Introduction: The Chomskian Perspective on Language Study

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Introduction The Chomskian Perspective on
Language Study
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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.

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• 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.

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Chomskys 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. Chomskys approach went well
  beyond description he hoped to formalize the
  system of unconscious rules that we all exploit
  in speaking our native language.

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• The ultimate goal Chomskys framework has is to
  explain how language is acquired.
• The ultimate goal Chomskys framework has is to
  explain how language is acquired.
• Chomskys 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
  Chomskys generative grammars.

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Three Questions
1. What constitutes knowledge of language? 2. How
is knowledge of language acquired? 3. How is
knowledge of language put to use?
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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.)

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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.

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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.

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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.

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• The shift from language itself to the native
  speakers knowledge of language is the major
  feature of the Chomskian tradition.

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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.

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• 3a Jeeves is baking a cake.
• 3b John has bought a new car.
• 3c Dective stories, I dont like.
• 3d Which stories do you like?
• 4a Dective stories, I wonder if he likes.
• 4b Where do you wonder if he lives.

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• 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.

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• 6a Where has Emsworth hidden the Empress?
• 6b Which detective will Emsworth invite for
  Sunday lunch?
• 6c To Bill, he wont give any money.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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?

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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.

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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.

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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?