Chapter 8 法生成Generative Syntax.doc

Chapter 8 Generative Syntax Syntax: the study of how sentences are formed out of words of a language. Phonology Grammar (the overall description of human language) Syntax Semantics 8.1 TG Grammar vs. Traditional Grammar: A Comparison (1) Epistemological bases (认识论基础) (1) Traditional Grammar: based on Behaviorism/Structuralism: A child’s brain was born with a blank board, lacking in any genetic information about language. He acquires language through “stimuli-responses” in after-birth experience. (2) TG Grammar: 50s -60s’ American cognitive and linguistic circles witnessed a “Chomskyan Revolution”. Psychological and philosophical basis: Chomsky’s Mentalism (心智主义)/Nativism (自然主义): Psychological and philosophical concept developed by Chomsky (1965) and modeled after Descartes’s and von Humboldt’s rationalism. Mentalism attempts to describe the internal (innate) language mechanism that provides the basis for the creative aspect of language development and use. In this aspect, Chomsky turns against the empirical approach of American structuralism (Bloomfield) and, especially against Skinner’s behaviorism, since both positions accept only immediately observable linguistic data as their object of investigation (observational adequacy of E-language—Xu). Chomsky supports his mentalist concept in two ways: (1) by assuming a grammar with an underlying deep structure; (2) with regard to language acquisition and the development of linguistic competence, by presupposing an inborn (universal) mechanism (Language Acquisition Device—LAD) that provides a basis for language development (Cartesian linguistics). Philosophical basis: Rationalism (唯理论): 17th century branch of philosophy based on the philosophies of R. Descartes G. W. Leibniz, which admits reason as the sole source of human knowledge. N. Chomsky sees so-called “Cartesian linguistics” as continuing the tradition of rationa