generative (adj.)

A term derived from mathematics, and introduced by Noam Chomsky in his book Syntactic Structures (1957) to refer to the capacity of a GRAMMAR to define (i.e. specify the membership of) the set of grammatical SENTENCES in a LANGUAGE. Technically, a generative grammar is a set of FORMAL RULES which PROJECTS a finite set of sentences upon the potentially infinite set of sentences that constitute the language as a whole, and it does this in an EXPLICIT manner, ASSIGNING to each a set of STRUCTURAL DESCRIPTIONS. Related terms are generate and generation, referring to the process involved, and generativist, referring to the practitioner. Several possible MODELS of generative grammar have been formally investigated, following Chomsky’s initial discussion of three types – FINITE-STATE, PHRASE-STRUCTURE and TRANSFORMATIONAL grammars. The term has also come to be applied to theories of several different kinds, apart from those developed by Chomsky, such as ARC-PAIR GRAMMAR, LEXICAL FUNCTIONAL GRAMMAR and GENERALIZED PHRASE-STRUCTURE GRAMMAR. There are two main branches of generative linguistics: generative phonology and generative syntax. The term ‘generative semantics’ is also used, but in a different sense.

The generative semantics school of thought within generative LINGUISTIC theory was propounded by several American linguists (primarily George Lakoff (b. 1941), James McCawley (1938–99), Paul Postal (b. 1936) and John Ross (b. 1938)) in the early 1970s; it views the SEMANTIC COMPONENT of a grammar as being the generative base from which SYNTACTIC structure can be derived. One proceeds in an analysis by first providing a semantic REPRESENTATION of a SENTENCE, and this single LEVEL is all that is needed to specify the conditions which produce WELL-FORMED SURFACE STRUCTURES. The subsequent syntactic RULES are solely INTERPRETIVE, and there is no intermediate level. This puts the approach plainly in contrast with the claims of Noam Chomsky and others (in the STANDARD THEORY) who argued the need for a level of syntactic DEEP STRUCTURE as well as a semantic level of analysis. ‘Generative’ in this phrase has, accordingly, a narrower sense than in ‘generative grammar’ as a whole, as it is specifically opposed to those MODELS which operate with a different, interpretive view of semantics. The proponents of this approach are known as generative semanticists.