Syntactic Structures by Noam Chomsky

Noam Chomsky's seminal work, Syntactic Structures (1957), focuses on introducing and justifying his revolutionary theory of transformational generative grammar.

• Inadequacy of Finite State Models: Chomsky argues that finite state grammars, popular at the time, are incapable of capturing the complexities of natural languages like English. They fail to explain the recursive and hierarchical nature of sentence construction, as illustrated by examples like "if S1, then S2" where S1 can be another sentence. He demonstrates this by analyzing the grammaticality of sentences like "Colorless green ideas sleep furiously" (grammatical but nonsensical) and "Furiously sleep ideas green colorless" (ungrammatical and nonsensical), arguing that meaningfulness alone cannot define grammaticality.
• Phrase Structure Grammar: As a step towards greater complexity, Chomsky introduces phrase structure grammar, which represents sentences as hierarchical structures built from constituent phrases. This allows for a more accurate representation of syntactic relationships but still falls short of capturing certain linguistic phenomena.
• Limitations of Phrase Structure: Chomsky highlights the limitations of pure phrase structure grammars in handling aspects like:

• Discontinuous elements: For example, the movement of verb particles in sentences like "The police brought in the criminal" and "The police brought the criminal in."
• Dependencies between elements: Such as the agreement between subject and verb, which requires looking beyond the immediate context of each word.
• Transformations: Complex operations like sentence negation, question formation, and passivization cannot be adequately explained by phrase structure alone.

• Introduction of Transformations: To address these limitations, Chomsky proposes transformations – rules that operate on phrase structures to generate a wider range of sentences. Transformations allow for the expression of relationships and dependencies that go beyond the linear order of words. He provides detailed analyses of key transformations:

• Negation (Tnot): Explains how negative forms are derived from affirmative ones ("John comes" -> "John doesn't come").
• Question Formation (Tq): Demonstrates the transformation from declarative to interrogative structures ("They have arrived" -> "Have they arrived?").
• Wh-Questions (Tw): Addresses the formation of questions with "who," "what," etc. ("John ate an apple" -> "What did John eat?").
• Passivization (Tpass): Explains how active sentences are transformed into passive ones ("John admires sincerity" -> "Sincerity is admired by John").
• Syntax and Semantics: Chomsky explores the relationship between syntax and semantics, arguing against simplistic mappings between grammatical structures and meaning. He refutes the idea that grammatical relations like subject-verb necessarily correspond to actor-action and provides examples where such a correspondence breaks down. He also discusses the limitations of defining phonemic distinctness solely on the basis of meaning.

Some Quotes:

• On finite state models: "It is difficult to conceive of any possible motivation for excluding [certain complex sentences] from the set of grammatical English sentences. Hence it seems quite clear that no theory of linguistic structure based exclusively on Markov process models and the like, will be able to explain or account for the ability of a speaker of English to produce and understand new utterances."
• On abstractness of phrase structure: "This is the essential fact about phrase structure which gives it its 'abstract' character."
• On the need for transformations: "By allowing ourselves the freedom of [transformational rules] we have been able to state the constituency of the auxiliary phrase without regard to the interdependence of its elements, and it is always easier to describe a sequence of independent elements than a sequence of mutually dependent ones."
• On the tripartite structure of grammar: "From these considerations we are led to a picture of grammars as possessing a natural tripartite arrangement... phrase structure, transformations, and morphophonemics."
• On the neutrality of grammar: "Grammars of the form that we have been discussing are quite neutral as between speaker and hearer, between synthesis and analysis of utterances."
• On the goal of linguistic theory: "The fundamental aim in the linguistic analysis of a language L is to separate the grammatical sequences which are the sentences of L from the ungrammatical sequences which are not sentences of L and to study the structure of the grammatical sequences."

Key Ideas:

• Generative Grammar: A grammar should not just describe existing sentences but should be able to generate all and only the grammatical sentences of a language.
• Kernel Sentences: Basic, simple sentences formed using only obligatory transformations.
• Transformational History: Sentences are categorized based on the sequence of transformations applied to derive them.
• Constructional Homonymity: When a single phonetic sequence has multiple analyses on a linguistic level, signifying potential ambiguity.
• Linguistic Levels: Represent different ways of analyzing utterances: phonemic, morphemic, phrase structure, transformational.

Conclusion:

Syntactic Structures is a groundbreaking work that introduced the theory of transformational generative grammar, significantly impacting the field of linguistics. It provided a powerful framework for analyzing the complexities of human language, moving beyond simplistic models and highlighting the rule-governed, hierarchical, and abstract nature of syntax.