v7 : CHAPTER9 | Structuralist View of Grammar and IC Analysis vs Thaglitin al Grew mma Lares 9.1 BACKGROUND TO STRUCTURAL GRAMMAR a The beginning of the twentieth century was marked by a new approach to grammar suggested by linguists likederdinand dé Saussure dnd American linguists such as €ranz Boas, Edward Sapir and Leonard) This school of linguistics is called structuralism. It arose as a reaction against the approach of the traditional grammarians of the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries. 9.11 Traditional Grammar ‘The traditional grammarians had looked upon Cains their model. Since English isa member of the Indo-European family of languages, to which Latin and Greek also belong, it did have many grammatical elements in common with them, But many of these had been obscured or wholly lost as a result of extensive changes that had taken place in English. Early grammarians considered these changes as in ‘sort of degeneration in language and felt that they were duty bound to-resist —g, 22% “SF” thse ches. ‘They, therefore, cai ‘group of prescriptive rules for %° English on te basis of Latin. They ignored the fact that gyery language is unigue in its own way and has to be described as auionomous’in itself. They did not realise that the only standard whic is to be applied to a language is the language itself, its usage, Also, they attached more importance to the writen part o® = yf. language than to the spoken element. Even the definitions of the parts of speech» given by them, as has been discussed earlier, were inadequate and confusing. Instead of describing the actually spoken language, they found faults with it on trivial considerations. The following sentences, though in common use, were) condemned by them for reasons shown in brackets: 1, I do not know nothing. (double negative) 8’ ila dee 2. 1 will ask you to)quickly do) it. ‘ (use of ‘will’ with I and use of spit infinitive) : 3. He is taller than me, hew lornece 1 actnalty me Lt (comparison is between he and I and not me) ( “ 1085real authority) in judgement concerning the corectness of sentences ig ‘languages We naive speaker who uses the language, not the grammaran. The approach of the teditionalgrammarians was thus not scientific or logical; it was rather an illogical presumptive approach, preseribng certain rules of {don'ts as to how people should speak or write in conformity withthe standards they held dear. They did not first observe a8 10 how people uted the language and then describe it, depending upon the usage, ‘The traditional grammarians gave aclasicat’s model of grammar bated on the authority of masters of classical literature and thetori, while later on, afi this authority was challenged (a process which began from the Renaissance! ‘onwards), models of grammar began to be made on the basis of scientific observation **", and analysis, ie. the empirical approach or model was adopted. cb 42, Structural Grammar (Major ens aw epi eg” The structural Tingus began to study language (in terms of observable and ‘verifiable data 3nd describe it according to the behaviour ofthe language as it ‘war feng used. These descriptive linguists emphasized the following points: (@ Spoken language is primary and writing is secondary. Writing is only 1 ineang of fepresenting speech in another medium, Speech comes earlier than ing in hie of an individu or nthe eyleppen of ange. oy mepesan elm ht A ic shady, Historical considerations are not relevant temporal state ofa language, In the game of chess, for example, the situation on the board is constantly changing, But at any onetime, the state ofthe game can be fully described in terms ofthe positions occupied by several pices on the board. It does not mater by what route the players fave ave atthe particular state ofthe game, “i degen tae I has a structure of its own, Each uage ib regarded by the strocturlists as a system of relations. The lments of this system (sounds, words, etc.) have no validity independently (ot tne relations of equivalence and contrast which hold between them. Bach sound is normally meaningless in isolation. It becomes meaningful only when it combines with oer sounds join to form meaningful words which fae further join to form sentences, i. units of higher level, shes tempted todesrbs language ers ofits site, ) itis sed, and tried i ook for ‘regularities and ‘patterns’ or ‘rules’ in language ‘Bloomlield enyisaped that language structure was associated with phoneme, minimal dsineive sound units of language. The word tap, for example, consists of three phonemes: el, and /pl. Morphemes are larger than phonemes as they ‘consist of one or more phonemes. The word playing consists of two morphemes play and Ing, whereas it consists of the phonemes /p/, /V, fev, /V and /y/. So in af order to study the structure of a sentence, a linguist must be aware of the string ‘of phonemes'or morphemes that make up the sentence, Here is a sentence: ‘é _¢ ¥*) “ as the unit en ‘and morpheme as the unit of grammar, Phonemes are the— oe aN ALT | Ly th 7 | | las gil with ‘ umbrella chase the boy Now, the question arises as to how we should make the cuts. The answer fies in the notion of ‘expansion’. A sequence of morphemes that patterns like another sequence is said to be an expansion of it. One sequence can, in such cases, be replaced by another as similar sequence patterns will appear in the same kind of environment. Here is an example of similar sequences in expansion that can fit into the same slot: 1, Daffodits* 2. Yellow daffodils 3. The yellow daffodils ; 4. The yellow daffodils with a lovely look. ‘The elements 1, 3, 4 are expansions