How Structures Are Represented in the Minimalist Program in Contrast with How the Same Structures Are Represented to Foreign Learners in the Action Pack 12 in Jordan
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On the Irrelevance of Transformational Grammar to Second Language Pedagogy
ON THE IRRELEVANCE OF TRANSFORMATIONAL GRAMMAR TO SECOND LANGUAGE PEDAGOGY John T. Lamendella The University of Michigan Many scholars view transformational grammar as an attempt to represent the structure of linguistic knowledge in the mind and seek to apply transformational descriptions of languages to the de- velopment of second language teaching materials. It will be claimed in this paper that it is a mistake to look to transformational gram- mar or any other theory of linguistic description to provide the theoretical basis for either second language pedagogy or a theory of language acquisition. One may well wish to describe the ab- stract or logical structure of a language by constructing a trans- formational grammar which generates the set of sentences identi- fied with that language. However, this attempt should not be con- fused with an attempt to understand the cognitive structures and processes involved in knowing or using a language. It is a cogni- tive theory of language within the field of psycholinguistics rather than a theory of linguistic description which should underlie lan- guage teaching materials. A great deal of effort has been expended in the attempt to demonstrate the potential contributions of the field of descriptive linguistics to the teaching of second languages and, since the theory of transformational grammar has become the dominant theory in the field of linguistics, it is not surprising that applied linguists have sought to apply transformational grammar to gain new in- sights into the teaching of second languages. It will be claimed in this paper that it is a mistake to look to transformational grammar or any other theory of linguistic description to provide the theoretical basis for either second language pedagogy or a theory of language acquisition. -
1A Realistic Transformational Grammar
1 A Realistic Transformational Grammar JOAN BRESNAN The Realization Problem More than ten years ago Noam Chomsky expressed a fundamental assumption of transformational grammar : . A reasonable model of language use will incorporate , as a basic component , the generative grammar that express es the speaker - hearer ' s knowledge of the language . " This assumption is fundamental in that it defines basic research objectives for transformational grammar : to characterize the grammar that is to represent the language user ' s knowledge of language , and to specify the relation between the grammar and the model of language use into which the grammar is to be incorporated as a basic component . We may call these two research objectives the grammatical characterization problem and the grammatical realization problem . In the past ten years linguistic research has been devoted almost exclusively to the characterization problem ; the crucial question posed by the realization problem has been neglected - How } \ ' ould a reasonable model of language use incorporate a transformational grammar ? If we go back to the context in which Chomsky expressed this assumption about the relation of grammar to language use , we find that it is couched within an admonition : . A generative grammar is not a model for a speaker or a hearer . No doubt , a reasonable model of language use will incorporate , as a basic component , the generative grammar that express es speaker - hearer ' s knowledge of the language ; but this generative grammar does not , in itself , prescribe the character or functioning of a perceptual model or a model of speech - production " ( 1965 , p . 9 ) . In retrospect , this caution appears to have been justified by the rather pessimistic conclusions that have since been drawn in This chapter discuss es research in progress by the author , which is likely to be modified and refined. -
Scaffolding Learning of Language Structures with Visual‐Syntactic Text
UC Irvine UC Irvine Previously Published Works Title Scaffolding learning of language structures with visual-syntactic text formatting Permalink https://escholarship.org/uc/item/6235t25b Journal British Journal of Educational Technology, 50(4) ISSN 0007-1013 Authors Park, Y Xu, Y Collins, P et al. Publication Date 2018 DOI 10.1111/bjet.12689 Peer reviewed eScholarship.org Powered by the California Digital Library University of California British Journal of Educational Technology Vol 0 No 0 2018 1–17 doi:10.1111/bjet.12689 Scaffolding learning of language structures with visual-syntactic text formatting Youngmin Park, Ying Xu , Penelope Collins, George Farkas and Mark Warschauer Youngmin Park is a Lecturer at Pusan National University, Korea. She received her Ph.D. degree from the University of California, Irvine, specializing in Language, Literacy and Technology. Ying Xu is a Ph.D. student at the University of California, Irvine, with a specialization in specializing in Language, Literacy and Technology. Penelope Collins is an associate professor at the University of California, Irvine. Her research examines the development of language and literacy skills for children from linguistically diverse backgrounds. George Farkas is a professor at the University of California, Irvine. He has employed a range of statistical approaches and databases to examine the causes and consequences of reading achievement gap across varying age groups and educational settings. Mark Warschauer is a professor at the University of California, Irvine. He works on a range of research projects related to digital media in education. Address for correspondence: Ying Xu, University of California Irvine, 3200 Education Bldg, Irvine, CA 92697, USA. -
