Generative Semantics 1: The Model

2021 ◽  
pp. 65-106
Author(s):  
Randy Allen Harris
Keyword(s):  
Philosophy Of Language ◽  
Deep Structure ◽  
Universal Grammar ◽  
Natural Extension ◽  
Homogeneous System ◽  
Transformational Grammar

This chapter follows the emergence of Generative Semantics from the Transformational Grammar developments codified in Noam Chomsky’s Aspects of the Theory of Syntax. It was on George Lakoff’s mind from before Aspects but it only achieved the rhetorical, sociological, and theoretical conditions to thrive with that codification. Generative Semantics looked like a natural extension of Transformational Grammar, rooting itself in the semantic subsoil of Deep Structure and aligning closely with Universal Grammar. But that subsoil quickly proved to be less fertile than it had seemed, so Generative Semantics imported concepts from logic and philosophy of language; and Universal Grammar proved less substantial than it had seemed, so Generative Semantics solidified it with a Universal Base hypothesis. The resulting model was an extraordinarily elegant theory in which language passed through a homogeneous system of rules from thought and meaning to structure and expression, but it contained multiple seeds, both attitudinal and technical, of a challenge to Chomsky’s work.

The Beauty of Deep Structure

2021 ◽  
pp. 15-64
Author(s):  
Randy Allen Harris
Keyword(s):  
Computer Science ◽  
Deep Structure ◽  
Universal Grammar ◽  
Generative Grammar ◽  
Literary Studies ◽  
Technical Level ◽  
Educational Funding ◽  
Transformational Grammar ◽  
Language Classrooms ◽  
Cognitive Revolution

This chapter charts the rise of Noam Chomsky’s Transformational-Generative Grammar, from its cornerstone role in the cognitive revolution up to its widely heralded realization in Aspects of the Theory of Syntax. That realization featured the development of an evocative concept, Deep Structure, a brilliant nexus of meaning and structure that integrates seamlessly with Chomsky’s companion idea, Universal Grammar, the notion that all languages share a critical, genetically encoded core. At a technical level, Deep Structure concentrated meaning because of the Katz-Postal Principle, stipulating that transformations cannot change meaning. Transformations rearrange structure while keeping meaning stable. The appeal of Deep Structure and Universal Grammar helped Transformational Grammar propagate rapidly into language classrooms, literary studies, stylistics, and computer science, gave massive impetus to the emergence of psycholinguistics, attracted substantial military and educational funding, and featured prominently in Chomsky’s meteoric intellectual stardom.

The Vicissitudes of War

2021 ◽  
pp. 145-200
Author(s):  
Randy Allen Harris
Keyword(s):  
Deep Structure ◽  
Transformational Grammar

This chapter charts the battles around the central notions of the Generative/Interpretive Semantics dispute: the existence of Deep Structure (rejected by Generative Semantics, redefined by Interpretive Semantics), the Katz-Postal Principle (rejected by both, in different ways), the notion of grammaticality (distended by Generative Semantics into contingencies and gradations, then rejected; retained by Interpretive Semantics). It also examines the rhetorical maneuvers around George Lakoff’s proposal of global rules (embraced as unfortunately inevitable by Generative Semantics, terminologically rejected but methodologically embraced by Interpretive Semantics). The chapter also documents some of the direct firefights and skirmishes across the Transformational Grammar battlefield, which left Generative Semantics in a position of clear ascendancy.

English imperative sentences

1966 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 69-78 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. P. Thorne
Keyword(s):  
Deep Structure ◽  
Transformational Grammar ◽  
Selectional Restrictions ◽  
General Thesis

The fullest account of English imperative sentences considered in the context of a transformational grammar is contained in Katz & Postal (1964: 74–9). Their account forms part of a discussion of the general thesis that transformations do not affect the meaning of sentences, and of the proposal that follows as a natural corollary of this thesis, that the set of optional singulary transformations be restricted to those usually referred to as ‘stylistic’ transformations. Instead of treating imperative sentences as derived from declarative kernels, therefore, they postulate the occurrence of an imperative morpheme (Imp) in the underlying phrase-markers of imperative sentences. This, they assume, marks these structures as the domain of the imperative transformations and imposes certain selectional restrictions upon them. The notion of the Imp morpheme, which is the most original and most important part of Katz and Postal's analysis of imperative sentences, is adopted in this paper and the occurrence of the morpheme in the deep-structure of all imperative sentences is assumed throughout it. In the rest of their analysis, however, Katz and Postal draw upon more traditional ideas, one of which is disputable.

