This book provides a critical review of the development of generative grammar, both transformational and non-transformational, from the early 1960s to the present, and presents contemporary results in the context of an overall evaluation of recent research in the field.
Geoffrey Horrocks compares Chomsky's approach to the study of grammar, culminating in Government and Binding theory, with two other theories which are deliberate reactions to this framework: Generalised Phrase Structure Grammar and Lexical-Functional Grammar. Whilst proponents of all three models regard themselves as generative grammarians, and share many of the same objectives, the differences between them nevertheless account for much of the recent debate in this subject. By presenting these different theories in the context of the issues that unite and divide them, the book highlights the problems which arise in any attempt to establish an adequate theory of grammatical representation.
1. Aims and assumptions
1.1 Introduction
1.2 Competence and performance
1.3 The interpretation of grammars
1.4 The data of linguistic theory
1.5 Generative grammars and the level of adequacy
1.6 The scope of this book
1.7 Relevant reading
2. Chomsky's theory of grammar
2.1 The standard theory
2.2 Problems with the standard theory and the development of the extended standard theory
2.3 Government-Binding theory
2.4 Relevant reading
3. Generalised Phrase Structure Grammar
3.1 Introduction
3.2 Obstacles to phrase structure description
3.3 Features
3.4 Grammars and metagrammars
3.5 Unbounded dependencies
3.6 Semantic interpretation and control
3.7 Summary
3.8 Implications
3.9 Relevant reading
4. Lexical-Functional Grammar
4.1 Introduction
4.2 Transformations and lexical rules
4.3 Grammatical functions
4.4 Passive in LFG
4.5 Lexical rules and lexical forms
4.6 C-structures and F-strucures
4.7 Control
4.8 Unbounded dependencies
4.9 LFG and language processing
4.10 Relevant reading
5. The theories compared
Bibliography
Index
Biography
Geoffrey Horrocks
