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FR4202: Structure and varieties of contemporary French |
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The generative/transformational or Chomskyan school of grammar is not just one among many. It has revolutionized the scientific study of language. [Linke, Nussbaumer, Portman Studienbuch Linguistik]. Chomsky is a linguist, not a traditional grammarian. As such he approaches language with the intention above all of developing a theory from his observations. In addition that theory is intended to have the widest possible power of explanation of linguistic phenomena. "The ultimate outcome of these investigations should be a theory of linguistic structure in which the descriptive devices utilized in particular languages are presented and studied abstractly, with no particular reference to particular languages." [Syntactic Structures, 1957]
Chomsky's point of departure is his observation that fluent speakers of a language possess the ability:
& to produce sentences that they have never heard before [as they speak children will produce utterances that they have never heard nor produced before themselves] and
& to understand sentences that they have never heard before.
Chomsky calls this ability to utter sentences not heard before nor said before the competence of the native/fluent speaker. The actual production of sentences by a person he calls her/his performance. The distinction between competence and performance is an important one in the Chomskyan system. Competence is lodged in the human psyche and it exists prior to and idependently of performance.
He also observes that native/fluent speakers can purely by intuition decide that certain sentences are well-formed/ grammatical and that others are ill-formed/ ungrammatical. This reality of the intuitive judgement of the native/ fluent speaker lies at the very heart of the Chomskyan analysis of the sentence.
He wishes to produce a grammar [here understand the word grammar as a set of rules] that will account for the above mentioned ability and the above mentioned intuition. This ability and this intuition will be applicable to English/French sentences already uttered and to any English/French sentence that may come to be uttered at some future date.
In other words, the ability and intuition will be applicable to an indefinitely large [an infinite] number of sentences. The accounting for this ability and this intuition he sometimes calls generation, hence the term generative grammar.
The goal of Chomskyan grammar is the accounting for/ generation of all and only the well-formed/grammatical sentences of English/ French [not of sequences of words that are not sentences]. John Lyons comments that the one of the most important and original parts of Chomsky's work is the mathematical rigour and precision with which he formulated the rules of this grammar as it is constructed to achieve the above mentioned goals.
Note again that the rules of Chomskyan grammar are intended to explain the ability and the intuition of the native speaker of the language as described above.
Chomskyan grammar requires the assigning of the words of a language to classes/categories [grosso modo the parts of speech see Writing French page 12].
q The two sentences below, A and A1, contain exactly the same number of words. A native/fluent speaker will judge one intuitively of them to be grammatical/well-formed and the other one to be ungrammatical/ill-formed*. Here the identification of words as different parts of speech [into classes/categories] was a factor in the judgement of the second sentence as ungrammatical/ ill-formed.
A L'enfant aime le chocolat.
A1 * L'enfant amour le chocolat.
q The two sentences below, B and B1, contain exactly the same words belonging to the same classes/parts of speech. A native/fluent speaker will judge intuitively one of them to be grammatical/well-formed and the other one to be ungrammatical/ill-formed*. Here the order of words was a factor in the judgement of the second sentence as ungrammatical/ ill-formed.
B Le garçon aux yeux verts fume trop.
B1 * Trop yeux aux verts le garçon fume.
All the above mentioned intuitive knowledge belongs to the linguistic competence of the native/fluent speaker.
& The intuitive knowledge of the native/fluent speaker also enables the speaker to know that words in sentences can be grouped together, and that they can be grouped together in more than one way.
q In the first sentence below the native/fluent speaker will group aux oignons with sa soupe and in the second sentence the speaker will group à la cuillère with mange. She/he does this although each of the strings of words occurred at the same place in the sentence to the right of the word soupe.
La dame au chapeau rouge boit sa soupe aux oignons.
La dame au chapeau rouge boit sa soupe à la cuillère
+ The sentence below is ambiguous [it has two possible meanings].
