Routledge Dictionary of Language and Linguistics.pdf

A-Z 1215transformational cycleA principle for the use of transformational rules in transformational grammar. Rulesare first applied to the sentence at the lowest part of the tree diagram and then continuecyclically to the next highest level. ( also principle of cyclic rule application)transformational grammar1 A generic term for any generative grammar which uses transformations.2 In a narrower sense, the theory developed by N.Chomsky. The goal of this theory isto illustrate the implicit knowledge of language. based on current language use, by asystem of explicit rules. Differing from the taxonomic structuralism of Harris,Bloomfield, and others, which is based on the segmentation and classification of concretelanguage data, Chomsky’s model refers to the ability of competent speakers and to thelinguistic intuitions which a competent speaker can make explicit about his/her language.Historically, Chomsky belongs to the tradition of rationalism of Leibnitz and Descartes.By elaborating the concept of ‘innate ideas,’ Chomsky turns against the behavioristapproaches of the American structuralists and expands his theory to a theory oflanguage acquisition. The development of competence is explained by the innatelanguage acquisition device on the basis of grammar universals. Therefore theformulation of the theory takes precedence over the analysis of data, and transformationalgrammar proceeds deductively by laying down hypotheses about the linguistic generationmechanism, taking the creative aspects of linguistic ability into account. This is true ofChomsky’s first theory, which appeared in his 1957 book Syntactic structures: an infiniteset of kernel sentences, produced by context-free phrase structure rules, forms thebasis for the application of transformational rules, which ensure an infinite set ofsentences by finite means. In the second phase of transformational grammar, documentedin Chomsky’s Aspects of the theory of syntax in 1965, the original syntactic theory isexpanded to a general theory of grammar which includes phonology and semantics. Thefollowing revisions are characteristic of the so-called ‘aspects model’ (also known as thestandard theory, ST): the grammar, in the sense of a comprehensive linguistic theory,consists of a generative, syntactic component as well as interpretive, semantic, andphonological components. The basis of the syntax is the deep structure which is formedby context-free phrase structure rules and lexical rules. The context-free phrase structurerules guarantee recursiveness by self-embedded constructions; recursiveness wasachieved by generalizing transformations in the earlier model. The deep structurecontains all semantically relevant information at an abstract basic level of structure and isthe point of departure for the semantic interpretation of sentences. The works of Katz inthe area of interpretive semantics are relevant here. The corresponding surfacestructure is derived from meaning-neutral transformations such as deletion. The surfacestructure forms the basis for the phonological-phonetic representation. Criticism of this