Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in
Book cover

The Nature of Syntactic Representation pp 131–186Cite as

Phrase Structure Grammar

  • Chapter

Part of the book series: Synthese Language Library ((SLAP,volume 15))

Abstract

Transformational grammars for natural languages, as currently envisaged, deploy a large number of devices: complex symbols, base rules, rule schemata, lexical insertion rules, lexical redundancy rules, movement rules, coindexing procedures, binding conventions, local and nonlocal filters, case marking conventions, feature percolation, constraints on movement, and so on. The mathematical properties of the resulting baroque systems are almost entirely unknown: we are ignorant, for example, as to whether ungrammaticality with respect to such grammars is decidable, i.e. given an arbitrary string on the terminal vocabulary, no way is known of proving that that string is not generated by the grammar. In this situation, claims by grammarians to the effect that such and such a string of words cannot be generated by their grammar merely reflect their intuitions about the apparatus they are using. These intuitions cannot be verified at present and may indeed by unverifiable in principle (i.e. if the class of grammars permitted under universal grammar generate nonrecursive sets).

As far as the alleged “eturn to structuralism” is concerned: first of all, suppose that were true – fine ! It often happens that hypotheses in the natural sciences are abandoned at a certain period because they are inadequate, but are then reconstructed later when a higher level of comprehension has been attained.

Chomsky (1979: p. 197)

This paper owes a special debt to Geoff Pullum whose manifold contributions have gone well beyond the call of editorial duty. I am also very grateful to the following rather long list of people for their comments and criticism: Emmon Bach, Lee Baker, Mike Brame, Ken Butcher, Richard Coates, David Dowty, Steve Draper, Elisabet Engdahl, Janet Fodor, Paloma Garcia-Bellido, Steve Harlow, Frank Heny, Polly Jacobson, Theo Janssen, Aravind Joshi, Ewan Klein, Bill Ladusaw, John Lyons, Joan Maling, Peter Matthews, Andrew Mill, Barbara Partee, Stan Peters, Paul Postal, Andrew Radford, Ivan Sag, Aaron Sloman, Neil Smith, Arnim von Stechow, Anthony Warner, Tom Wasow, and Annie Zaenen. This research was supported by grant HR 5767 from the SSRC (UK).

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.

Chapter
USD   29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD   259.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD   329.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD   329.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Learn about institutional subscriptions

Preview

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

Bibliography

  • Aho, A. V. (1968) ‘Indexed grammars — an extension of context-free grammars,’ Journal of the Association for Computing Machinery 15, 647–671.

    Google Scholar 

  • Aho, A. V. and J. D. Ullman (1972) The Theory of Parsing, Translation, and Compiling, Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs.

    Google Scholar 

  • Amritavalli, R. (1979) ‘The representation of transitivity in the lexicon,’ Linguistic Analysis 5, 71–92.

    Google Scholar 

  • Anderson, S. R. and S. Chung (1977) ‘On grammatical relations and clause structure in verbinitial languages,’ In P. Cole and J. M. Sadock (eds.), Syntax and Semantics 8: Grammatical Relations, Academic Press, New York, 1–25.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bach, E. (1974) Syntactic Theory, Holt, Rinehart & Winston, New York.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bach, E. (1976) ‘An extension of classical transformational grammar,’ Mimeo, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, Massachusetts.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bach, E. (1980a) ‘In defense of Passive.’ Linguistics and Philosophy 3, 297–341.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bach, E. (1980b) ‘Tenses and aspects as functions on verb-phrases,’ In C. Rohrer (ed.) Time, Tense and Quantifiers, Max Niemeyer, Tübingen.

    Google Scholar 

  • Baker, C. L. (1978) Introduction to Generative-Transformational Syntax, Prentice Hall, Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bar-Hillel, Y., M. Perles, and E. Shamir (1961) ‘On formal properties of simple phrase structure grammars,’ Zeitschrift für Phonetik, Sprachwissenschaft und Kommunikationsforschung 14, 143–172.

    Google Scholar 

  • Reprinted in R. D. Luce et al. (eds.) (1965) Readings in Mathematical Psychology, Wiley, New York, 75–105.

    Google Scholar 

  • Book, R. V. (1973) ‘Topics in formal language theory,’ in A. V. Aho (ed.) Currents in the theory of computing. Prentice Hall, Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, 1–34.

    Google Scholar 

  • Brame, M. K. (1978a) Base Generated Syntax, Noit Amrofer, Seattle.

