An Introduction to Transformational Syntax

Roger Fowler

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2016
• ISBN:
  9781315461472
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Languages & Linguistics
• Subtopic: Linguistics
• Index: Languages & Linguistics

Transformational syntax is an analytic technique of grammatical description which has exciting psychological and philosophical ramifications inspiring creative research into the conceptual powers and behaviour of man. In this book, first published in 1971, the author suggests that the techniques of the classical period (1964-66) of transformational syntax provide the securest foundation for syntactic analysis, and are indispensable if students are to understand recent changes to the analytical technique. This title will be of interest to students of language and linguistics.

eight
Negatives, Passives, Questions and Similar Structures

In the interests of providing a simple example for the sample derivation, I chose in (165) a collection of features of Aux which entailed as little as possible complexity in surface structure and hence an uncomplicated sequence of realization rules. In this chapter I will describe some more complex arrangements for which various configurations of features from Aux are responsible, and in particular some distinctive constructions which have especially interested transformationalists from the earliest days of this modern approach to syntax.

But first, we look at one other characteristic of surface structure which (165) happened not to illustrate: agreement (sometimes called concord). This is a situation in which some syntactic information is given more than once in the surface realization of a sentence. The most familiar examples, for most readers, will probably be drawn from highly inflected languages like French and Latin where adjectives agree with nouns and verbs agree with nouns. A French noun belongs to one or other of two genders: masculine or feminine. (This distinction has almost nothing to do with the sex-distinction, and applies to inanimate as well as animate nouns.) The gender of a noun is reflected in the article which accompanies it (le or la, un or une) and in the ending of any adjective which relates to it:

• (166) un arbre vert
• (167) une maison verte

Similarly, the ending of the adjective reflects Number in the NP:

• (166) un arbre vert
• (168) les arbres verts

Latin enjoyed a similar system, as did Anglo-Saxon, but this inflexional redundancy has disappeared in modern English. Again, French and Latin verbs respond to the Number of the NP and, where the NP is a pronoun, to the Person of the pronoun:

• (169) dominus servos amat [-P1] [III Pers]
• (170) domini servos amant [+P1] [III Pers]
• (171) patriam amo [-P1] [I Pers]

The remnants of an agreement system are evident in the English verb. It affects all verbs when they are [-Past], and the auxiliary be in [+Past] too. [-Past] verbs have the affix -s when the Subject-NP contains [-P1], and Ø when the Subject is [+P1]; be employs quite distinct words for singular and plural:

• (172) Peter opens the window.
• (173) Doormen open doors.
• (174) This apple is sweet.
• (175) These apples are sour.

No variation is found as between [+P1] and [-P1] when the verb is [+Past], except where the auxiliary be is concerned:

• (176) Peter/the children enjoyed the film.
• (177) The apple was sweet.
• (178) The apples were sour.

Finally, there are more complicated patterns when the Subject is a pronoun; verbs are sensitive to the 'person' of pronouns:

But there are simpler patterns with most of the 'modal auxiliaries': will, may, shall, can ([+Past] would, might, should, could) are invariable in relation to number and person.

These facts are well known. What we have to consider is how to represent them in a transformational grammar. One thing is clear: that there is redundancy in surface structure – compare a dog barks, where dogØ signals [-P11] just as much as barks, and dogs bark, where barØ; only duplicates the information P1] given by dogs. Now number is basic to the NP (it is a feature of Det) and not intrinsic to V or Aux. Similarly, in French and Latin gender is inherent in N, and is reflected in Adj merely for convenience or by accident. (Inflecting Latin adjectives for gender and number is functional because it associates an adjective and the noun it modifie...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title
• Copyright
• Original Title
• Original Copyright
• Contents
• Preface
• one What is a Grammar?
• two Deep and Surface Structure
• three Constituent Structure: Syntactic Fractions
• four Constituent Structure: Categories and Derivations
• five Lexical Interpretation
• six Deixis: Det and Aux
• seven Derivation of a Simple Sentence
• eight Negatives, Passives, Questions and Similar Structures
• nine Pro-forms
• ten Complex Sentences
• eleven Some Nominalizations
• twelve Relative Clauses and Adjectives Revisited
• thirteen Conjoining Transformations
• fourteen Postscript: Linguistic Universals and the Nature of Grammatical Descriptions
• Selected Reading
• Index