in the above set, i.e. “daffodils” is the head word, whereas the other words in 2,3, and 4 are modifiers. Incidentally, the set of examples given above can be grouped under the term Noun Phrase (NP). ‘A noun phrase may be a single word, a single noun or pronoun, or a group of words that belong with the noun and cluster around it. A noun phrase has in it a noun (a Head word) and certain modifiers. Generally, a noun in a noun phrase (optionally) has the following(modiferS)appearing before it in the given order: 1. Restrctor + Words like: especially, only, merely, just, almost, particularly, even 2. Predeterminers : Words lke: half, double, both, one-third, twice, all of 3, Determiners ‘These words include @ : fan, the (b) Demonstratives: this, that, these, those (6) Possessives: my, his, own, Ram's 4, Ordinals + Words like: first, third, last, next 5. Quantifiers Words like: many, several, few, less 6 Adjective phrase : good, long, tall, or intensifier and adjective, eg. very good, or adjective and adjective, e.g. good, looking110 _An Induction to Lingustes: Language, Graminar and Semantics 7. Classifier + adlty college a leather purse a summer dress Here are some examples of noun phrases (shown in the form of tree diagrams) refered to above, His last play A very nice shirt ne ne ee a det ord, WN det Adj. phe. WN I | c—~ Poss, | An In 1a te phy hey she tin All the famous victories Her old leather shoes NP NP —_— T~—~= Pre-det. det. Adj. SN det, Adj. class. sN k is all l famous victories I ‘old leather shoes Here are some other examples of NP: Boys and girls ‘The man who fired a shot 1 1 NP Conj. NP NP Rel. clause ly and girs a who fired a shot ah | the man Preposition phrase ‘A Prepositional phrase is a Noun phrase preceded by a preposition, ie.Structuralist View of Grammar and IC Analysis 111 Preposition Noun phrase Here is an example: On the table Prep. ph. —_ det. on At the table ‘Sometimes, a Noun phrase contains a Preposition phrase embedded in it In such cases, the Noun phrase can be broken up into NP and preposition phrase. Both can then be further split up. Here is an example: The boy on the bridge x aT x Pre, Un N Pp. R det. | | * the boy on the bridge. The Verbal Group (VG). Tre Verbal group generally immediately follows the NP in a typical English sentence, ¢ Ram we VG Ram Is playing P vG112 _An Inreduetin to Linguists: Language, Gr Ram hhas been playing Ne vo Ram can play NP VG ‘The main (or basic) verb in all these sentences is play. The Verbal group consists of the main verb and the auxiliary. VG Auxiliary Main Verb ‘Auxiliary, in tun, is made up of the tense (compulsory item) and any one or more ofthe following items: + Modal (marked by modal auxiliaries lke ean, may, wil, shall, mus) + Perfective (marked by have + en, where emis a marker of the past participle rmorpheme) + Progressive (marked by be + ing) ‘The whole information can be presented in the form of a tee disgram: yo a Auxiliary Verb Tense Modal -——Perfective Progressive I Present’ (can {have-en} {be-ing) Past will shall may rust It should be noted that modern linguisis admit of only two tenses in English: Present and Past English can express present time, past time and future time, but it does not mean tha it has thre tenses 100, Look at the following sentences: He is playing a match now. (Present tense, Preset time) He is playing a match next Sunday. (Present tense, Future time)Structuralist View of Grammar and IC Analysis 113 If 1 went to Bombay, I would bring a camera for you. (Past tense, Future time) ‘Tense it may be stated here, is a grammatical category seen in the form or shape of the verb, Normally, in English, tense is realized as -e(s) (present) -e(4) (past) In the expressions will play or will eat, wills in the present tense, the past form cof which is would. Ina classical language like Sanskrit which has three tenses, these are shown in the thre diferent forms the basic verb takes, while referring to the present, past of future time, €g, basic verb: [Pat] [pathi:] (present tense form) : reads (patfifof] (past tense form) read patfinfjotis] (future tense form) : will read Corresponding 0 this, there are only two such forms in English, e.g. plays, played. ‘The use of modals shall/will is only one of the mechanisms of expressing the future time, Also, willshall do not always express the future time, eg. Sita will be at home now (Present time). Also, it should be noted that while tense and the main verb are the compulsory segments ofa verbal group, the modal, the perfective and the progressive are only optional items. Given below are some model analyses of some verbal groups: She died She is playing VG VG (ied) Aux. v Tense die Past Past-die Pres-be-ing-play : died is pl pane eane aeons114 _An Introduction to Lingulstes: Language, Grammar and Semantics He had been writing ~~ Au. ( Tense Pe, Prog. «write I pak em Goebne Past = haves en being - write had been writing Thave finished VG Aux. ¥. Tense Perf. finish ole (aves) Pres have: ents flash have finished She might have been erying ie “Aux. i Tense modal Pee, «Prog. ay | Past may —(have-en) —_(be-ing) Past - may - have - en « be -Ing - cry might been crying Adverbials “Any group of words tat performs the function of an adverb is called an adverbial 1K may consist of a single word, a phrase or a clause. It generally specifies time,Stucturalst View of Grammar and IC Analysis 118 place, manner, reason, et, and modifies a verb, an adjective ora fellow adverb, Given below are some seniences in which the adverbials are putin italics: ‘She slept soundly. He spoke fluently. We have approached him a number of times, He smokes