Le magistrat juge les enfants coupables.
The interpretation of it in one way or the other way is a factor of the grouping of the word coupables with either juge or enfants.
+ For Chomsky these groupings that the native/fluent speaker establishes intuitively in interpreting the meaning of sentences are part of the structure of the sentence. Thus in generative/transformational grammar there will be three [among other] important aspects of sentence structure:
& the linear order of words from left to right
& the categorization of words into parts of speech
& the groupings of words
In demonstrating how words are grouped, Chomskyan grammar formalizes the processes of intuition and demonstrates how a sentence comes to be meaningful.
I am giving below an example of an application of rules in phrase structure grammar to generate [remember what is meant by the word generate in Chomskyan grammar] the sentence
Les hommes dans la salle placent l'étagère contre le mur.
The arrow =>is an instruction to replace the element that occurs to its left with the string of elements that occur to its right. In generative grammar the word rewrite is commonly used for the word replace. Our table below can be read as instructions to carry out nineteen rewritings in a certain order.
i S => NP + VP
ii NP => Art + N + PP
iii VP => V + NP + PP
iv Art => les
v N => hommes
vi PP => P + NP
vii P => dans
viii NP => Art + N
ix Art => la
x N => salle
xi V => placent
xii NP => Art + N
xii Art => l'
xiv N =>étagère
xv PP => P + NP
xvi P => contre
xvii NP => Art + N
xviii Art => le
xix N => mur
The table below shows how the sentence was generated by the above application of rewriting rules of generative grammar. The number to the right of the line refers to the rule used in constructing that line from the preceding line as done in the above table.
S
NP + VP i
Art + N + PP + VP ii
Les + N + PP + VP iv
Les + N + P + NP + VP vi
Les + hommes + dans + NP + VP vii
Les + hommes + dans + Art + N + VP viii
Les + hommes + dans + la + N + VP ix
Les + hommes + dans + la + N + V + NP + PP iii
Les + hommes + dans + la + salle + V + NP + PP x
Les + hommes + dans + la + salle + V + Art + N + PP xii
Les + hommes + dans + la + salle + placent + Art + N + PP xi
Les + hommes + dans + la + salle + placent + Art + N + P + NP xv
Les + hommes + dans + la + salle + placent + l' + N + P + NP xiii
Les + hommes + dans + la + salle + placent + l' + N + P + Art + N xvii
Les + hommes + dans + la + salle + placent + l' + étagère + P + Art + N xiv
Les + hommes + dans + la + salle + placent + l' + étagère + contre + Art + N xvi
Les + hommes + dans + la + salle + placent + l' + étagère + contre + le + N xviii
Les + hommes + dans + la + salle + placent + l' + étagère + contre + le + mur. xix
Here is a recall of some of the fundamentals of Chomskyan linguistics:
7 Linguistic knowledge as represented in the speaker’s mind is called a grammar.
8 Part of our linguistic knowledge tells us what constitutes a well-formed string of words, how to put words together to form phrases and sentences.
90 To account for the fact that only certain combinations of words produce acceptable sentences, linguists posit the existence of rules of syntax in the unconscious mental grammar, which specify how words may be combined with each other to produce grammatical, well-formed sentences.
The rules of syntax, together with all the other rules of one’s language, constitute the grammar of the language.
The rules of the grammar are ... part of the speaker’s unconscious knowledge of their language.
94 Chomskyan linguistics seeks to construct a theory
§ about how knowledge of sentence structure is represented in the mind
§ about the unconscious system of syntactic knowledge that underlies our use of simple sentences in naturalistic speech
98 A speaker’s mental lexicon contains information about every word, including information about its lexical category [part of speech/class or words]
There are specific positions within the structure of phrases and sentences reserved for words belonging to specific lexical categories [parts of speech/classes or words]
97 Each lexical category [part of speech/class or words] is only allowed to occur in certain positions in the sentence; the words cannot be randomly placed in any position without regard to their lexical category
99 even uneducated speakers know the syntactic categories of the words that they use [how they may be deployed in the sentence]... they have an unconscious knowledge of the syntactic categories of the words they use
113 French is a language with a relatively fixed constituent order [order of words] S-V-O... it is a configurational language
There are particular syntactic positions in the French sentence,
§ the subject position [the position occupied by the name preceding the verb] ...
