linguistically significant generalization

A term used especially in GENERATIVE GRAMMAR to refer to the kind of analytic statement which it is hoped the grammatical analysis will provide. The aim of the grammar is not just to generate all and only the grammatical SENTENCES of a language, but to do this in such a way that those relationships felt to be significant by NATIVE-SPEAKERS are expressed in an economical and GENERAL way. For example, a grammar which generated ACTIVE sentences separately from PASSIVE ONES, or QUESTIONS from STATEMENTS, and which failed to show these are interrelated, would be missing linguistically significant generalizations. This was one of the reasons for the introduction of TRANSFORMATIONS into linguistic analysis. The extent to which a grammar expresses the linguistically significant generalizations about a language would be one measure of the grammar’s ADEQUACY.