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Questions tagged [generative-grammar]

A theory usually associated with Noam Chomsky that accounts for a language's grammar by a system of rules that are able to generate all the possible grammatical expressions in that language. In its original sense, "generative" does not necessarily mean "production-focussed", although it has often been understood as such. Generativists study mostly syntax, but also other aspects of linguistic structure such as morphology, phonology and semantics.

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What are some alternatives to Chomskian generative grammar?

What are the other common approaches to study syntax? Note: the source is an example question from the on-topic question list in Area51.
Louis Rhys's user avatar
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9 votes
1 answer
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Could anyone give examples of context-sensitive sentences that cannot be generated by context-free rules?

Could anyone give examples of context-sensitive sentences that cannot be generated by context-free rules? To clarify, they are generated by rules including at least one that is in the form αβγ→αψγ, α,...
XL _At_Here_There's user avatar
3 votes
1 answer
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What is the current status of (systemic) functional grammar/linguistics

I'm sorry if my questions may sound rudimentary, so please bear with me. :-) I'm thinking of delving deeper into functional grammar/linguistics (most probably systemic in particular), perhaps with ...
nnad's user avatar
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14 votes
5 answers
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What does "generative" mean? Can a linguistic theory be non-generative?

If we ignore the political distinction "theories of those who generally agree with Chomsky" vs "theories of those who generally disagree with him" (which is better described by "Chomskian" vs "non-...
michau's user avatar
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6 votes
1 answer
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Is there a linguistic term for “grammatically well-formed word salad”?

The accepted answer to this question quoted Chomsky's (1955) famous “sentence” Colorless green ideas sleep furiously and an earlier example from Tesnière (1940s), which translates to English as The ...
John Bentin's user avatar
6 votes
1 answer
216 views

To what extent was Chomsky influenced by Tesnière?

Kind of a question about the meta-history of linguistics as a discipline. Chomsky released 'Syntactic Structures' in the US in 1957; Tesnière released Éléments de syntaxe structurale posthumously ...
Khove's user avatar
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5 votes
1 answer
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What is the best introduction to Chomskyan linguistics?

Although my main interest is historical lingustics, I would also like to get a hint of the modern studies of syntax and generative grammar, and as far as I know, Chomsky is currently the most ...
czypsu's user avatar
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2 votes
1 answer
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Do all frameworks of syntax view the string following an inverted auxiliary verb in English as the complement of the auxiliary?

This is a follow-up question of an earlier question titled: In X bar theory, is the first auxiliary the head of an interrogative clause and the remainder the complement? In that question, I had this ...
JK2's user avatar
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1 vote
1 answer
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Why is merge useful?

I don't quite understand why having an operation that takes two elements and combines them into a set is particularly useful in describing language. Perhaps it helps in describing how it could be that ...
RECURSIVE FARTS's user avatar
-4 votes
1 answer
122 views

What are the contemporary schools of linguistics? [closed]

What are the contemporary schools of linguistics? Which of them are more influential and which are more promising? Which schools do the following books on English grammars belong to: Huddleston & ...
Tim's user avatar
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