Chapter 7 Linguistics As a Science of Structure Ryan M
Chapter 7 Linguistics as a science of structure Ryan M. Nefdt University of the Western Cape Generative linguistics has rapidly changed during the course of a relatively short period. This has caused many to question its scientific status as a realist scientific theory (Stokhof & van Lambalgen 2011; Lappin et al. 2000). In this chapter, I argue against this conclusion. Specifically, I claim that the mathematical foundations of the science present a different story below the surface. I agree with critics that due to the major shifts in theory over the past 80 years, linguistics is indeed opened up to the problem of pessimistic meta-induction or radical theory change. However, I further argue that a structural realist approach (Ladyman 1998; French 2006) can save the field from this problem and at the same time capture its structural nature. I discuss particular historical instances of theory change in generative grammar as evidence for this interpretation and finally attempt to extend it beyond the gener- ative tradition to encompass previous frameworks in linguistics. 1 Introduction The generativist revolution in linguistics started in the mid-1950s, inspired in large part by insights from mathematical logic and in particular proof theory. Since then, generative linguistics has become a dominant paradigm, with many connections to both the formal and natural sciences. At the centre of the newly established discipline was the syntactic or formal engine, the structures of which were revealed through modelling grammatical form. The generativist paradigm in linguistics initially relied heavily upon the proof-theoretic techniques intro- duced by Emil Post and other formal logicians to model the form language takes (Tomalin 2006; Pullum 2011; 2013).1 Yet despite these aforementioned formal be- ginnings, the generative theory of linguistics has changed its commitments quite 1Here my focus will largely be on the formal history of generative syntax but I will make some comments on other aspects of linguistics along the way. -
Introduction to Transformational Grammar
Introduction to Transformational Grammar Kyle Johnson University of Massachusetts at Amherst Fall 2004 Contents Preface iii 1 The Subject Matter 1 1.1 Linguisticsaslearningtheory . 1 1.2 The evidential basis of syntactic theory . 7 2 Phrase Structure 15 2.1 SubstitutionClasses............................. 16 2.2 Phrases .................................... 20 2.3 Xphrases................................... 29 2.4 ArgumentsandModifiers ......................... 41 3 Positioning Arguments 57 3.1 Expletives and the Extended Projection Principle . ..... 58 3.2 Case Theory and ordering complements . 61 3.3 Small Clauses and the Derived Subjects Hypothesis . ... 68 3.4 PROandControlInfinitives . .. .. .. .. .. .. 79 3.5 Evidence for Argument Movement from Quantifier Float . 83 3.6 Towards a typology of infinitive types . 92 3.7 Constraints on Argument Movement and the typology of verbs . 97 4 Verb Movement 105 4.1 The “Classic” Verb Movement account . 106 4.2 Head Movement’s role in “Verb Second” word order . 115 4.3 The Pollockian revolution: exploded IPs . 123 4.4 Features and covert movement . 136 5 Determiner Phrases and Noun Movement 149 5.1 TheDPHypothesis ............................. 151 5.2 NounMovement............................... 155 Contents 6 Complement Structure 179 6.1 Nouns and the θ-rolestheyassign .................... 180 6.2 Double Object constructions and Larsonian shells . 195 6.3 Complement structure and Object Shift . 207 7 Subjects and Complex Predicates 229 7.1 Gettingintotherightposition . 229 7.2 SubjectArguments ............................. 233 7.2.1 ArgumentStructure ........................ 235 7.2.2 The syntactic benefits of ν .................... 245 7.3 The relative positions of µP and νP: Evidence from ‘again’ . 246 7.4 The Minimal Link Condition and Romance causatives . 254 7.5 RemainingProblems ............................ 271 7.5.1 The main verb in English is too high . -
Syntactic Structures and Their Symbiotic Guests. Notes on Analepsis from the Perspective of On- Line Syntax*
Pragmatics 24:3.533-560 (2014) International Pragmatics Association DOI: 10.1075/prag.24.3.05aue SYNTACTIC STRUCTURES AND THEIR SYMBIOTIC GUESTS. NOTES ON ANALEPSIS FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF ON- LINE SYNTAX* Peter Auer Abstract The empirical focus of this paper is on utterances that re-use syntactic structures from a preceding syntactic unit. Next utterances of this type are usually treated as (coordination) ellipsis. It is argued that from an on-line perspective on spoken syntax, they are better described as structural latency: A grammatical structure already established remains available and can therefore be made use of with one or more of its slots being filled by new material. A variety of cases of this particular kind of conversational symbiosis are discussed. It is argued that they should receive a common treatment. A number of features of the general host/guest relationship are discussed. Keywords: Analepsis; On-line syntax; Structural latency. "Ein Blick in die erste beste Erzählung und eine einfache Ueberlegung muss beweisen, dass jede frühere Aeusserung des Erzählenden die Exposition aller nachfolgenden Prädikate bildet." (Wegener 1885: 46)1 1. Introduction The notion of 'ellipsis' is often regarded with some skepticism by Interactional Linguists - the orientation to 'full' sentences is all too obvious (cf. Selting 1997), and the idea that speakers produce complete sentences just in order to delete some parts of them afterwards surely fails to account for the processual dynamics of sentence production and understanding (cf. Kindt 1985) in time. On the other hand, there can be little doubt that speakers often produce utterance units that could not be understood * I wish to thank Elizabeth Couper-Kuhlen and Susanne Günthner for their helpful comments on a previous version of this paper. -
