Modern tendencies in linguistics

NOAM CHOMSKYS UNIVERSAL GRAMMAR

WHAT IS UNIVERSAL GRAMMAR?

Universal grammar is the system of principles, conditions and rules that are elements or properties of all human languages. (Chomsky, 1976:29)

LANGUAGE ACQUISITION DEVICE

The early Universal Grammar Model

Input ----- LAD ----- Output (language data) (grammar of a language)

According to Chomsky, LAD is neurological system in the brain facilitates language development

the that

INNATENESS HYPOTHESIS
Chomsky claims that the process of language acquisition is genetically predetermined by innate language faculty.

The only thing child requires is the exposure to language so it could master it. Orphans from Africa Critical period Wild children

CHOMSKY

VS

SKINNER

Nativist: * grammar is innate * needs little data Behaviorist: * grammar is learnable * needs robust data Language could have gradually evolved by natural selection. Pinker, 1995

THE POVERTY OF STIMULUS ARGUMENT

How do we learn so much on the basis of so little evidence? Not enough information for the rich complex language that children acquire at such a young age

Children are never really taught a language yet they recognize the ungrammatical sentences

Children learn through: Positive evidence (the natural input that child receives) Negative evidence: - direct (explicit corrections) indirect (ungrammatical input) Pidgin and Creole languages

LANGUAGE UNIVERSALS
All human natural languages share the same basic materials for building their grammar All languages have: verbs, nouns, pronouns grammatical structures to make a question grammatical structures to distinct present, past and future

PARAMETERS SETTINGS
When child gets input he sets his parameters according to the situation (a) Mario parla italiano. (b) Parla italiano. (c) Mario speaks Italian. (d) Speaks Italian.*

Italian is a null-subejct language while English is not.

Parameters are binary in nature That explains why children learn so fast and error-free

In conclusion that children in the acquisition of grammar have the twin task of lexical learning and parameters settings.

TRANSFORMATION RULES
Transformation rules connect deep structure and surface structure Sentences may be presented in the brain at two levels: One can be heard or seen surface structure One cannot be heard or seen deep structure

Transformation rules will change or move constituents in the structures derive from the phrase structure rules. S NP Pron V VP NP

Det
You close the

N
door

D-structure
Transformationa l rules

S-structure

Logical form

Phonetic form

LF PF Relation between cognitive system and language

DEEP STRUCTURE
Deep structure refers to the underlying meaning of a sentence as it is represented in the brain. (Chomsky, 1957.) The boy kicked the ball. The ball was kicked by the boy. Ambiguous sentences: I have seen driving man. I have seen a man driving. I have seen a man who normally drives.

THE GOVERNMENT AND BINDING THEORY

In G/B theory UG is broken into two main components: level of representation and a system of constraints Lexicon D-structure S-structure

PF

LF

syntax phonetic form (PF) logical form (LF)

PF and LF constitute the interface between language and other cognitive systems (Chomsky, 1986.) Syntax functions as a bridge between sounds and meanings (Cook, 1988.)

THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION

M. Nenadovi

LITERATURE:
P. Matthews, A short history of structural linguistics, Cambridge 2003 N. Chomsky, Reflections on language, London 1976 A. Radford, Minimalist syntax, Cambridge 2006 N. omski, Gramatika i um, Beograd, 1972 V. Cook, The poverty of stimulus argument, Thessaloniki, 1990