|
Recommended literature.
1. Z.S. Harris. Method in structural linguistics. Chicago. 1960.
2. O. Jespersen. The philosophy of grammar. London-New-York. 1935.
3. Ch. Fries. The structure of English. Ld. 1957
4. L. Thomas. Beginning syntax. Oxford Ukand Cambridge USA. 1993
5. N. F. Irtenzeva, A.P. Shapkin, M. Y. Blokh.The structure of the English sentence.
M.1969
6. Л.С. Бархударов. Структура простого предложения современного английского языка. М. 1966
Lecture 14
Theme Transformations in Simple Sentences
Problems for discussion
1. The transformational grammar is new method
2. The propounders of the Transformational grammar
3. The fundamental problems of the Transformational grammar
4. The kernel sentence and their transforms
5. The kernel sentence as a syntactic construction
6. The transformational rules
7. The three steps of studying the transformations in simple sentence.
1. AT recent development Descriptive linguistics gave rise to a new method- the Transformational grammar. The TG was the firs suggested Zellig S. Harris as a method of analyzing the “raw material” (concrete utterances) and was later elaborated by Noam chomskiy as a synthetic method of “generating” (constructing) sentences. The TG refers to syntax only and presupposes the recognition (identification) of such linguistic units as phonemes, morphemes and form classes, the latter being stated according to the distributional and the IC-analysis or otherwise.
The transformational grammar, a new linguistic theory, appeared in the fifties of 20th century. The first propounders of the transformational grammar were Zeelig S. Harris 1 and Noam chomskiy. 2. These grammarians belonged to the Descriptive school of American linguistics. Therefore you may say that the transformational grammar was born inside the Descriptive linguistic trend (tendetsiya, ukion).
There are two fundamental problems of the transformation grammar: 1. the establishment of the domain of the kernel sentences (set of the kernel or basic structures). 2. The establishment of the set transformation rules for deriving all the other sentences as their transforms.
Therefore a fundamental distinction is made between two kinds of sentences: kernel sentence and transforms.
Some transformations are operated not upon one of the kernel sentences, but they may be operated upon some "underlying" sentence which is a transform of kernel
sentence.Consequently a third and a less important problem of the T-grammars is the establishment of the order in which the transformations occur.
The first problem has been dealt with in several works of contemprory linguistics. The kernel sentences are simple declarative unexpanded sentences.e.g: The day is lovely The garden has a fence The train approached the station
The transforms are syntactic constructions (sentences and phrases)derived from the kernel sentences retaining their grammatical relations,but having an additional grammatical meaning of their own.e.g. the sentence "was the sky overcast"? (небо покрытое облаками (мрачное) is а transform derived from the kernel sentence "the sky was overcast". The grammatical meaning of the kernel sentence is the relation "thing and its state". The meaning is carried over into the transform ,but the transform also contains the additional grammatical meaning of a question for confirmation of this relation.
According to the additional grammatical meaning the transforms may be interrogative, imperrative, exclamtory, offrmative, negative, passive, compound, complex and etc.
Syntactic constructions are built up of units grouped as the constituents of the constructions. In any syntactic construction.large or small, we find groups (phrases) which are its immediate constituents, that is 1С.
The kernel sentence as a syntactic construction is built up of two immediate constituents:noun phrase (np) and verb phrase (vp). e.g.
The day + is lovely. The train + approached the station . Np vp np vp
Z.S.Harris gives the following list of kernel sentances of the english language:
1. NvV(for the Vthat occurs without object) the team went there.
2. NvVN we shall take it
3. NvV pr N (for pr N that have resticted ñî occurance with particular V) The teacher
looked at him
4. Nis N he is an architect
5. N is A The girl is pretty(-priti-хорошенькая)
6. Nis prN The paper is of importance.
7. NisD The man is here.(in the garden).
In accord with the valence of the "V" in the structure the list of kernel or basic sentences may be enlarged. Some authors distinguish three more basic structures in connection with the completenessof the VP (verb phrase) in the sentence, and also with regard to the capability of the structure to undergo different transformations.
The following sentence - structures are added to the kernel:
NvVNN(for the Ó of the "give" subclass) The teacher gave him his pen
NvVND (for the V of the "put" subclass) He threw his coat on the sofa.
N have n is also added as "V-have" although followed by an N is not capable of the passive transform.
Consequently there may be different estimations of the kernel set, but it should be borne in mind that a smaller or greater number of the kernel sentences does not mar the general idea of the T-grammar representation of the structure of a language.The later development of the T- grammars gave rise to the concept of the deep sentence formed on the basis of the obligatory valence of tha "V" and its subclasses.
The set of kernel sentences reveals that they belong to two classes,those with a "V" and the other with "Be".
Some modern grammarians do not include "Be" intithe "V” class. They say that "Be" isunique -.most of the grammatical rules that apply to verbs do not apply to "Be" most of those which apply to "Be" do not apply to verbs
This advision is very important as it makes possible to give more exact transformational rules of Kemel sentences.
All the kernel sentences can be generated by means of the 1С rules ,i.e. by means of the rewriting rules.
Do'stlaringiz bilan baham: |