§ the object position [the position occupied by the name following the verb]
138 sentences are not just composed of sequences of words; rather they are composed of phrases.
The structure of a sentence as analysed in Chomskyan generative grammar can be represented in the form of a tree diagram (sometimes called phrase marker). A tree diagram can be read as a set of rules [Lyons 59] that a sentence must conform to [akmajian] These rules govern the generation of a certain number of grammatical well-formed French sentences.
For instance the structure of the sentence
Les hommes dans la salle placent l'étagère contre le mur.
can be represented by the following tree diagram
S
NP VP
Art N PP V NP PP
P NP Art N P NP
Art N Art N
Here I am filling in for you the strings [groups] of words that are found at each level of the above tree diagram. What I have bracketed at each level are constituents/constituants. Note that lower constituents are each time part of a constituent at the next higher level, this being indicated by the convergence of the lines. The two constituents at the highest level [here NP Les hommes dans la salle and VP placent l'étagère contre le mur] are known as the immediate constituents of the sentence. In other words the two nodes [places where lines meet] that are immediately dominated by S, that is to say NP and VP, are known as constituants immédiats de la phrase/ immediate constituents of the sentence.
S
Les hommes dans la salle placent l'étagère contre le mur
NP VP
[Les hommes dans la salle] [placent l'étagère contre le mur]
Art N PP V NP PP
[Les] [hommes] [dans la salle] [placent] [l'étagère] [contre le mur]
P NP Art N P NP
[dans] [la salle] [l] [étagère] [contre] [le mur]
Art N Art N
[la] [salle] [le] [mur]
What information can be read from the tree diagram?
§ that the sequence of classes of words/classes of words/ parts of speech
Art N P Art N V Art N P Art N
arranged in that order generates a number of French sentences [I read this from the parts of speech at points from which no branch descended]
§ that these sentences will break down into the constituents shown
This information read from the tree diagram can be read as a set of rules that govern the generation of the sentence Les hommes dans la salle placent l'étagère contre le mur. and of a certain number of other French sentences. Such sentences would include:
Les femmes dans la salle placent l'étagère contre le mur.
Les femmes dans la rue placent l'étagère contre le mur.
Les femmes dans la rue bloquent l'étagère contre le mur.
Les femmes dans la rue bloquent la table contre le mur.
Les femmes dans la rue bloquent la table contre l'étagère.
Sets of rules like the above make up phrase structure grammar.
q A number of tests are available to verify that a string of words that has been identified as a constituent of a sentence is in fact a constituent.
¶ One test is that of substitution [it shows that substitutable elements are constituents]
In the French sentence:
Ce matin, le directeur de l’usine reçoit les délégués syndicaux.
the following substitutions could be made without what lies between the left side capital letter and the full stop to the right ceasing to be a sentence.
Demain, le directeur de l’usine reçoit les délégués syndicaux. [proves that Ce matin is a constituent]
Demain, le directeur de l’entreprise reçoit les délégués syndicaux. [proves that de l’usine is a constituent]
Demain le gérant de l’usine reçoit les délégués syndicaux. [proves that le directeur is a constituent]
Demain, il reçoit les délégués syndicaux. [proves that le directeur is a constituent]
Demain, il reçoit les employés. [proves that les délégués syndicaux is a constituent]
Demain, il les reçoit. [proves that les délégués syndicaux is a constituent]
Demain, il démissionera. [proves that reçoit is a constituent]
¶ Another test is extraction [topicalization]. [shows that extracted/ topicalized elements are constituents]
Ce matin, le directeur de l’usine reçoit les délégués syndicaux.