Universal Grammar and Philosophy of Language

2016 ◽  
pp. 60-76
Author(s):  
Peter Ludlow
Keyword(s):  
Philosophy Of Language ◽  
Universal Grammar ◽  
Performance Theory ◽  
Rule Following ◽  
Set Point ◽  
Parametric System ◽  
Linguistic Behavior ◽  
Optimal Set ◽  
A Performance

Universal Grammar (UG) is a parametric system that establishes individual norms for language users. This is the sense in which UG is part of a competence theory instead of a performance theory. By establishing individual norms it does not control our linguistic behavior but acts as a kind of regulator that warns us when we diverge from an optimal set-point value. These warnings take the form of linguistic judgments. These linguistic judgments are surfacey—they don’t tell us what rules have been violated; they merely tell us when something is amiss, or which of two forms is more optimal. They are merely judgments of acceptability. While this approach leads us into the rule-following arguments of Wittgenstein and Kripke, those arguments can be defused if handled with care.

Generative Semantics 2: The Heresy

2021 ◽  
pp. 107-144
Author(s):  
Randy Allen Harris
Keyword(s):  
Surface Structure ◽  
Natural Extension ◽  
Standard Theory ◽  
Linguistic Landscape ◽  
Transformational Grammar ◽  
George Lakoff

This chapter examines how Generative Semantics, which had emerged from Transformational Grammar as part natural extension of, and part challenge to, Noam Chomsky’s work, became a full-blown heretical divergence with Chomsky’s 1967 “Remarks on Nominalization” lectures, in which he took his theory in countervailing directions. Generative Semanticists had extended syntactic derivations deeper, diminished the lexicon, and enriched the scope of transformations. The lectures emphasized Surface Structure semantics, enriched the lexicon, and diminished the role of transformations. They were also dismissive of specific Generative Semantic innovations, especially those of George Lakoff. Lakoff attended the lectures. Sparks flew. Chomsky and his new proposals fared poorly across the linguistic landscape, where Generative Semantics rapidly took hold, but his own students, Ray Jackendoff at the fore, were inspired by the new direction (known variously as “Lexicalism,” “Extended Standard Theory,” and, contrapuntally to the heresy, “Interpretive Semantics”).

The Semantic Theory of James Harris

1976 ◽  
Vol 3 (3) ◽  
pp. 275-291 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joseph L. Subbiondo
Keyword(s):  
18Th Century ◽  
Deep Structure ◽  
Universal Grammar ◽  
Semantic Theory ◽  
Language And Thought ◽  
The Subject ◽  
The Mind ◽  
Relationship Of ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Century Science

Summary Although the semantic theory proposed by Harris in Hermes (1751) was not well received in 18th-century England and has been generally neglected by scholars ever since, it is certainly deserving of our attention because it is a perceptive analysis of the logico-semantic structure of language. In the tradition of philosophical or universal grammar, Harris argued that the subject matter of the linguist should be the conceptual level or the deep structure of language rather than the utterance or the surface structure. Therefore, Harris reasoned that an adequate explanation of meaning required a description of the relationship of language and thought. Furthermore, since he recognized that the study of language was necessary for the advancement of learning, which he considered to be the essence of science, he regarded the limits of 18th-century science too narrow in that they excluded semantics. Harris’ theory advanced that an analysis of the sentence, the basis of the synthesis of the mind and language, was crucial to a semantic theory. Since the number of utterances is infinite, Harris attempted to discover a finite and universal set of psychological principles which he believed generated sentences. Although he concluded that a notion of general and particular ideas would ultimately explain verbal communication, he hoped that identifying the source of these ideas would be the work of future scholars.

