A Brief History of Grammar

[psygnisfive]

I've gotten bored and I'm in one of my "teaching" moods, so I've decided that I'm going to write up a series of blog posts the trace the history of generative grammar. For each one I'm going to outline the core elements of the theory and look at how the theory works on a few basic, but I think exemplary, sentences, to give you an idea how the theories differ in their approach to the same problem.

If anyone's interested, I'll be posting on my blog, starting here: A Brief History of Grammar.

[psygnisfive]

Ok, first part is up. Long and somewhat dense, but useful for the rest.

A Brief History of Grammar - Structural Linguistics and Formal Languages

[Noriega]

Thank you for this initiative. I’m just now reading about linguistics in the 19th century (roots, roots, roots!), but so far I’m less familiar with the modern developments.

Can you recommend any books on the history of grammar studying in the 20th century?

[Radagast]

Pieter Seuren: Western Linguistics. That was the text book when I took a course on linguistic theories of the twentieth century five years ago.

[psygnisfive]

Part 2 is up: A Brief History of Grammar - Transformational Grammar (TG)

Noriega: Sorry for not replying sooner. I would suggest you take a look at Carnie's Syntax: A Generative Introduction (which uses the Principles and Parameters/Government and Binding framework), and Adger's Core Syntax (which uses the Minimalist Program framework), if you're interested in contemporary Chomskyan theories. The former also has a chapter briefly introducing LFG, and another briefly introducing HPSG.[/url]

[psygnisfive]

Oh, also, vote it up:

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=612999

http://www.reddit.com/r/programming/com ... f_grammar/

http://digg.com/general_sciences/A_Brie ... f_Grammar/

[psygnisfive]

Part 3 is up!

A Brief History of Grammar - Standard Theory (ST)

Enjoys.

[psygnisfive]

And part 4

A Brief History of Grammar - Extended Standard Theory (EST)

[psygnisfive]

Part the 5th!

A Brief History of Grammar - Revised Extended Standard Theory (REST)

Now with even more words in the name of the theory!

Enjoy?

[psygnisfive]

And 6: Goverment and Binding

A Brief History of Grammar - Government and Binding

[Rik]

I'm enjoying these posts. Thank you!

[psygnisfive]

Well I'm glad someone is. :p

[baraka]

This is very helpful indeed. Thanks!

[psygnisfive]

Pieter Seuren: Western Linguistics. That was the text book when I took a course on linguistic theories of the twentieth century five years ago.

This is stupidly late, but this book seems to be stuck in the 1960s in terms of formal grammars. It seems to only mention TGG, which is no longer used by anyone, nevermind that its direct descendant(s) aren't the only things around today.

[Radagast]

Well it doesn't go any later than Generative Semantics. So it does stip around the mid seventies.

[psygnisfive]

Part 7, Minimalist Program is now up. Of all the core Chomskyan theories, this is the one to understand.

[psygnisfive]

Part 8 - Generative Semantics (GS)

If you're still reading.

[psygnisfive]

And now for something completely different

Part 9 - Categorial Grammar (CG) and Combinator Categorial Grammar (CCG)

[psygnisfive]

New part, a week late:

Tree-adjoining Grammar

After this we get into the more heavy hitting models that have very complicated structures, so if you're need to, brush up on the formal grammar stuff from earlier, it'll be helpful.

[Space Dracula]

we've had huge arguments over this before but

that title's sort of inaccurate

you should instead say "Generative Grammar" there, because otherwise you're implying that you're writing about the development of grammar as a component of language

which is both misleading, and in my snot-nosed opinion representative of the how far up its own ass generative linguistics is

[psygnisfive]

we've had huge arguments over this before but

that title's sort of inaccurate

you should instead say "Generative Grammar" there, because otherwise you're implying that you're writing about the development of grammar as a component of language

which is both misleading, and in my snot-nosed opinion representative of the how far up its own ass generative linguistics is

It's a play on the book title "A Brief History of Time", which isn't exactly just, or even primarily about time. The point of the series of posts was made in the introductory post, and if you're reading the series without reading the introductory post, you're doing it wrong. And if you do read the introductory post, there's no confusion.

So in short, shove it.

[psygnisfive]

LFG is up: Lexical-Functional Grammar

If you really believe in the existence of purely grammatical functions like subject and object, LFG is probably more your kind of framework.

[Delthayre]

Lexical-Functional Grammar is my framework becaue I was never taught anything else, of course I never really understood it well, especially the functional structure that so distinguishes it.

we've had huge arguments over this before but

that title's sort of inaccurate

you should instead say "Generative Grammar" there, because otherwise you're implying that you're writing about the development of grammar as a component of language

which is both misleading, and in my snot-nosed opinion representative of the how far up its own ass generative linguistics is

It's a play on the book title "A Brief History of Time", which isn't exactly just, or even primarily about time. The point of the series of posts was made in the introductory post, and if you're reading the series without reading the introductory post, you're doing it wrong. And if you do read the introductory post, there's no confusion.

So in short, shove it.

I thought that the title was meant to to lightly comic or teasting. I suppose a better title might have been: Mister Psygnisfive, His Notes Upon the History of Theories Created by Linguists in Furtherance of their Field, Which Concerns Foremost the Generative Theories That Allege to Describe Generally the Structure of Languages, All Throug a Weblog That Inexplicably Contains a Reference to Earth: Final Conflict, Which Presumably the Author Will Concede Was Always Inconsistent and Went Completely Wrong By the Final Season, For the Glory of God and the Fellation of His Majesty the King, May God Save Him, Amen.

Is that better, Spacey?

[psygnisfive]

My god! The 12 part! GPSG! ::dies:

This is probably the most acceptable sort of theory for people here. It's pretty much just a formalization of things like agreement and "extraction" in a way that sounds a lot like how we normally talk (so and so agrees with blah dee blah ~> agreement features of so and so must equal agreement features of blah dee blah).

http://www.wellnowwhat.net/blog/?p=349

Lexical-Functional Grammar is my framework becaue I was never taught anything else, of course I never really understood it well, especially the functional structure that so distinguishes it.

we've had huge arguments over this before but

that title's sort of inaccurate

you should instead say "Generative Grammar" there, because otherwise you're implying that you're writing about the development of grammar as a component of language

which is both misleading, and in my snot-nosed opinion representative of the how far up its own ass generative linguistics is

It's a play on the book title "A Brief History of Time", which isn't exactly just, or even primarily about time. The point of the series of posts was made in the introductory post, and if you're reading the series without reading the introductory post, you're doing it wrong. And if you do read the introductory post, there's no confusion.

So in short, shove it.

I thought that the title was meant to to lightly comic or teasting. I suppose a better title might have been: Mister Psygnisfive, His Notes Upon the History of Theories Created by Linguists in Furtherance of their Field, Which Concerns Foremost the Generative Theories That Allege to Describe Generally the Structure of Languages, All Throug a Weblog That Inexplicably Contains a Reference to Earth: Final Conflict, Which Presumably the Author Will Concede Was Always Inconsistent and Went Completely Wrong By the Final Season, For the Glory of God and the Fellation of His Majesty the King, May God Save Him, Amen.

Is that better, Spacey?

Delthayre gets a (late and by now surely stale) cookie for getting the reference. BTW, I do not accept the existence of Seasons 2-5 of EFC. Season 1 is the best season, and after that they just went off the deep end.

[Tarasoriku]

Psygnis, these are great overviews, and I've really learned a lot. Your time and input is appreciated and you are a true scholar among braying hyenas.

but just finish il database, omfg