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 > > To join or leave this LISTSERV list, please visit the list's web interface at: > http://listserv.muohio.edu/archives/ateg.html > and select "Join or leave the list" > > Visit ATEG's web site at http://ateg.org/ > To join or leave this LISTSERV list, please visit the list's web interface at: http://listserv.muohio.edu/archives/ateg.html and select "Join or leave the list" Visit ATEG's web site at http://ateg.org/ To join or leave this LISTSERV list, please visit the list's web interface at: http://listserv.muohio.edu/archives/ateg.html and select "Join or leave the list" Visit ATEG's web site at http://ateg.org/