heavily He spoke in a nice mamer 1 shall se€ you in a day or 5. TL went there as fast as I could. ‘She left home when she was a young girl. Where there isa will there is a way. He talks a if she were a fook 9.3 IC ANALYSIS OF SENTENCES* ‘A single sentence is made up of an NP (subject) and a predicate phrase. This predicate phrase, apart from a compulsory verbal group, may optionally have one ‘or more noun phrase(s), preposition phrases), adverbials and adjective phrases. Here are a few examples: @ Rabul Dravid has been playing cricket for many years, s NP Pred phn, Xap a ao for several years we hr.) hy L Tense Pert Prog. C 7a ag. ‘ (Pres) (haven) (be.ing) for several years "Keeping in view the scope of the present book, only simple sentences have been dealt with bere. Se‘An Introduction to Linguists: Language, Grammar and Semantce (i) After depositing the fee the boys went to the hostel Adverbial a wotge JN ZN siting the fee det ON | “ Tease Ved 10 the hostel the boys pasts g0 These gil have been singing nicely. , S —— ee rl nee | Hom | yw” pres (haven) (Going) sing. nicely such stuctures, as they donot form proper grammatical groups, For example, here isa sentence: She is taller than her sister. In this sentence, the sequence -er than is not covered by IC analysis. Such a sequence can be explained in terms of the following constituents only: + She is tll She has a sister, + The sister is short. Similarly, there are several cases of sentences that are ambiguous, e.g. Time flies. 1 can have two meanings: ys 9.4 LIMITATIONS OF IC ANALYSIS & Immediate constituent analysis has its limitatiéns. It is not possible to analyse «Time is fying. * Time the is (Tne as ve)rueturait View of Grammar and IC Anais 117 s § rls 2 — > 3 : —$ r I Ae a a white dress | has been singing | lovely songs | since morning "(ivy The girl with118_An Invedveon to Uinguistes: Language, Grammar and Semantics aa Ke ’ 2—{ Kr o — ae (©) Boyg ana RET may ot he group 1 the evening >Structuralit View of Grammar and 10 Analy In such a case, only proper labelling can solve the problem. There are, however, some sentences that are sgctrally similar bt semantically they ar different. AR oft-quted example is: + John is easy to flatter, + Jobn is eager to flatter, ‘Such sentences cannot be explained by IC analysis unless they are broken up into simple pars of sentences. Inthe case ofthe two sentences above, we may have the following groups: + (lis easy. Someone laters John, «Toh is eager. He wants to fatter Many a time, ovetlapping ICs also cause a problem. For example, here is sentence: : Hie has no interest in, or ast for, music. | ‘This sentence means to convey: ‘He has no interest in music. He has no taste for mai. “The word no applies to both intrest and taste, It is not possible to show this in IC analysis. ‘Also, IC analysis fils to show such elements as remain unstated ina sentence, ‘eg. in the sentence : Wit the ball who is being addressed? The element 'you' is missing here. There is no way of showing this in IC analysis. Not only that, IC analysis fils to show relationship between sentence types such as active and passive, affirmative and negatives, statements and questions. Look atthe following sets of sentences which, though semantically similar, have diferent structures: (Who does not love his motherand? Everybody loves his motherland, (Gi) Kapil hit sx. A six was hit by Kapil (ii) Everybody in the hall wep. ‘There was none in the hall but wept. GGrammarians reais the limitations of IC analysis and have to take to other ‘means also (eg. TG grammar) to flly explain the structure of sentences. 9,5 PHRASE STRUCTURE RULES (PS RULES) “The structure of phrases, s discussed above, cn be summed up inthe following notation that gives the structure ofthe concerned phrase ina straight line. Here is a summary of the PS-Rules. venenatis120 _An Intoduton o Linguists: Language, Grammar and Semanes Sy NP + Pred. ph. NP—+ Restictor -Pre-determiner-determiner-Ordial- ‘Quantifier - Adjective phrase - Clasifir-noun Pred, ph. — VG ~ Ne Prep. pr Aj, ph. ‘Adverbial VO— Aux. + ‘Aux. —+ Tense + (Modal) + (Perfective) + (Progressive) Prep. pht, —» Prep + NP NP—+ NP + Prep, ph ‘SUMMARY ‘As reaction tothe traditional approach to language study, there arose inthe 20 century a group of linguists called Structuralists. Representative figures inthis {group were Franz Boss, Edward Sapir and Bloomfield. The structuraliss felt that linguistics has to be deseriptive rather than prescriptive, Any study ofa language, they sad, shouldbe based on the observable and verifiable facts of the language. ‘They emphasized the following points: 1. Speech is primary; writing is only secondary. study. 3, Language 5 «sytem of syste, It has 0 stort of is own, ‘The structural linguists tried to describe language in terms of its structures as it was being used. They tried to look for ‘patterns’ or ‘regularities’ in language structures. They envisaged that language structure was associated with phoneme ¥ as the unit of phonology and morpheme as the unit of grammar. This approach ‘was desired to be completely precise, empirical, logical and scientific. In order to study the structure of sentences, the structural linguists thought of dividing a sentence into its Immediate constituents. This process is known as IC analysis. Different methods (segmentation, bracketing, tree diagrams) were ‘used for showing the immediate constituent v ‘A sentence is said to consist of an NP“And a Predicate phrase. The Predicate phrase consists of a Verbal group and one or more Noun phrase(s), Adjective ‘phrase(s), Adverbials and Preposition phrases. Here is an example: Kapil has been playing cricket for many years, ” Pred, ph,Structuralist View of Grammar and {C Analysis 121 8. NP Pred, phr. Kapil VG NP Adv. Aux. for many years | (Prep. phr.) Je cricket va Tense Perf. Prog. Prep. Ad, ON. Pres. (have-en) (be-ing) for many years ‘A summary of PS rules governing the IC analysis has already been given above. COMPREHENSION QUESTIONS 1, What are the main tenets of structuralism? Explain, 2, What is a Noun phrase? What are its important constituents? 