Comments on Montague’s Paper

Abstract

I would like to try to relate Montague’s theory of grammar (henceforth, M grammar) to transformational grammar (T grammar). It seems to me that the T grammar approach has led to the discovery of many highly specific and interesting principles of syntactic organization in natural language. The attempt to incorporate semantics into T grammar has not been without difficulties, however, and has been in part responsible for a number of proposals for far-reaching changes in the theory. Since one of the prime features of M grammar is the elegant manner in which syntax and semantics are related, M grammar is potentially of great interest to linguists.