LING83600: Context-Free Grammars
LING83600: Context-free grammars Kyle Gorman 1 Introduction Context-free grammars (or CFGs) are a formalization of what linguists call “phrase structure gram- mars”. The formalism is originally due to Chomsky (1956) though it has been independently discovered several times. The insight underlying CFGs is the notion of constituency. Most linguists believe that human languages cannot be even weakly described by CFGs (e.g., Schieber 1985). And in formal work, context-free grammars have long been superseded by “trans- formational” approaches which introduce movement operations (in some camps), or by “general- ized phrase structure” approaches which add more complex phrase-building operations (in other camps). However, unlike more expressive formalisms, there exist relatively-efficient cubic-time parsing algorithms for CFGs. Nearly all programming languages are described by—and parsed using—a CFG,1 and CFG grammars of human languages are widely used as a model of syntactic structure in natural language processing and understanding tasks. Bibliographic note This handout covers the formal definition of context-free grammars; the Cocke-Younger-Kasami (CYK) parsing algorithm will be covered in a separate assignment. The definitions here are loosely based on chapter 11 of Jurafsky & Martin, who in turn draw from Hopcroft and Ullman 1979. 2 Definitions 2.1 Context-free grammars A context-free grammar G is a four-tuple N; Σ; R; S such that: • N is a set of non-terminal symbols, corresponding to phrase markers in a syntactic tree. • Σ is a set of terminal symbols, corresponding to words (i.e., X0s) in a syntactic tree. • R is a set of production rules. -
Generative Linguistics and Neural Networks at 60: Foundation, Friction, and Fusion*
Generative linguistics and neural networks at 60: foundation, friction, and fusion* Joe Pater, University of Massachusetts Amherst October 3, 2018. Abstract. The birthdate of both generative linguistics and neural networks can be taken as 1957, the year of the publication of foundational work by both Noam Chomsky and Frank Rosenblatt. This paper traces the development of these two approaches to cognitive science, from their largely autonomous early development in their first thirty years, through their collision in the 1980s around the past tense debate (Rumelhart and McClelland 1986, Pinker and Prince 1988), and their integration in much subsequent work up to the present. Although this integration has produced a considerable body of results, the continued general gulf between these two lines of research is likely impeding progress in both: on learning in generative linguistics, and on the representation of language in neural modeling. The paper concludes with a brief argument that generative linguistics is unlikely to fulfill its promise of accounting for language learning if it continues to maintain its distance from neural and statistical approaches to learning. 1. Introduction At the beginning of 1957, two men nearing their 29th birthdays published work that laid the foundation for two radically different approaches to cognitive science. One of these men, Noam Chomsky, continues to contribute sixty years later to the field that he founded, generative linguistics. The book he published in 1957, Syntactic Structures, has been ranked as the most influential work in cognitive science from the 20th century.1 The other one, Frank Rosenblatt, had by the late 1960s largely moved on from his research on perceptrons – now called neural networks – and died tragically young in 1971. -
1 Minimalism Minimalism Is the Name of the Predominant Approach In
Minimalism Minimalism is the name of the predominant approach in generative linguistics today. It was first introduced by Chomsky in his work The Minimalist Program (1995) and has seen several developments and changes since. The central idea of minimalism is that a linguistic theory should contain as few non-derived assumptions as possible. Many notions that had been developed in earlier generative theory, specifically the Government & Binding theory (GB), have been abandoned, in an attempt to derive them from more basic concepts. In Chomsky's (1995) view, minimalism is an implementation of the more general Principles and Parameters model. According to this language model, the human language capacity consists of a set of universal principles combined with a set of parameters. The principles are thought to be innate, which means that every language adheres to them. The parameters can be thought of as switches that can be set in two positions. Learning the syntax of one's native language, according to Chomsky's view, is a matter of acquiring the correct parameter settings for the language. Chomsky describes syntax as a cognitive system that connects two other cognitive systems: the conceptual-intentional system and the articulatory-perceptual system. Because syntax is linked to these two systems, the syntactic model defines two interface levels, one for each of them: Phonological Form (PF) is the interface to the articulatory-perceptual system, and Logical Form (LF) is the interface to the conceptual-intentional system. The grammar model is built up as follows: a clause is derived by selecting a set of lexical items from the lexicon. -