3. Write a note on: (@) Preposition phrase (b) Verbal group (c) Adverbials 4. Give an IC analysis of the following sentences: (a) He has already resigned, (b) [have been cursing my luck for several years. (©) He can tell a lie. (d) I plan to go there after the rains. (c) He appeared in the court. 5. Write a note on IC analysis. What are its imitations? A PSRCHAPTER 10 Transformational Generative Grammar ; 4 wl A aie Wy a” gen A 2 WV0:13"INTRODUCTION Yas yo 2 SMrinsformational Generative grammar (TG) had its first exponent in Noam s iG SYA cheat. an Ameen gui. n oak Sct Scie (958 er ofA \ im Aspect of the Theory of Syntax (1965), Chomsky tried to answer several ques, ofa structuralists(Strcturalism, as has been discussed sf es : at ASR ily co , alyses the data of a given corpus by "3 e juclive methods. Chomsky, on the other hand, takes a deduce approach in ,, Sung a heueal count of grammar, His ganmaratemps a expkin how} 3 “ahd the competence ofa native speaker ofa language can enable poprearyen | Oey onece ‘umber of sentences from a finite set. Not only ae the sentences x a Ne ey ‘eterated grammatical, but they are also meaningful. While structuralism took eclteaoet col ina zante fom phoneme nd nrpene west offen ae an ee Agee ing) 1 parma coe te elton betes orm ad mening ar TSN Be, ee the generation of sentences that are both grammatical and meaningful. Chomsky on) tives the example of the sentence ‘Colorless green ideas sleep furiously to show that a sentence en be grammatically coret and yt not make sense, therefore the mm sy mueves trammar dos nl generate sentences like these Stucural grammar aso falls to Sadatbine Aeazawe) O°" cunt for ambiguities in sentences, since these occur atthe level of meaning, Maar Spracpic: Inidenues wel ! ‘ends, jcb 102 DEEP AND SURFACE STRUCTURE uate esse} ment 7 Aa adequate grammar mus provide forthe facts ofthe language that itis produc saad pinspl Tui ave ve, comple and arblirary. It mos establish the relationship of various sentences a is Pi ed and account forthe deep and surface structure of sentences. It mast for example, tan ‘exphin te relationship between sets of sentences like: | Sethe con | pepe sai 1. ( Hewroe alene, = 4 | (b) A letter was written by him. “4 e ? | 2. @) Why did you go there? ea\ 9 (b) You went there for some reason, age? 3. (8) Where do you live? , (©) You live somewhere. Ay , 5 od wily f‘Transformational Generative Grammar _ 123 -Asthe name ilies, TO grammar i both transformational and generative. 1 goes sep further from the structural grammar, It not ony analyses the sentences, divides them into parts and shows the functions of various pats but tis completely rearanges them and shows te inte.elatedness between sentences. treaes up the basl or Kernel sentence first. A basic ora kere sentene, it may te printed ou, I simple, assertve, dectarative, and ative in frm. Here are some examples: Kernel sentences ‘ohn is playing football I wrote a lett ‘Yu spoke the truth, Non-kernel sentences 1s John playing football? (Inerogative) Jon isnot playing footall, (Negative) ‘Aleter was written by me. (Passive) ‘Who wrote the leer? (Question fom) Why did you speak the truth? (Question form) ‘You spoke the truth when you were forced. (Complex sentence) ‘You didnot speak the truth (Negative) ‘You spoke the truth but told a new story, (Compound sentence) [All the nonkernel structures or complicated structures can be thought of as faving been derived from their kerel forms with the help of some transforma- tions. A sentence like: Where did you go yesterday? can be derived from the Kernel sentence: You went somewhere yesterday by applying certain transformations. “Transformational analysis not ony shows the inter-telatedness between sentences but also explains the ambiguities between sentences that appear identical but ae transforms from differen Kemels, Here is, for example, a sentence: Flying planes ean be dangerous. “The sentence is ambiguovs for we cannot ell what is dangerous, the planes tat fly or the act of fying planes. We can, however, resolve this ambiguity by showing thatthe same sentence canbe analysed as being ansfors from wo different sts of kernel sentences. The present sentence canbe derived from the following two diferent sts: (@) Some people ly planes. This can be dangerous. (b) Planes fly. Tey can be dangerous, Similarly, here is anohe set of sentences: (@) T expected Kapil to hit a six () 1 asked Kapil to hit asi. “The two sentences have the same surface structure but thie deep structures are different. These deep stetues ar: (2) (@ T expected (something) Gi) Kapil hits a sit, al124 An Inroducton to Linguist guage, Gram ) @ Vasked Kapi (something). (i) He its a six, -Avother pair of sentences that can be quoted in thi come i (@) Raja is eager to please, () Raja is easy to please, ‘The Kemel sentences for (a) are: () Raja is eager (fr something). (i) He pleases (someone). ‘The Kernel sentences for (b), however, are: 0) Mis easy (i) Someone pleases Raja Examples can be multiplied but what needs tobe noted here stat while ast of two sentences may have the same surface structure, they may have diferem deep