Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-42gr6 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-24T23:56:04.792Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

1 - Goals

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 June 2012

Andrew Radford
Andrew Radford
Affiliation:
University of Essex
Get access

Summary

Overview

The aim of this chapter is to give you some idea of the goals of linguistic theory, and to introduce you to some simple concepts which will be used throughout the rest of the book. Among the notions which will be explained in this chapter are terms such as theory of language, grammar of a language, particular/universal grammar, competence, performance, grammatically, linguistic intuition, rule-governed creativity, generate, observational/descriptive/explanatory adequacy, constraint, markedness, and innateness.

Grammatical competence

Linguistics is the study of Language. But why should we be interested in the phenomenon of Language? Chomsky gives an avowedly mentalist answer to this question. For him, the most fundamental reason for studying language is that language is a mirror of the mind – i.e. by detailed study of language, we might hope to reach a better understanding of how the human mind produces and processes language. As Chomsky remarks (Language and Mind (1972a), p. 103):

There are a number of questions which might lead one to undertake a study of language. Personally, I am primarily intrigued by the possibility of learning something, from the study of language, that will bring to light inherent properties of the human mind.

Type
Chapter
Information
Transformational Grammar
A First Course
 , pp. 1 - 49
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 1988

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

  • Goals
  • Andrew Radford, University of Essex
  • Book: Transformational Grammar
  • Online publication: 05 June 2012
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511840425.003
Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

  • Goals
  • Andrew Radford, University of Essex
  • Book: Transformational Grammar
  • Online publication: 05 June 2012
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511840425.003
Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Goals
  • Andrew Radford, University of Essex
  • Book: Transformational Grammar
  • Online publication: 05 June 2012
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511840425.003
Available formats
×