Folks, please forgive the foray into syntactic theory.

B. DeSpain asks,

>What does the 'generative' in the term GT-grammar mean?

He's correct in saying it's a mathematical term. 'Generate' is used in
syntactic theory to mean something like 'captures formulaically' or
'describes exactly'. For instance, we would say that a phrase structure
rule like the following 'generates' noun phrases for English (not that
this is the only possible PS rule for NP's):

NP —> (DET) (AdjP) N (PP)

It does so because it describes a large number of noun phrases in
general terms.

Originally in syntactic theory, the term 'generate' was not intended to
mean 'produces' or 'describes a procedure for producing', but it has
come to be understood as meaning that over time, especially given the
derivational nature of early syntactic theory. In derivational formats,
generative grammar seems to 'generate' sentences in the sense of
'create' or 'produce'.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Johanna Rubba   Assistant Professor, Linguistics
English Department, California Polytechnic State University
One Grand Avenue  • San Luis Obispo, CA 93407
Tel. (805)-756-2184  •  Fax: (805)-756-6374 • Dept. Phone.  756-259
• E-mail: [log in to unmask] •  Home page: http://www.cla.calpoly.edu/~jrubba
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