stuctures. It is through TG grammar alone that one can aply different transformation othe Kernel sentences to ave at the desired surface ucts, ‘mst by now be apparent that a Kernel sentence has tbe fist analysed with the help of Phrase stuctre rules as discussed under Immedite Cositvent ‘Analysis and then made to pas trough transformational rules to ave ata surface structure” A kemel sentence is the to which a sti transformations is applied to generate the surface structure, TG grammar is every in the sense that it presents a system that gives us an idea ofthe posible process in which child learns language or produces an infinite arity of sentences many of which he or she has not heard earlier, Ths TG grammar ists how we get fom one sat, o sae ina language io ante It des ttmerely describe a given sentence it does much more sit provides descriptions ‘of a great many of the possible sentences in the language, A native speaker of a language understands bth the deep structure as well s the surface stctre reste Te eal py te ous trata ales poet BRaERa Which he has never bead before. That is what Chomsky meat when be tence (the Yiiuitive knowledge of a speaker of a language ‘about the system of his language) and performance (ihe actual production of langage) ofa wer ofa language, gst. would be useful list the various PS rules that have been spelt ou in the previous chapters: 1, S-9NP+ Pred ph. (8 —— Sentence) (NP — Noun phrase) 2. NP Res-Predt-det-Ond-quant-Adj, pcs 3. Pred. ph. 3VG+ | NP | NF” Prep. ph] Prep | + — ‘Ad phe. | Adj ps. Aj AG 4.VG-Au-V 5, Aut + Tese-( Modal) Pet -Prog. Pas.)Grammar_125 6 Tene >| Present Past 1. Mol >| Wit Sh Can May 4 Pe haven 9, Prog being 10, Pass. been 1, Prep. pr 9 Prep-NP 103 TRANSFORMATIONAL RULES Rule I: Interrogative rule fF NPsense | be | Interrogative tense | be have | ———> | have | NP rodal modal Role I: Affi switch rule Tense | Modal Modal | | -Tense main main wed | — | verb ving | have have ving te be a ld do 0 Here ae some examples involving the application ofthese rls for driving the surface structure of sentences from their kernels: 1. Surface structures: Is he sleeping? ‘The Kernel sentence othe deep structure inthe case ofthis sentence is: He is sleeping Analysis + He - pes. be- ing» sleep, Tntere + pes - be he - ing - sleep Affix + be pres. he sleep - ing 6) (sleeping) 2. Has am been playing a match? (Surface Sunt) ‘Ram has been playing a match (Kernel) Analy Ram pres. - have - en - be + ing - play - a match, Interr, Pres, - have ~ Ram en - be ~ ing -play-a match, Affix have» pres, - Ram ~ be - en + play-ng a match, (tas) (been) (plying) 3. Could you repeat the tik? Kernel sentence : You could repeat the trick. oa, sanem2 Analysis ‘You - past - can - repeat » the tick, Intert past «ean - you - repeat» the trick. ‘Aft + Cam past» you «repeat «the tric, (could) 4, Have you seen the Taj? Kernel sentence : You have seen the Ty. Analysis You - pres = have - en = se the Ti Tntere Pres - have - you ~ en - see the Tj. Ami + Have» pres «you » see» en » th Ta (have) (seen) ‘5. Would he join the party? Kernel sentence : He would join the party. Analysis + the party Interr, + the party, Alc Will past: he - join - the pay (would) Rule IM: Do-support rule. In some sentences, a do-support has to be supplied, Here isan example: Surface structure : Did John se ber? Kerel sentence : John saw her Analysis + John-past-see-her Inert + pastJohn-see-er Here is a situation where, asa result of tie interogative rule, oly the tense is pice ouside the NP as there is no be or have or modal atached (othe tense. Now, the tense isa Bound Morpheme, It cannot stand alone, It must beached to some verbal element (not to any NP lke John). Therefore, a dummy verb, rarely do, is supplied hereto be attached tothe tense. This rule is called do- support rue It says: Support te tense with do when tenses followed by a non- vera item Sai thd step in the above sees of waneformatons is: Dessupport pst «do «John - see - im. Now, one can apply the fi-svitch me ‘Affix: do-past- John - see ~ him. a) p50 EXAMPLE Derive the structure: Did 8§% accept your proposal? Kernel Sita accepted your proposal. Ansipis Sim. pst» aecept- your - proposal Inlet: Past» St acept- your - proposal. Dosupport + pst» do Sita ~ accept - your - proposal. ‘Alls td past - Sita - acéept - your - proposal. (id)‘Transtormational @ Grammar 127 Whaype question tn ere drive whtype questions, two more wansformation rues have t be spied. Thee ret ae: (0 whsubsitation (i) sbfroming ‘hefolloving examples wil make it clear as to how, and in what order, these rules are applied. Surface structure: Why did you punish him? Keel + You poised him for some reason. ‘Analysis + You - past - punish « him - for some reason. ‘Whats, (YoU past «punish «him = why. pst you = punish im = iy. 4 Why - past - you - punish - him. 1 Why pat -.do« you punish him. Why dopast- you» punish - him. i) Ima be noted tat the oder in which the (-Rules, @ W— Whsobsttion {i 1 — Imerogative rule iy W — Whtoning (iv) D — Dovsupport (0) A — Afficsviteh rule are applied is: ‘Acerel sentence may ned some oral of thes transformations to rive atthe surface structure. The order of transformation rules, however, remains the sam in alle MORE EXAMPLES: 1, Where did you stay lastnight? | Kernel: You stayed somewhere lastnight. ‘Analysis + You - past - stay - somewhere - lastnight Whesub, + You - past stay where - lastnight inter, + past» you - sia - Where» lst ight. ‘Whfront Where - past - you~ stay ~ Ist night Do-supp. : Where - past - do ~ you - stay - lst night. Alfx + Where + do + past - you - stay lastnight. (Gia) 2, How did you learn allthis? Kernel You learnt allthis somehow, ‘Analysis + You - past - learn «al this » somehow Whub, + You past ~ lear - ll hs ~ hows128 An Introduction to Linguistes: Language, Whetront + How - pst - you -leam Dosupp + How - past ~ do- you - learn » allthis, AMM: How - do + past - you - learn - all this. (id) 3. When has he returned from UK? ‘Kernel: He has returned from UK at some time, Analysis Hes pres. - have - en return fom UK - at some time, Whsub He pres. - have - en - return - from UK - When. + When «pres - have - he -en - return «from UK. ‘Affix: When have - pres. - he return « en - from UK. (bas) (cetuned) (Note Itmay be noted tha this derivation does nt needa Do-support rule). 