Chomsky's statement does seem more direct, but the mechanisms by
which a GG assigns SDs are highly formal and are built on a
mathematical basis that Chomsky began developing in the late 40s
and early 50s with a series of papers and larger pieces on
context-free phrase structure grammars, Markov processes,
finite-state machines, etc., where he demonstrated that language
required the mathematical power of a CFPSG together with
context-sensitive transformational functions that map one
structure onto another.  GG is determinedly mathematical.

Herb Stahlke

<<< [log in to unmask]  2/28  9:12p >>>
I don't have a copy of _Syntactic Structures_, and it's been a lot
of years
since I read it, but Dennis's memory sounds familiar. In his
_Aspects of the
Theory of Syntax_ (which I do have), Chomsky gives his meaning of
"generative grammar" as follows: "A system of rules that in some
explicit
and well-defined way assigns structural descriptions to sentences"
(8). This
seems far more direct to me than the mathematical definition.

Paul E. Doniger
The Gilbert School

----- Original Message -----
From: Dennis s. Lebofsky <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Wednesday, February 28, 2001 7:08 AM
Subject: Re: generative grammar


> My understanding is that the term <generative> derives from the
aim of the
> grammar to "generate" (i.e., produce) all the possible
grammatical
> sentences of English.  I don't have my copy of <Syntactic
Structures>
> handy but would bet that Chomsky makes some such statement early
in the
> work.
> Dennis Lebofsky, Temple University
>
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