    Google Scholar 

  • Brame, M. K. (1978b) ‘The Base Hypothesis and the Spelling Prohibition,’ Linguistic Analysis 4, 1–30.

    Google Scholar 

  • Brame, M. K. (1979) ‘Chomsky/Lasnik filters are special cases of functional deviance,’ in Realistic Grammar, Noit Amrofer, Seattle, pp. 67–107.

    Google Scholar 

  • Brame, M. K. (1980) ‘Lexicon vs filters,’ in T. Hoekstra et al. (eds.), pp. 73–95.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bresnan, J. W. (1976a) ‘Evidence for a theory of unbounded transformations,’ Linguistic Analysis 2, 353–393.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bresnan, J. W. (1976b) ‘On the form and functioning of transformations,’ Linguistic Inquiry 7, 3–40.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bresnan, J. W. (1978) ‘A realistic transformational grammar,’ in M. Halle, J. Bresnan, and G. A. Miller (eds.), Linguistic Theory and Psychological Reality, MIT Press, Cambridge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bresnan, J. W. and J. Grimshaw (1978) ‘The syntax of free relatives in English,’ Linguistic Inquiry 9, 331–391.

    Google Scholar 

  • Carlson, G. and T. Roeper (1980) ‘Morphology and subcategorization: Case and the unmarked complex verb,’ in T. Hoekstra et al. (eds.), pp. 123–164.

    Google Scholar 

  • Chomsky, N. (1965) Aspects of the Theory of Syntax, MIT Press, Cambridge, Ma..

    Google Scholar 

  • Chomsky, N. (1966) Topics in the Theory of Generative Grammar, The Hague, Mouton.

    Google Scholar 

  • Chomsky, N. (1970) ‘Remarks on nominalization,’ in R. A. Jacobs and P. S. Rosenbaum (eds.) Readings in English Transformational Grammar, Ginn, Waltham.

    Google Scholar 

  • Chomsky, N. (1973) ‘Conditions on transformations,’ in Essays on Form and Interpretation, North Holland, New York, 81–160.

    Google Scholar 

  • Chomsky, N. (1975) ‘The Logical Structure of Linguistic Theory.’ Plenum, New York.

    Google Scholar 

  • Chomsky, N. (1977) ‘On Wh-movement,’ in Culicover et al. pp. 71–132.

    Google Scholar 

  • Chomsky, N. (1979) Language and Responsibility, Harvester Press, Hassocks.

    Google Scholar 

  • Chomsky, N. & H. Lasnik (1977) ‘Filters and control,’ Linguistic Inquiry 8, 425–504.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cleaveland, J. and R. Uzgalis (1975) Grammars for Programming Languages: What Every Programmer Should Know About Grammar, American Elsevier, New York.

    Google Scholar 

  • Comrie, B. (1979) ‘The languages of Micronesia,’ Linguistics 17, 1057–1071.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cooper, R. (forthcoming) Quantification and Syntactic Theory, D. Reidel, Dordrecht.

    Google Scholar 

  • Culicover, P. W., T. Wasow, and A. Akmajian (1977) Formal Syntax, Academic Press, New York.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dowty, D. (1978a) ‘Applying Montague’s views on linguistic metatheory to the structure of the lexicon,’ Papers from the Parasession on the Lexicon, Chicago Linguistic Society, Chicago, Illinois, pp. 97–137.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dowty, D. (1978b) ‘Governed transformations as lexical rules in a Montague Grammar,’ Linguistic Inquiry 9, 393–426.

    Google Scholar 

  • Earley, J. (1970) ‘An efficient context-free parsing algorithm,’ Communications of the ACM 13, 94–102.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Emonds, J. E. (1976) ‘A Transformational Approach to English Syntax: Root, Structure- Presserving, and Local Transformations, Academic Press, New York.

    Google Scholar 

  • Engdahl, E. (1980a) ‘Unbounded dependencies in Swedish,’ Paper presented to the Sloan workshop on alternatives to transformational gramars, Stanford.