Generative Linguistics Within the Cognitive Neuroscience of Language Alec Marantz
Generative linguistics within the cognitive neuroscience of language Alec Marantz Department of Linguistics and Philosophy, MIT Standard practice in linguistics often obscures the connection between theory and data, leading some to the conclusion that generative linguistics could not serve as the basis for a cognitive neuroscience of language. Here the foundations and methodology of generative grammar are clarified with the goal of explaining how generative theory already functions as a reasonable source of hypotheses about the representation and computation of language in the mind and brain. The claims of generative theory, as exemplified, e.g., within Chomsky’s (2000) Minimalist Program, are contrasted with those of theories endorsing parallel architectures with independent systems of generative phonology, syntax and semantics. The single generative engine within Minimalist approaches rejects dual routes to linguistic representations, including possible extra-syntactic strategies for semantic structure-building. Clarification of the implications of this property of generative theory undermines the foundations of an autonomous psycholinguistics, as established in the 1970’s, and brings linguistic theory back to the center of a unified cognitive neuroscience of language. 2 1. The place of linguistics* The first decade of the 21st century should be a golden era for the cognitive neuroscience of language. Fifty years of contemporary linguistic analysis of language can be coupled with a wide range of brain imaging and brain monitoring machines to test hypotheses and refine theory and understanding. However, there is still a gulf between mainstream linguistics within the generative linguistic tradition and most of those engaged in experimental cognitive neuroscience research. Some have argued that the fault here lies with the linguists, whose generative theories are based in principle on separating the study of linguistic representations from research on the acquisition and use of language in the minds and brains of speakers. -
Features from Aspects Via the Minimalist Program to Combinatory Categorial Grammar
Á. Gallego & D. Ott (eds.). 2015. 50 Years Later: Reflections on Chomsky’s Aspects. Cambridge, MA: MITWPL. Available for purchase at http://mitwpl.mit.edu © The Authors FEATURES FROM ASPECTS VIA THE MINIMALIST PROGRAM TO COMBINATORY CATEGORIAL GRAMMAR NEIL SMITH ANNABEL CORMACK University College London 1 Background One major contribution of Aspects (Chomsky 1965)1 was to initiate the development of a theory of syntactic features. There is no use of features, either syntactic or morphophonemic, in Chomsky’s earliest work The Morphophonemics of Modern Hebrew (1951/79); they do not appear in his monumental The Logical Structure of Linguistic Theory (1955/75); nor in Syntactic Structures (1957) (except for category labels); nor, except for phonological distinctive features, in Current Issues in Linguistic Theory (1964). In Aspects features play a crucial role. Chomsky suggests (p.214) that “We might, then, take a lexical entry to be simply a set of features, some syntactic, some phonological, some semantic”. But even here the use of features was somewhat haphazard, apparently unconstrained, and a terminological mess. In this contribution we want to trace – in broad outline – the development of a theory of morphosyntactic features and propose a fully Merge-based and parsimonious version of such a theory. Our work is intended as a contribution to Chomsky’s Minimalist Program, pursuing the same ends on the basis of some different background assumptions. These assumptions and the specific analyses derived from them have been developed using an austere version of Combinatorial Categorial Grammar, but are of wider applicability. All current theories use phonological features and ‘semantic’ features which we will largely ignore except to point out that the term ‘semantic’ is used in radically different ways to cover truth-theoretic, conceptual or encyclopaedic distinctions. -
The Chomsky Enigma
Weekly Worker 655 - Thursday January 4 2007 18/08/2010 11:07 Weekly Worker 655 Thursday January 11 2007 Subscribe to the Weekly Worker 18:08:201004:05:2009 The Chomsky home contact enigma action weekly worker respect the unity coalition How is that a powerful critic of US imperialism european social forum has been regarded as a valued asset by the US theory military? In the first of three articles Chris Knight resources of the Radical Anthropology Group begins his what we fight for examination of the life and work of Noam programme Chomsky join Noam Chomsky ranks among the leading intellectual search figures of modern times. He has changed the way we Fighting fund think about what it means to be human, gaining a communist university position in the history of ideas - at least according to On the links his supporters - comparable with that of Galileo, Descartes or Newton. Since launching his intellectual our history assault against the academic orthodoxies of the move 1950s, he has succeeded - almost single-handedly - in revolutionising linguistics and establishing it as a modern science. Our January fund has received an early boost with a handsome Such intellectual victories, however, have come at a £100 donation from comrade GD. cost. The stage was set for the “linguistics wars”1 Which is very handy, as when Chomsky published his first book. He might as circumstances have conspired to well have thrown a bomb. “The extraordinary and force us to change premises - an traumatic impact of the publication of Syntactic expensive business, as readers structures by Noam Chomsky in 1957,” recalls one will know.