
more recent approach in the Minimalist program,
which is also based on the ‘Principles and
Parameters Theory,’ (Chomsky 1995),
Haegeman decides to refer to Chomsky (1981)
as ‘GB-theory.’
Three levels of adequacy (I)
Observationally adequacy
• A grammar reaches observationally adequacy if
it forms rules and principles to distinguish those
strings of words which are sentences of the
language from those which are not sentences of
the language in question.
Three levels of adequacy (II)
Descriptive adequacy
• A descriptive adequate grammar will not only
describe the linguistic data, but it will contain the
general principles and processes that enable the
native speaker to produce and interpret
sentences in his language and decide on the
acceptability of sentences. Such a grammar is
an explicit formulation of the tacit language of
the native speaker, his internal grammar.
The shift from language itself to the native
speaker’s knowledge of language is the
major feature of the Chomskian tradition.
Three levels of adequacy (II)
Explanatory Adequacy
• A grammar reaches explanatory adequacy if it
can account for the fact that the principles of the
internal grammar can get to be known by the
speakers, i.e. if it can account for language
acquisition.
3a Jeeves is baking a cake.
3b John has bought a new car.
3c Dective stories, I don’t like.
3d Which stories do you like?
4a *Dective stories, I wonder if he likes.
4b *Where do you wonder if he lives.
5s *Where do you wonder if Emsworth has hidden
Empress?
5b *Which detective do you wonder if Emsworth
will invite for Sunday lunch?
5c *To Bill, I wonder if he will give any money.
6a Where has Emsworth hidden the Empress?
6b Which detective will Emsworth invite for Sunday
lunch?
6c To Bill, he won’t give any money.
Knowledge of language
and the acquisition of language
• The knowledge of language can be divided in
various ways. One way is to separate out the
various components of the knowledge, as this
course is divided, into knowledge of sounds,
words and sentences.
• We can also relate the acquisition of language to
other areas of child development and learning,
and compare how language is acquired to how
other skills are acquired.
• The general finding is that children do NOT
acquire language through imitation,
reinforcement, analogy or motherese.
Empirical Problem of Language
Acquisition
Empirical Problem
• Imitation: Children create novel forms, e.g.
"holded", which they have never heard.
Reinforcement: Parents correct for truth, not
grammar.
• Analogy: Which analogies work? Which don't?
Too vague.
• Motherese: Other cultures don't have motherese.
Poverty of the Stimulus (I)
A Logical Problem
• We do not just come across grammatical
sentences.
• The experience, i.e. the stimulus, is finite, and
we end up being able to produce and process
an infinite number of sentences.
Poverty of the Stimulus (I)
A Logical Problem
• We acquire knowledge about our language for
which we have no overt or positive evidence in
the experience.
10a I think that Miss Marple will leave.
10b I think Miss Marple will leave.
13a *Who do you think that will be questioned
first?
13b Who do you think will be questioned first?
Universal Grammar
Rather, they construct grammars of particular
languages by making choices from a set of
options available to them. This set of options is
known as Universal Grammar. That is, they
choose the fundamental elements and the rules
of combination for their language. We can
characterize what they learn about sounds,
words and sentences by looking at what they
know about the elements and rules of
combination in each area.
Parameters and Universal Grammar
• UG contains a set of absolute universals,
notions and principles which do not vary from
one language to the next.
• There are language-specific properties which
are not fully determined by UG but which vary
cross-linguistically. For these properties a range
of choices is made available by UG.
Some Questions with the Framework
• What are the principles?
• How many parameters are there? Can we try to
get rid of some parameters?
• How many settings do we allow?