    Google Scholar 

  • Engdahl, E. (1980b) ‘WH constructions in Swedish and the relevance of subjacency,’ to appear in Papers from the Tenth Regional Meeting of the North Eastern Linguistic Society.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fodor, J. D. (1978) ‘Parsing strategies and constraints on transformations,’ Linguistic Inquiry 9,427–473.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fodor, J. D. (1980) ‘Parsing, constraints and the freedom of expression.’ Mimeo, University of Connecticut.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fu, K-S., and T. L. Booth (1975) ‘Grammatical inference: Introduction and survey,’ IEEE Transactions on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics 5, 95–111

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fu, K-S., and T. L. Booth (1975) ‘Grammatical inference: Introduction and survey,’ IEEE Transactions on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics 5, 409–423.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gazdar, G. J. M. (1980a) ‘A cross-categorial semantics for coordination,’ Linguistics & Philosophy 3, 407–409.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gazdar, G. J. M. (1980b) ‘A phrase structure syntax for comparative clauses,’ in T. Hoekstra et al. (eds.), pp. 165–179.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gazdar, G. J. M. (1981) ‘Unbounded dependencies and coordinate structure,’ Linguistic Inquiry 12, 155–184.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gazdar, G. J. M., G. K. Pullum, and I. Sag (forthcoming) ‘Auxiliaries and related phenomena in a restrictive theory of grammar’, to appear in Language.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gold, E. M. (1967) ‘Language identification in the limit,’ Information and Control 10, 447–474.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Graham, S. L. (1976) ‘On-Une context-free language recognition in less than cubic time,’ Proceedings of the Eighth Annual ACM Symposium on the Theory of Computing, pp. 112–120.

    Google Scholar 

  • Grinder, J. T. and S. H. Elgin (1973) Guide to Transformational Grammar: History, Theory, Practice, Holt, Rinehart and Winston, New York.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hamburger, H. and K. Wexler (1973) ‘Identifiability of a class of transformational grammars,’ in J. Hintikka, J. M. E. Moravcsik and P. Suppes (eds.), Approaches to Natural Language, D. Reidel, Dordrecht.

    Google Scholar 

  • Harman, G. H. (1963) ‘Generative grammars without transformation rules: a defense of phrase structure,’ Language 39, 597–616.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Harris, Z. S. (1951) Methods in Structural Linguistics, University of Chicago Press, Chicago, Illinois.

    Google Scholar 

  • Harris, Z. S, (1962) String Analysis of Language Structure, Mouton, The Hague.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hellan, L. (1977) ‘X-syntax, categorial syntax and logical form,’ in T. Fretheim & L. Hellan (eds.) Papers from the Trondheim Syntax Symposium, Trondheim, pp. 83–135.

    Google Scholar 

  • Heny, F. (1979) Review of Chomsky (1975), Synthese 40, 317–352.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hoekstra, T. (1980) ‘The status of the indirect object,’ in W. Zonneveld and F. Weerman (eds.), Linguistics in the Netherlands 1977–1979, Foris, Dordrecht, pp. 152–169.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hoekstra, T., H. v. d. Hülst and M. Moortgat (1980) Lexical Grammar, Foris Publications, Dordrecht.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hopcroft, J. E. & J. D. Ullman (1979) Introduction to Automata Theory, Languages, and Computation, Addison-Wesley, Reading, Massachusetts.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hust, J. R. and M. K. Brame (1976) ‘Jackendoff on interpretive semantics,’ Linguistic Analysis 2, 243–277.

    Google Scholar 

  • Iwakura, K, (1980) ‘On WH-movement and constraints on rules,’ Linguistic Analysis 6, 53–95.

    Google Scholar 

  • Jackendof T R. (1977) X syntax: a Study of Phrase Structure, MIT Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts.

    Google Scholar 

  • Janssen, T. M. V. (1980) ‘On problems concerning the quantification rules in Montague grammar’, in C. Rohrer (ed.) Time, Tense, and Quantifiers, Max Niemeyer, Tübingen, pp. 113–134.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Janssen, T. M. V., G. Kok and L. Meertens (1977) ‘On restrictions on transformational grammars reducing the generative power,’ Linguistics and Philosophy 1, 111–118.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Joshi, A. K. and L. S. Levy (1977) ‘Constraints on structural descriptions: Local transfor¬mations,’ SI A M Journal of Computing 6, 272–284.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Joshi, A. K., L. S. Levy, and K. Yueh (1978) ‘Local constraints in the syntax and semantics of programming languages,’ In Proceedings of the 5th Annual Symposium on Principles of Programming Languages.

    Google Scholar 

  • Joshi, A. K., L. S. Levy, and K. Yueh (forthcoming) ‘Local constraints in the syntax and semantics of programming languages,’ to appear in Journal of Theoretical Computer Science.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kaplan, R. M. (1978) ‘Computational resources and linguistic theory,’ Paper presented to TINLAP 2.