44, What does Linguistics teach you? Kernel: Linguistics teaches you something, Analysis + Linguistics ~ pres. - teach - you - something. ‘Whauh Linguistics - pres. -teach- you - what Inter. tres - Linguistics - teach - you - what ‘Whefront: What - pres. - Linguistics - teach» you. Dosupp : What - pres do - Linguistics - teach - you. ‘Affix + What - do » pres. - Linguistics - teach - you (Goes) 4, Who presided over the meeting? Kernel: Someone presided over the meeting ‘Analysis + Someone - past - preside over - the meeting. Wha: Who - past - preside - over the meting. Inter. past - who - preside over - the meeting, Whfront who - past - preside over - the meeting, Alix + who » preside over « past - the meeting (presided over) Negation Sn rule is another of the important rules of transformation. This rule is Negat applied as follows: Mods! Modal Tense Neg. Tense- t | be | -not have have (Wote: If tere is no modal or be or have, after the tense, not is placed directly afer the tense, i. Tense Neg, Tense-not =Grammar_ 129 EXAMPLES Surface structure: 1 wil not go, Deep structure or Kernel sentence: Iwill go. Analysis: . Neg +40. Aix 1. will prs. - not - go. (wl) Kemal: Analysis Neg Do-supp. Am He - past - go, He - past - not - go. He - past + do + not - go. He do = past» not - go. id) [Negative contraction rule Not negecont. at — (Note: When not is contracted to n't, itis atached closely to the verbal item preceding it i.e, to modal, be or tense, n’t moves wherever these items move). EXAMPLES 1. Did not he play the match? Kernel: He played the match, He - past - play - the match. He - past - not - play - the match. He - past - n't - play - the match. Interz, + past n't - he - play - the match, Dosupp : past »do- n't - he ~ play - the match, ‘Alf + do-pastn’t - he ~ play - the match. id n'y) 2. Is not he a fool? Kernel: He is a fool, Analysis ¢ He» pres. «be - a fool Neg + He pres.- be - not » a fool, Negeont : He - pres. «be n't - a fool Inter, Pres. « be n't - he +a fool ‘Alix Be pres, «n't» he» a fol (isn't) 3, Why didn't you speak the truth? Kernel: You spoke the truth for some reason.alan po fe te taek § ine That fA 9000 You - past» speak the truth» for some reson. You - past «speak the th - why. ‘You = past» not «speak «the truth» why. ‘You - past - n't» speak + the truth» why. past «n't «you » speak + the truth - why. ‘Why - past = n't - you - speak «the truth ‘Why - past + do n't - you + speak «the truth, Why -dovpastonot- you » speak the truth (Gida') Passivisation (@ Passivisation rule NP, Aux. V-NP,_ Pass, NP, Aux. be en V = by“ NPy = (Note: If the subject ofthe active sentence is one or someone, it can be deleted after passivisation by applying the Agent deletion rule). | EXAMPLES | 1. Surface structure: She was seen by him. | Kernel: He saw her | Analysis: He - past - see - he. | Pass: She- pat - be -en- see - by him | Affix: She- be~past see -en - by - him. | (was) (seen) 2. Orders have been obeyed, Kernel: (They) have obeyed the order ‘Analysis: They - pres. - have - en» obey the orders. Pass The orders - pres. have - en - been - obey - by them. ‘Affix: The orders - have - pres. - be - en - obey - en -by them, ‘Agent del : The orders - have ~ pres.» be - en» obey «en. (have) (been) _ (obeyed) 3. The match will be won by us. | Kernel: We will win the mach Analysis We - pre. - wil - win - the match Pass The match - pres. - will - be - en win - by us ‘Alix: The match - willpres- be- win-en- by us. (wil) (von) ‘We have so fr discussed (within the scope of ths introductory book) cases ofinterogutves, negatives and passives only for simple sentences. Transformational rules, as hasbeen seen, help us to understand the operations that go on in the mind ofthe child as he frames complicated language structures in his mind, TG 4« Transformational Generative Grammar _131 rules are generative inthe sense that wth the help of TG rules one can produce any numberof possible sentences inthe language. may, however, be pointed out that the TG grammar has its own limitations, Research in the field of grammar is a continuing process. Many new theories, ‘eg. the Montage Gramma, Filmre's Case Grammar, Scale and Category Grammar ‘of Systemic Grammar based onthe Firhian School, have come up. May be, inthe years to come, we may have better theories of grammar that provide mor insights into the learning and teaching of languages. ‘SUMMARY ‘Transformational Generative Grammar (TGG) answered several questions that the strocturalsts had left unanswered, Strcturalism does not take cognizance ofthe Gist enprine of a native speaker of the language to produce an Infinite ‘umber of sentences, Language is productive and complex. A sentence has a deep structure and a. surface strctué="ICiS the result of several. transformations applied to a deep structure (a kernel sentence) that one aries at the surface structure ofa sentence. 