Mental
Grammar
1.
Introduction
Psycholinguistic involves mental
grammar which is the grammar
exists in our mind.It concerns with the discussion of how we produce and understand sentences, what is
the process of sentence patterns.Chomsky·s
theory is presented as the highest priority.
Generative grammar
In
linguistics, a grammar (or set of rules) that indicates the structure and
interpretation of sentences which native speakers of a language accept as
belonging to the language.
We can say in other way that mental grammar is
the generative grammar stored in the brain that allows a speaker to produce
language that other speakers can understand. A kind of generative grammar
(Chomsky), the innate basis for learning, speaking and understanding any (verbal)
language
2.
The Summary
Chomsky’s Competence and Performance Distinction
-
Definition of
Competence
The knowledge that people have of the grammar of ther
language.
The activities involved in producing and understanding
sentences are
called as performance processes.
Major goals of
psycholinguistics according to Chomsky:
1. To specify how
people use competence sothat they are able to produce and understand the
sentences.
2. To specify how
people acquire competence (grammatical knowledge)
Performance processes is
the activities involved in producing and understanding sentences.A theory of
performance should explain:
-
Sentence
production, i.e. how speakers take ideas and make them into sentences which are
rendered into speech sounds.
-
Sentence comprehension, i.e.
how speakers, on receiving speech sounds, recover ideas from those sounds.
The relationship of competence to performance for
Chomsky is that the competence being a
part or component of the whole which is performance. Competence is the
knowledge that persons have of their grammar while performance involves
knowledge for using competence so that the process of sentence production and
understanding can be realized.
A.
The standard
theory
Theory
of grammar become known as the standard theory(ST) which is has been revised in
government/binding theory. The standard theory
grammar consists of syntax, semantic, and phonological.
Four
different level of linguistic description:
1. Sound
level (phonetic interpretation), the phonetic sound pattern of a sentence is
represented.
2. Meaning
level (semantic interpretation), the meaning and logical relations in a
sentence are represented.
3. Deep
structure, Deep structure represents the underlying syntactic form of the
sentence
4. Surface
structure, various syntactic aspects of a sentence are represented. Surface
structure represents its more overt form.
Syntactic
component consist of two types of syntactic rules:
-
Phrase structure rules(base
rules) provides deep structure
-
Transformational rules
provide surface structure.
The various components of the
grammar Standar Theory
a. Phrase
structure rules, lexicon, and deep structure.
Phrase structure(PS) rules provide the basic constituent
the structure of a sentence. Essentialy, they provide an analysis of a sentnece
into its underlying phrases which are further analysis into words and word
parts.
b. Transformational rules and surface structure
Surface
structure is the outcome of transformational rules operating on the deep
structure.
e.g :
open the door
On the surface, this sentence consists of a single VP.
Here;
VP
V + NP, then NP D + N, where V ‘open’, D
‘the’ and N‘door’
Open the door
c. Phonological
rules and phonetic interpretation.
Phonetic
interpretation of the sentence is a process of surface structure to interpret
structure into a sequence of some symbols
e.g :
Mares eat oats
When it spoken at a natural speed, this sentence is
pronounced [merziydowts].
By the Phonological rule , the /i/ gets a ‘y’· glide, the
/o/ gets a ‘w’· glide, the /t/ of eat change to /d/
d. Semantic
rules and semantic interpretation.
In this case the Semantic rule is the Surface Structure which comes to the rules of Semantic Component to interpret the structure into meaning elements and logical relations.
e.g : The shoe hurts·
* The shoe is in some predicate condition(the shoe may be
tight)
* Some living creature is in pain
B. The
Government/Binding (GB) theory of grammar
It was first
synthesized in 1981. The conception is the
underlying relationship
of syntax, meaning and sound remains
the same only syntax is generative
Linguistic challenges
to Chomsky·s grammar
-
Disagreement with the
organization of his grammar
where syntax is given a primary role over semantics. (This one that we will
be dealt
with)
-
Disagreement with the adequacy of his structural
characterization of such basis syntactic relations and constituents,particularly Subject, Direct Object,
IndirectObject and Verb Phrase
Meaning-based
grammars
Chomsky begins his description of grammar with the specification
of syntax, a syntax which functions
independently with the meaning and sound forms of the sentence being the
output of
that syntax.
This was strongly attacked by a Generative Semanticists
in 1970. They regarded meaning or semantics as the basis for grammatical theorizing.
Logical semantic served as the conceptual starting point for grammar.
3.
Conclusion
Mental grammar is
the generative grammar stored in the brain that allows a speaker to produce language
that other speakers can understand.
There are two
conceptions thatChomsky·s notion for grammar:
- The Standard Theory
- The Government/Binding (GB)
