Aspects of the theory of syntax

Abstract

This monograph presents a theoretical reformulation of generative transformational grammar, concentrating on the structure and functioning of the syntactic component. Drawing a fundamental distinction between an idealized speaker-hearer’s underlying competence and actual linguistic performance, the author argues that grammatical theory must be mentalistic and grounded in a rationalist model of innate linguistic universals rather than empiricist, data-processing procedures. Under this framework, a generative grammar consists of an interpretive phonological component, an interpretive semantic component, and a central generative syntactic component. The syntactic component comprises a base that generates deep structures determining semantic interpretation, and a transformational subcomponent that maps these configurations into surface structures determining phonetic interpretation. To address limitations of earlier phrase-structure models, the work introduces syntactic features and complex symbols to formalize cross-classification, strict subcategorization, and selectional rules, while isolating idiosyncratic elements into a separate lexicon. Furthermore, generalized embedding transformations are eliminated in favor of recursive base rules that introduce sentence symbols directly into underlying phrase-markers, over which singulary transformations apply in a cyclical sequence to filter well-formed deep structures. Finally, the study surveys unresolved issues regarding the boundary between syntax and semantics, hierarchies of grammatical deviance, and the mechanisms governing inflectional and derivational morphology. – AI-generated abstract.