1G grammar shows this inter-eatednes between different sentences. It also helpé to remove ambiguities between sentences that appear identical but are transforms from different Kernels, Some of the important transformational rues ae as follows: Is1 G nterrogative rte NP- tense | be Tnterrogative tense | be bre | ———+ have mod modal & Atti switeh rule Tease | Modal Modal Tense ain ain ve | Amx verb ving fave | — have -ing be be an Ido do = & Do-support rule Tense- (NP) Dosupp. Tense-do- (NP) — & Negation rule Modal Modal Tense- Neg. Tense- & |— be | + nt 5 have have 6. Passivisation rule INP Aux, V.=NPy Pass, NP) Aux. be en V.- by «NPy =Linguistics: Language, Grammar and semantics 182_An Introduction COMPREHENSION QUESTIONS 14 What is TG Grammar? In what ways isit an improvement onthe Stucturalis’ View of Grammar? Explain ‘2 Explain what you mean by a Kernel sentence. Give examples. 3, Derive the following sentences from theit Kernels: (@) Was she playing the match? (©) Has he signed the will? (9 May I come in? (@ How do you learn all this? (©) Why did you tell a lie? (© Could you solve the puzzle? () What does Linguistics teach you? () Do you believe in God?” (@ Did you win the game? Who presided over the meeting? 4, Derive the following passive sentences from their Kernels (@) He has been killed by the police. (©) My pen was stolen by him. 5, Waite short notes on: (@) Passivsaton, (b) Negativisation.CHAPTER11 oe Supra-sentential Grammar 41.1, INTRODUCTION In Chapter 10, we considered some ofthe rule that make a sentence grammatical and meaningful. Now we may considera higher level of language structure where ‘two ot more individual sentences may be related. These sentences make a larger ‘unit of meaning that we cll text. In other words, they are interelated in such a ‘way that they form a meaningful unit Tis fuer corroborates that grammar and semantics are closely related. Meaning is created through lexical and grammatical The occurrence of 's' is logical in the second sentence, not the fist. ‘There are many such ways in which sentences are related and connected in this mannet, To take another example, inthe sentence immediately preceding this, ‘we have used ‘such’. What does ‘such’ refer to? Obviously, it relates to the point discussed in the previous paragraph ts also a made of sentence connection. It ‘creates cohesion, which may be defined as a relationship between sentences in text where the inerpretation of some elements. in one sentence depends on the lements in another. According to Halliday and Hasan (1976), cohesion is pat of the system of a language expressed partly through grammar and pay through vocabulary. wena till194 An Introduction to Linguistics: Language, Grammar and Semantics 41.3 COHESIVE DEVICES ‘The grammar of a language contains rules for sentence connection by using paticular devices, Halliday and Hasan (bid. list these under the following categorie, ‘Reference + Substitution + Bllipsis + Conjunction + Lexical cohesion Let ws first consider conjunction, which can be made through the following major cohesive devi 1, Time relators ‘Time relationships between sentences can be signalled by adjectives and adverbial, which refer to events having occurred in succession to each other and thus establish a link between sentences: (@) Adjectives such as previous, earlier, former, preceding, following, “His plan is excellent. The previous plan was poor". (Previous 10 the cxcellent plan) “He seemed to be in good health when I saw him on Ey. But following day he died”. (that is, following the day mentioned in the fist sentence) (b) Adverbs suchas already, before, frst, yet, now, sofa, immediately, afer, later, next, then, et. ¢.g. “I will give my comments. But fist | must finish writing” (that is, before 1 give my comments). “He went to the board meeting this morning. He was then due to fly to London” 2, Place relators ‘These are words denoting place relationship to connect sentences: “He examined the car. The front was slightly damaged”. (front ofthe cat) "My friends ave gone to Pars. will go there next yea.” (to Pars) 3, Additive conjuncts ‘These indicate connection which adds to that which is given in the earier sentence. For example, ‘and’ indicates addition, as do the phrases ‘and aso’, further’ besides’ ‘in addition’. “Too! is another such conjunc, adrg 10 What fas been mentioned “The children read the play, They acted it 10." ‘This category includes appostves ‘tha is, Tor example’, in other words’ ‘Another device i ‘or’ which can be an addition to what has been said indicating feformulation ofthe same statement, of one that offers an alternative to ite "You took the book without permission. (Or) In other words, you stole it” "You ‘an take it Or you can leave it’ ‘This cam be a negative addition, e.g, ‘nor’: “They didn't read the play. Nor id they act 4, Adversative conjuncts ‘These indicate opposition to the earlier statement, e.g, but, though, instead of, rather, however, despite, on the contrary, nevertheless.135 . Causal conjuncts ‘These denote result and consequence of what has been mentioned, e.g. then, mex ence, era, therefor, srs. "They refsed fo py the rent. A a res they were evicted”. os at pith rent conjunc 1G ae inte an inference wich flows rom that wh a been mentioned ee ain’ Ls "He ays want mary Sasa. Be shouldn't quate with her” if wo 1, Transitional conjuncts ‘Occur inthe middle of wis to indicate a stage or transition, e.g, with regard 1, speaking of, nol next: “Ihave discussed the points onthe agenda. Now, do we need to discuss anything else"? “~ i 8, Summative conjuncts ‘Occur atthe end of a unit of sum up the preceding statements: in bf, a2 onc, inal "9. Efmumeratve conjunts ‘These show