C’est ce matin que le directeur de l’usine reçoit les délégués syndicaux. . [proves that Ce matin is a constituent]
C’est le directeur de l’usine qui reçoit les délégués syndicaux ce matin. [proves that le directeur is a constituent]
Ce sont les délégués syndicaux que le directeur de l’usine reçoit ce matin. [proves that les délégués syndicaux is a constituent]
¶ Another test is position change [shows that the element moveable to another position is a constituent]
Ce matin, le directeur de l’usine reçoit les délégués syndicaux.
Le directeur de l’usine reçoit les délégués syndicaux ce matin,
Le directeur de l’usine reçoit ce matin les délégués syndicaux
Le directeur de l’usine, ce matin, reçoit les délégués syndicaux
The above sets of rules could be extended and thus made capable of generating [account for/describe the structures of] more and more sentences of English/French. In the case of some sentences of English/ French however, phrase structure grammar is judged by Chomsky to be an excessively clumsy intrument of generation/ description. He judges that a grammar that he calls transformational grammar applied to the same purpose of the generation/ description of English/French sentences reflects better the intuitions of the native speaker and is semantically more revealing than phrase structure grammar.
One of the phenomena that transformational grammar would account for more efficiently than phrase structure grammar would be the fact that a native/fluent speaker has the intuition that the following pairs of sentences are related in some fairly strong way.
Mon frère a vendu mon vélo.
Mon vélo a été vendu par mon frère.
Il va à Paris.
Où va-t-il?
Paul voit Marie.
Paul la voit.
In transformational grammar, some sentences are seen as transformations of others. The last mentioned sentences represent a deep structure that is transformed into the surface structure of the other sentences. For instance transformational grammar the sentence
La voiture a été achetée par Pierre
shows a surface structure that is the result of the transformation of the deep structure
Pierre achète la voiture.
The phrase structure grammar/rules could then be seen as generating sentences while transformational grammar/ rules would explain the transformation of deep structure into surface structure. The transformational rules depend on the previous application of phrase structure rules.
Why should we seek to understand one or two ideas put forward by Noam Chomsky? "Chomsky is widely considered to be the most influential figure in linguistics in the later twentieth century and is probably the best-known linguist outside the field. His views on language and grammar are controversial and responses to them have ranged from extreme enthusiasm to fierce rejection." [1992. The Oxford Companion to the English Language]. "Both inside and outside the discipline, Chomsky's work has fundamentally affected views of what linguistics is or should be, and reopened issues many linguists had long thought were settled." [Beaugrande, R. 1991. Linguistic Theory: the Discourse of Fundamental Works] "Syntactic Structures proved to be a turning point in 20th-century linguistics...It was argued that linguistics should not simply limit itself to the description of competence...In the long term, there was a still more powerful target: to provide a grammar capable of evaluating the adequacy of different accounts of competence, and of going beyond the study of individual languages to the nature of human language as a whole (by discovering linguistic universals)". [1987. The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Language.] "Transformational-genrative grammar... has become one of the most influential syntactic theories of the twentieth century. Although by no means all practising linguists adhere to its principles and results, none can ignore. Since its inception there have been huge developments in the theory and reactions to it have often been violent." Malmkjaer, K. 1991. The Linguistics Encyclopedia, Routlegde: London.
You will note by the way that the Chomskyan analysis of the sentence permits a more rigorous definition of some of the syntactic realities that French traditional grammar [as seen above] identifies in a non-consistent way as fonctions grammaticales. In a Chomskyan tree digram the subject is the NP directly dominated by S, the object the NP directly dominated by VP, the complément circonstanciel the PP directly dominated by the VP.
Remember that for Chomsky, everything is based on his observation of an individual's innate linguistic competence and on the intuitions that it makes possible.
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