    Google Scholar 

  • Keenan, E. L. (1979a) ‘On surface form and logical form,’ Studies in the Linguistic Sciences 8.2.

    Google Scholar 

  • Keenan, E. L. (1979b) ‘Passive: A case study in markedness,’ Paper presented at the GLOW Colloquium on Markedness, Scuola Normale Superiore, Pisa.

    Google Scholar 

  • Keenan, E. L. (1980) ‘Passive is phrasal (not sentential or lexical),’ in T. Hoekstra et al. (eds.), pp. 181–213.

    Google Scholar 

  • Keenan, E. L. and L. Faltz (1978) Logical types for natural language, UCLA Occasional Papers in Linguistics 3.

    Google Scholar 

  • Klein, E. H. (1978) On Sentences Which Report Beliefs, Desires and other Mental Attitudes, PhD dissertation, University of Cambridge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Koster, J. (1978) ‘Conditions, empty nodes, and markedness,’ Linguistic Inquiry 9, 551–593.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kratzer, A., E. Pause, and A. von Stechow (1973) Einführung in Theorie und Anwendung der generativen Syntax, Athenäum, Frankfurt.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ladusaw, W. (1980) Polarity Sensitivity as Inherent Scope Relations, Garland, New York.

    Google Scholar 

  • Langendoen, D. T. (1976) ‘On the weak generative capacity of infinite grammars,’ CUNYForum 1,13–24, City University of New York.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lapointe, S. G. (1977) ‘Recursiveness and deletion,’ Linguistic Analysis 3, 227–265.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lapointe, S. G. (1980) ‘A lexical analysis of the English auxiliary verb system,’ in T. Hoekstra et al. (eds.), 215–254.

    Google Scholar 

  • Levelt, W. J. M. (1979) ‘On learnability: a reply to Lasnik and Chomsky,’ Mimeo, Nijmegen.

    Google Scholar 

  • Levine, B. A. (1979) The automated inference of tree systems, PhD dissertation, Oregon State University.

    Google Scholar 

  • Levy, L. S. (forthcoming) ‘Automata on trees: a tutorial survey,’ To appear in Egyptian Computer Journal.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lewis, C. T. and C. Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lightfoot, D. (1979) ‘Rule classes and syntactic change,’ Linguistic Inquiry 10, 83–108.

    Google Scholar 

  • Maling, J. and A. Zaenen (1980) ‘Notes on base-generation and unbounded dependencies,’ Paper presented to the Sloan workshop on alternatives to transformational grammar, Stanford.

    Google Scholar 

  • Maling, J. and A. Zaenen (this volume) ‘A base-generated account of Scandinavian extraction phenomena.’

    Google Scholar 

  • Marslen-Wilson, W. D. (1973) Speech Shadowing and Speech Perception, unpublished PhD dissertation, MIT.

    Google Scholar 

  • McCawley, J. D. (1968) ‘Concerning the base component of a transformational grammar,’ Foundations of Language 4,243–269. Reprinted in Grammar and Meaning, Academic Press, New York, 35–58.

    Google Scholar 

  • McCloskey, J. (1979) Transformational syntax and model theoretic semantics, D. Reidel, Dordrecht.

    Google Scholar 

  • McCloskey, J. (1980) ‘Is there Raising in Modern Irish?’ Eriu 31, 59–99.

    Google Scholar 

  • Miller, G. A. & N. Chomsky (1963) ‘Finitary models of language users,’ in Handbook of Mathematical Psychology II, chapter 13, Wiley, New York.

    Google Scholar 

  • Montague, R. (1970) ‘Universal grammar,’ In Montague (1974).

    Google Scholar 

  • Montague, R. (1973) ‘The proper treatment of quantification in ordinary English,’ In Montague (1974).

    Google Scholar 

  • Montague, R. (1974) Formal philosophy (ed. by R. H. Thomason), Yale Lïniversity Press, New Haven.

    Google Scholar 

  • Monzon, M. C. (1979) A Constituent Structure Rule Grammar of the Spanish Clitic Positioning in Complex and Simple Sentences, MA dissertation, Austin.

    Google Scholar 

  • Oehrle, R. (1975) The Grammatical Status of the Dative Alternation, PhD dissertation, MIT.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pelletier, F. J. (1980) ‘The generative power of rule orderings in formal grammars,’ Linguistics 18, 17–72.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Perlmutter, D. M. and S. Soames (1979) Syntactic Argumentation and the Structure of English, University of California Press, Berkeley.