the order of items inthe form of listing, eg Fist second, further, finaly, lastly, another. Tere may be an indication of which items are more import, eg. above ll, most significant (important, fist and foremost ‘Som items indict the aitue or orientation ofthe spake. These atin conjancts ae: Surely, well, actualy, afterall Lets now consider Substitution, Trough sbsitton we can avoid reption 8 well as abbreviate a sentence. These substuies ae called proforms) and incudepronominals (he, she, ithe, thet, wey out) which subsite for nun pases and their contuens, Examples ae: | ‘John was driving home. His ca struck against a tee. 1! was badly damaged, i ‘is substitutes for John, it substitutes for ear. ‘ter proforms are: one, all, any, some, none, both, nies, ether, the same. ‘They subsite for a noun phrase that has been mentioned ea, sin the examples: (@) Will you have cof? Yes, I'l have some (Sasi fr ‘ofee) (b) Do you have a pen? Yes, here's one. (Substitutes for ‘pa’) i {6 My fiends have decided to go to the univers, Nowe of them ae ding busines, (Subsiutes for ‘my fiend’) ‘There are also profoms fr predicates. The avila,‘ tae’ and ‘be and modal auxiliaries sbsitte fo the whole predate pas, fr example (2) John likes icecream. Mary doesn't136 _An Introduction to Linguistics: Language, Grammar and Semantics () I've brought you a present. Oh, you shouldn't have, (© Can I go now? Yes, you may, (@) She is a liar, No, she can’t be © Some place-relaiors can be pro-forms, eg. tha, here, there: © Let's meet for dinner tonight. That would be nice. (6) Look for the book on the shelf. 1 put it there. A negative procform for the predicate would be: not. Example: John is a ‘coward, But not Bill. For an object clause, so becomes a substitute, ¢.g. I think ‘our team will win the race. The coach told me so. (so = our team will win the race) Ellipsis is a type of cohesion which is like substitution, Some parts of a sentence which have been stated earlier are omitted. The purpose is again to avoid repetition across sentences. Examples are: (@) I'ma space explorer, Are you (2 (clement which undergoes ellis explorer). (©) When did he arrive? Probably ( ) last night. (clement which undergoes space Discourse reference. There are a number of items within a sentence that refer either backwards to what has been mentioned before in previous sentence, in which case these items are anaphoric, or forwards to what is to be mentioned later, which ar eataphore. An example of anaphoric reference is; Many years ago thet parents were sworn enemies. Tht is now frgoten. Their children ae quite good eee aan aicsed gra utepuinease) ‘An example_of cataphoric reference is: Here is the news. The President visited..(Here points forward to the next sentence.) Pronouns are usually anaphoric, Items such as like,‘ follows’ are cataphoric. “Taken together, anaphoric and cataphorc items create a unity of reference, By the use of these items it becomes clear as to what is being refered to, and thus a meaningful unit of discourse is created. Lexical cohesion. This is of two types. The first type is repetition of the same lexical item in several sentences subsequent to its first occurrence, e.g. the word “sone! repeated in several sentences after it has been used inthe first sentence, The second type of lexical cohesion is synonymy: the use of synonyms or near-syn- ‘onyms in subsequent sentences, eg. if ‘stone’ is mentioned inthe frst sentence, subsequent sentences may mention ‘rock’, ' ‘pebble, etc. and this creates cohesion since the reference is being made tothe same or similar object. ‘There is structural parallelism between two sentences if they have an identical structure and also lexical cohesion or contrast, e.g. My painting they admired. My sculptures they disliked’ Though there is lexical contrast between ‘admired’ and “dislike, the two sentences have similar structure of noun phrase beginning with ‘my’. (Ofen, several of the cohesive devices described above are used in sentences, and these create sentence connection.Suprasentenal Grammar_197 ‘SUMMARY Supa-sentential grammar const of items which are used to make connections ‘between sentences. Tey ae also called cohesive devices, These are syntactic conjunets ime relator, placerelatrs and logical conecors,Substitation, lips and discourse reference are othr types of intr-sentential connection. Lexical cohesion it achieved by ws of synonyms, nearsynonyms and antonyms. COMPREHENSION QUESTIONS 1, Find and list al the cohesive devices used in the given passage: "With the progress of science, many relationships have been discovered between surpots and thing on earth and in the atmosphere, There are two main reasons fr tis. First the scientist has developed more sensitiv instruments for measuring solar radiations. But undoubtedly the main reason isthe second one: over the last 40 yeas we have been studying the upper atmosphere, as distinct from te lover, and all kinds of phenomena have been discovered there which vary from the sunspot eee” 2, Take some short texts and make a list of the types of sentence connection that you can find in them, You can take up @ newspaper repo, a pose narrative or literary pice 3. Distinguish anaphoric and ctapore reference in the following sentences: (@) When I was 18,1 left my village. That was 15 years ago. (©) The above example isnot corect. What follows is more appropriate. (The Chiet is here. He anived suddenly fst nigh. (© This isthe position, We are under aac fom al sites. (©) Fifty people voted against the resolution. The Commitee had not forseen such opposition. They wihirew the resolution to plan their next move