3. Grammar as mathematics (00:22:43 – 00:29:16)

Vocabulary:

• Avram Noam Chomsky

• “Chomskyan revolution” (in Thomas Kuhn’s terms)

• generative grammar = transformational grammar (TG)

• deep structure VS surface structure

• to reduce the language to a set of generative theorems

• a “tree diagram” – “дерево зависимостей”

• to (not) be psychologically applicable

• verb-centered theory

Points to discuss:

1. What makes it possible to describe Chomsky’s theory called as “formalism / structuralism from [sort of] underground”?

2. Why has this very quote been chosen to illustrate the speaker’s idea of the correlation between generative grammar and mathematics?

“It is reasonable to regard the grammar of language (L) ideally as a mechanism that provides an enumeration of the sentences of L in something like the way in which a deductive theory gives an enumeration of a set of theorems.” Chomsky, N. (1957) A review of B.F.Skinner’s Verbal Behavior.

3. How is generative grammar theory use the notion of “universal grammar” and “innate grammar”?

4. Grammar as algorithms (00:29:17 – 00:34:02)

Vocabulary:

• Algorithm – (comp.) a set of rules for solving problems or doing calculations, especially rules that a

• computer uses

• ‘MIND IS A COMPUTER’ metaphor

• to process the input

• to produce an output

• brain as a blackbox

• proceduralisation of grammar (“grammaring”)

• “production plan”

• constrained (language use) = limited, devoid of the local or social context

Points to discuss:

1. What are the named reasons for the inconsistency of the described theory?

2. What’s the way to finish the quote that is meant to present the essence of the cognitive approach to grammar:

“Language is the way it is

1. because of the way we think;

2. because of what it has to do;

3. because of the way it has been used.

Ground your choice.

5. Grammar as texture (00:34:02 -- 00:39:11)

Vocabulary:

Michael Alexander Kirkwood Halliday (systemic functional grammar)

abstruse – difficult to understand

contextualized grammar

social functions of the language

Points to discuss:

1. Comment on the idea of the quote:

“Language is as it is because of what it has to do.” Halliday, M.A.K. (1978) Language as Social

Semiotics

2. What are two the key differences between Chomsky’s and Halliday’s grammar theories?

3. Which aspect is common for both of them?

6. Grammar as collocation (00:39:12 – 00:48:01)

Vocabulary:

• fuzzy – unclear, indistinct

• suggestive – наводящий на мысли, размышление; a ~ theory – многообещающая теория

• in the vicinity – next to, close to, not far from

• probabilistic – вероятностный

• to become routinised

• epistemic modality – a sub-type of linguistic modality that deals with a speaker's evaluation / judgment of, degree of confidence in, or belief of the knowledge upon which a proposition is based. In other words, epistemic modality refers to the way speakers communicate their doubts, certainties, and guesses — their "modes of knowing".

• Priming – «прайминг» (от англ. глагола “to prime” – инструктировать заранее, давать предшествующую установку и т.п.), явление имплицитной памяти, которое представляет собой способность опознать или извлечь из памяти объект в результате особой предшествующей встречи с этим объектом. В работах отечественных исследователей и в переводных изданиях можно встретить такие варианты перевода данного термина, как «преднастройка», «подсказка», «подготовка», «эффект предшествования».

Points to discuss: