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3 - Entr’acte

historical and conceptual background of Generative Grammar

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 June 2012

Jae Jung Song
Affiliation:
University of Otago, New Zealand
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Summary

This ‘entr’acte’ chapter provides an overview of what is arguably the most prominent, or dominant, theoretical approach to the study of human language, namely Generative Grammar (GG). Some clarification as to what is meant by GG in this book is required at the outset. Their theoretical, technical and notational differences notwithstanding, diverse generative theories of grammar, including Lexical-Functional Grammar (Bresnan 1982, 2001) and Head-Driven Phrase Structure Grammar (Pollard and Sag 1994; Sag and Wasow 1999; Sag, Wasow and Bender 2003), can be subsumed under the blanket name of GG because of their intellectual or conceptual indebtedness to the theory of human language proposed by Noam Chomsky in the mid 1950s (Chomsky 1955, 1957; also see Newmeyer 1986; Horrocks 1987). In the context of this chapter, however, GG will be narrowly interpreted to refer to Chomsky’s theory of human language, which, over the last five decades, has undergone several conceptual as well as onomastic changes – that is, Transformational(-Generative) Grammar (Chomsky 1957), Standard Theory (Chomsky 1965), Extended Standard Theory (Chomsky 1977, 1980; Chomsky and Lasnik 1977), Government and Binding (GB) Theory (Chomsky 1981), Principles and Parameters (P&P) Theory (Chomsky and Lasnik 1993), and most recently, the latter two in the theoretical garb of the Minimalist Program (e.g. Chomsky 1995b, 2004). It is hardly unfair or inaccurate to refer to this research tradition as Chomsky’s GG, in that it is Chomsky himself who has set the research agenda or shown leadership or research directions more than anyone else (e.g. Boeckx 2006: 14). For that reason alone, these different names should not detract from the fact that one and the same strand of research is being dealt with here. It is this ‘narrow’ definition of GG that is adopted for the purposes of this chapter (and also of the word-order research to be surveyed in Chapter 4). Thus neither Lexical-Functional Grammar nor Head-Driven Phrase Structure Grammar will have a place in the discussion to follow, despite the insightful things that they may have to say about word order. It should also be noted that the term ‘linear order’ or, abstractly, ‘linearization’, instead of word order, is commonly used within GG.

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Word Order , pp. 72 - 98
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2012

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  • Entr’acte
  • Jae Jung Song, University of Otago, New Zealand
  • Book: Word Order
  • Online publication: 05 June 2012
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781139033930.003
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  • Entr’acte
  • Jae Jung Song, University of Otago, New Zealand
  • Book: Word Order
  • Online publication: 05 June 2012
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781139033930.003
Available formats
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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.

  • Entr’acte
  • Jae Jung Song, University of Otago, New Zealand
  • Book: Word Order
  • Online publication: 05 June 2012
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781139033930.003
Available formats
×