scholarly journals The Syntactic Roles of Touch in Shared Festivals in Kerala: Towards an Analysis of Ritual Categories

2019 ◽  
Vol 10 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ophira Gamliel
Keyword(s):  
Deep Structure ◽  
Universal Grammar ◽  
Building Blocks ◽  
Analytical Framework ◽  
Cognitive Approach ◽  
Structural Patterns ◽  
Ritual Communication ◽  
Linguistic Categories ◽  
Syntactic Properties

The following discussion of touch as a syntactic-semantic unit in ritual structures is based on an analogy of ritual and language postulating a 'deep structure' or a 'universal grammar' for rituals as presented by Frits Staal, Axel Michaels, and Naphtali Meshel. Following E. Thomas Lawson and Robert N. McCauley in their cognitive approach to ritual competence and in identifying actions as building blocks in ritual structures, I propose an analysis of ritual events as a category with distinctive semantic and syntactic properties and within the framework of ritual communication and ritual competence. I extend Martina Wiltschko’s universal spine hypothesis for linguistic categories to the language-ritual analogy in the domains of semantics and syntax. The viability of this analytical framework is demonstrated by categorizing touching events in rituals in shared festivals in Kerala. I conclude the discussion by hypothesizing universal categories for ritual events and entities, and universal structural patterns partially analogous (perhaps even homologous) to categories and patterns used in Wiltschko’s universal spine hypothesis.

Remarks on directionality

1972 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 103-109 ◽  
Author(s):  
Arnold M. Zwicky
Keyword(s):  
Surface Structure ◽  
Deep Structure ◽  
Semantic Structure ◽  
Transformational Grammar ◽  
Structure Surface ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
The Way

In several recent articles the issue of directionality in transformational grammar has been treated, rather unsatisfactorily to my mind. The question is this: are the relationships among the various levels of grammatical description (semantic structure, deep structure, surface structure, phonetic structure) such that certain levels are descriptively prior to others? That is, is there an inherent ‘direction’ to the relationship between two levels of description (say deep structure and surface structure)? Recent treatments suggest that the question is pointless, or that the answer is no. I maintain that this impression results entirely from the way previous discussions have been worded, and that the issues have yet to be approached properly.

Impersonal Passive "Se" in Spanish

1989 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-21 ◽  
Author(s):  
Héctor Campos
Keyword(s):  
Universal Grammar ◽  
Transformational Grammar ◽  
Syntactic Properties

Within the last twenty years and in the framework of transformational grammar at least seven kinds of se have been proposed: spurious se, reflexive se, reciprocal se, pronominal se, impersonal se, passive se and se moyen. Each of these se's shows its own syntactic and semantic characteristics. In this article, in the framework of the Theory of Government and Binding, an eighth type of se, the impersonal passive se, is proposed. Similar to the passive se, it is passive in interpretation; however, unlike passive se, and similar to the impersonal se, it has an impersonal subject. The different syntactic properties this new se exhibits are shown to follow from the principles of universal grammar.

High-resolution electron microscopy of Cu2O surfaces

1986 ◽  
Vol 44 ◽  
pp. 396-397
Author(s):  
V. Castano ◽  
W. Krakow
Keyword(s):  
High Resolution ◽  
Natural Extension ◽  
High Resolution Electron Microscopy ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Initial Oxidation ◽  
System A ◽  
Resolution Electron ◽  
Surface Reconstructions ◽  
Atomic Surface ◽  
Au Thin Films

In non-UHV microscope environments atomic surface structure has been observed for flat-on for various orientations of Au thin films and edge-on for columns of atoms in small particles. The problem of oxidation of surfaces has only recently been reported from the point of view of high resolution microscopy revealing surface reconstructions for the Ag2O system. A natural extension of these initial oxidation studies is to explore other materials areas which are technologically more significant such as that of Cu2O, which will now be described.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document