ELTWeekly Vol. 4 Issue#21 | May 21, 2012 | ISSN 0975-3036
The ELTWorldOnline.com team has posted a case study entitled ‘The Case for Abstract Grammar: Formal Grammar and Linguistic Communication’ by Jeanette K. Gundel and Hooi Ling Soh (Department of Linguistics/Center for Cognitive SciencesUniversity of Minnesota).
Gundel and Ling Soh say, “A question that is sometimes raised about formal grammar is whether it is relevant for understanding our ability to use language to communicate. We believe that it is, and that part of the controversy surrounding this question is due to (i) a misunderstanding of the goal of the study of formal grammar; (ii) different ways in which the term “language” is used and, relatedly, to different views about the relation between language and communication; and (iii) an unwarranted conclusion that if linguistic communication cannot be explained by formal grammar alone, then formal grammar cannot be relevant for understanding linguistic communication.Within generative linguistics, a distinction is often made between “knowledge of language” and “use of language.” “Knowledge of language” refers to “the state of the mind/brain of the person who knows a particular language” (Chomsky, 1986, p. 3). For speakers of English, this knowledge includes knowing that “the woman sees Bill” is an acceptable English sentence, but “woman sees Bill” is not, and that “the woman sees Bill” does not have the same meaning as “Bill sees the woman,” and how the meanings of the two sentences differ”.
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