    Google Scholar 

  • Peters, P. S. (1979) ‘How semantics keeps syntax psychologically computable,’ paper presented to the Cognitive Studies Seminar, University of Sussex.

    Google Scholar 

  • Peters, P. S. and R. W. Ritchie (1969, 1973) ‘Context-sensitive immediate constituent analysis: context-free languages revisited.’ In (1969) ACM Symposium on Theory of Computing, ACM, New York, 1–8. And in (1973) Mathematical Systems Theory 6, 324–333.

    Google Scholar 

  • Peters, P. S. and R. W. Ritchie (1973) ‘On the generative power of transformational grammars,’ Information Sciences 6, 49–83.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Postal, P. M. and G. K. Pullum (1978) ‘Traces and the description of English complementizer contraction,’ Linguistic Inquiry 9, 1–29.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pullum, G. K. and G. J. M. Gazdar (1981) ‘Natural languages and context-free languages,’ Stanford Cognitive Science Group working paper.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pullum, G. K. and D. Wilson (1977) ‘Autonomous syntax and the analysis of auxiliaries,’ Language 53, 1–37.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Reinhart, T. (1980) ‘A second COMP position,’ to appear in the proceedings of the Pisa Colloquium on Markedness, Annali della Scuola Normale Superiore, Pisa.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rizzi, L. (1978) ‘Violations of the WH-island constraint in Italian and the subjacency condition,’ Montreal Working Papers in Linguistics 11, 155–190.

    Google Scholar 

  • Roeper, T. and M. E. A. Siegel (1978) ‘A lexical transformation for verbal compounds,’ Linguistic Inquiry 9, 199’260.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ross, J. R. (1967) Constraints on Variables in Syntax, PhD thesis, MIT. Published by Indiana University Linguistics Club, Bloomington, Indiana.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sag, I. (this volume) ‘A semantic theory of “NP-movement” dependencies.’

    Google Scholar 

  • Sampson, G. (1979) ‘What was transformational grammar?’ [Review article on Chomsky (1975)], Lingua 48, 355–378.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Selkirk, E. (1972) The Phrase Phonology of English and French, PhD dissertation, MIT, Published by Garland, New York, 1979.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sheil, B. (1976) ‘Observations on context free parsing,’ Statistical Methods in Linguistics 7, 71–109.

    Google Scholar 

  • Shir, N. E. (1977) On the Nature of Island Constraints, (PhD thesis, MIT.) Indiana University Linguistics Club, Bloomington, Indiana.

    Google Scholar 

  • Thatcher, J. W. (1973) ‘Tree automata: an informal survey,’ in A. V. Aho (ed.) Currents in the Theory of Computing, Prentice Hall, Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey.

    Google Scholar 

  • Thomason, R. H. (1976) ‘On the semantic interpretation of the Thomason 1972 fragment,’ Mimeo, Pittsburgh.

    Google Scholar 

  • Valiant, L. G. (1975) ‘General context-free recognition in less than cubic time,’ Journal of Computer and System Sciences 10, 308–315.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • van Wijngaarden, A. (1969) ‘Report on the algorithmic language ALGOL 68,’ Numerische Mathematik 14, 79–218.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Vergnaud, J-R. (1973) ‘Formal properties of lexical derivations,’ Quarterly Progress Report of the Research Laboratory in Electronics 108, 280–287, MIT.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wasow, T. (1975) ‘Anaphoric pronouns and bound variables,’ Language 51, 368–383.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wasow, T. (1977) ‘Transformations and the Lexicon,’ in Culicover et al., pp. 327–360.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wasow, T. (1978) ‘On constraining the class of transformational languages,’ Synthese 39, 81–104.

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Sussex, Brighton, USA

    Gerald Gazdar

Authors
  1. Gerald Gazdar
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Dept. of Linguistics, Brown University, Providence, USA

    Pauline Jacobson

  2. Cowell College, University of California, Santa Cruz, USA

    Geoffrey K. Pullum

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 1982 D. Reidel Publishing Company

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

Gazdar, G. (1982). Phrase Structure Grammar. In: Jacobson, P., Pullum, G.K. (eds) The Nature of Syntactic Representation. Synthese Language Library, vol 15. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-7707-5_5

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-7707-5_5

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht

  • Print ISBN: 978-90-277-1290-5

  • Online ISBN: 978-94-009-7707-5

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation