Category 1
Who is Noam Chomsky?
An American linguist who proposed that there is more to a sentence than meets the eye (or the ear).
What is the surface structure?
The surface structure is represented by the words that are actually spoken or written.
What is a Language Acquisition Device (LAD)?
A device that gives us a natural propensity to organize the spoken language that we hear in various grammatical ways.
T/F: Chomsky's approach to syntax contributed to the decline of behaviorism.
True
Define the deep structure?
The deep structure is the underlying, more abstract meaning of a sentence.
T/F: According to Chomsky, we can't acquire language because we’re not genetically encoded with a universal grammar — a basic understanding of how communication is structured.
False
What convinced Chomsky that a universal grammar exists?
The fact that languages share certain basic traits, for example, languages break down into similar categories such as nouns, verbs, adjectives, etc.
What are ambiguous sentences?
When two sentences may have identical surface structures but very different deep structures.
Name an example of Chomsky's approach.
Every language has a way to ask a question or make something negative.
T/F: Chomsky argued that children learning to speak cannot possibly start as blank slates because they simply don't have enough information to perform many of the complex grammatical maneuvers he observed them making.
True
What is an example of an ambiguous sentence?
They are cooking apples.
Define transformational grammar.
A system of language analysis that recognizes the relationship among the various elements of a sentence and among the possible sentences of a language and uses processes or rules (some of which are called transformations) to express these relationships.
What does the following sentence mean?
Colorless green ideas sleep furiously.
Chomsky argued that this sentence is evidence that knowledge of grammar can exist independently of semantic knowledge. It also demonstrates that grammatical rules can be applied to the analysis of a sentence that has never been seen, and thus, which a person has had no chance to learn.
T/F: Chomsky's general approach is in going against rationalism and empiricism.
False
What are the four steps of Chomsky's research program?
1st: Idnetifying the transformational grammar of a particular lamguage.
2nd: Thee rules that could not have been learned are identified within the transformational grammar.
3rd: This allows the construction of the Language Acquisition Device, which is to say, the linguistic competence that is given in the human mind.
4th: The LAD can then be tested against other natural languages.