Syntactic StructuresNoam Chomsky's first book on syntactic structures is one of the first serious attempts on the part of a linguist to construct within the tradition of scientific theory-construction a comprehensive theory of language which may be understood in the same sense that a chemical, biological theory is understood by experts in those fields. It is not a mere reorganization of the data into a new kind of library catalogue, nor another specualtive philosophy about the nature of man and language, but rather a rigorus explication of our intuitions about our language in terms of an overt axiom system, the theorems derivable from it, explicit results which may be compared with new data and other intuitions, all based plainly on an overt theory of the internal structure of languages; and it may well provide an opportunity for the application of explicity measures of simplicity to decide preference of one form over another form of grammar. |
Contents
1 Introduction | 11 |
2 The Independence of Grammar | 13 |
3 An elementary Linguistic Theory | 18 |
4 Phrase Structure | 26 |
5 Limitations of Phrase Structure Description | 34 |
6 On the Goals of Linguistic Theory | 49 |
7 Some Transformations in English | 61 |
8 The explanatory Power of Linguistic Theory | 85 |
9 Syntax and Semantics | 92 |
10 Summary | 106 |
11 Appendix I Notations and Terminology | 109 |
12 Appendix II Examples of English Phrase Structure and transformational Rules | 111 |
Backmatter | 115 |
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Common terms and phrases
adequacy ambiguity analyzed apply arrive auxiliary verb boy studying Chomsky cognitive complex consider constituent analysis constituent structure constructional homonymity corpus corresponding defined derived determine devices diagram discovery procedure discussion elements English example fact finite state language form of grammar fundamental given gram grammatical sentences grammaticalness Hence intonation intuition investigation John kernel sentences level of phrase linguistic level linguistic structure linguistic theory logical structure LSLT Markov process meaning models morphemes morphological morphophonemic rules notion noun phrase NP sing obligatory transformations pair test particular passive transformation phonemic distinctness phrase structure grammar phrase structure rules problem procedure for grammars produce question relation Roman Jakobson S₁ S₂ semantic sequence set of grammatical simple simplest Structural analysis Structural change structural linguistics structure of linguistic Syntactic Structures syntax terminal string the+man+ theory of linguistic trans transformational analysis transformational grammar underlying verb phrase W. V. Quine words X₁ X₂