Generative linguistics

transformed to create a foreground, or surface structure. He bases this progression off of a natural life order, claiming this “inner law of origin accompanies all development”, be it a person, a group, or any life (Schenker, 3). All these things progress from origin to development to the present, hence, background, middleground, and foreground. In “Syntax of Prolongation”, Keiler draws ties between Schenker’s theoretical structure and linguistics’ deep versus surface structure (Keiler, 6). He describes Schenker’s Ursatz as abstract, made pronouncable through elaborations. Keiler made a similar comparison in his critique of Bernstein, when he clarified the distinction between deep and surface structure that underlies syntactic analysis. Keiler walks through a linguistic example where he presents two apparently similar surface structures whose inherent difference is explained in their deep structures. Thus, Keiler supports Schenker’s background to foreground theory with a similar movement between deep structures to surface structures in linguistics. He then applies this process to more than just syntax—Keiler outlines a similar motion in the phonological aspect of language. Keiler writes that the phonological component is interpretive. It takes the surface form of a sentence and converts it into a phonetic representation through the means of phonological rules, perhaps similar to syntactic transformations (Keiler, 202). These morphophonemic rules set boundaries for different…

book “Syntactic Structure”. In this book, Chomsky opposes a lot of assumptions and basic arguments about linguistic. Chomsky was criticizing the theory of the structuralism approach to the study of language. Those…

Language acquisition plays a key role in a child’s development as it is a prerequisite to gaining knowledge and skills. In the area of language acquisition, there are two areas that have caused controversy among scientists. These two areas are known as nature and nurture. There is evidence to prove that both the areas have an influence on a child’s development. This theory is known as nature vs nurture. The two sides of this theory are compared as there are people on each side who believe that…

is a very complex mechanism, there are a lot of different aspects that go into learning about language. Since language is so complex, many different researchers have differing views on how language is developed. I believe that because language is so complex, researchers study different aspects of language and find their own perspectives. Although, many of these perspectives lack important aspect of actual language development. In order to understand why language theories differ, one must look…

within grammar than others. Key applicable realms of grammar are prescriptive grammar, generative grammar, and descriptive grammar. All three of the former entail the most valuable segments of grammar: since the three are among a language 's most elementary elements, it cannot survive without them. Moreover, morphemes accompany prescriptive grammar among important elements in the English language. The English language requires prescriptive grammar because prescriptive grammar exemplifies the…

group must upon suitable occasion utter the proper speech-sound and, when he hears another utter these speech-sounds, must make the proper response” (Bloomfield, 1933: 29). Moreover, when children born, they get involved in a society who interacts with them producing a stimulus which allows them to get immersed in a learning process. Regarding Bloomfield (1933) the act of speech needs practical preceding and following factors (p.23). The background or preceding information allows to understand…

innate knowledge of language and its structure. The poverty of stimulus argument primarily takes a nativist approach to linguistic theory, as it implies that children have some innate biological way of not making high probability and logical mistakes. Crain (2012) also illustrates this point by stating the poverty-of-the-stimulus argument proves “that children know more than they could have learned from their experience.” Crain appears to provide detailed evidence for the poverty-of-stimulus…

In Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved June 1, 2010, from Encyclopaedia Britannica Online: http://search.eb.com/eb/article-27156 . Crystal, D., (2003) lexicon. In Dictionary of Linguistics and Phonetics. Retrieved on June 1, 2010 from http://www.credoreference.com/entry/bkdictling/lexicon Fritz, J.M., Fritz, R.C. (1985). Linguistic structure and economic method. Journal of Economic Issues, 19(1), 75-101. Retrieved June 1, 2010, from EBSCOHost Database. Sevinc, M.,Turner,C. (1976).Language and…

Fillmore and Snow stress that teachers need to be aware of the forms and structures of academic English and the skills students need to interpret academic texts and engage in academic discourse. In order to teach reading and writing, teachers must realize the complex relationship between sounds and symbols in English and know the rules of grammar and syntax to support the students’ writing development and to provide effective feedback. Lastly, the authors emphasize that teachers need to…

distinction between internal and external language factor are broadly cultural and social. The development of the word ‘screen’ is the suitable example with the development of a society of television and computer technology we needed a new term to refer to that part of technologies that we now call as screen. Yet many other Semantic change that are related to social factor can be found in taboo areas, it is easy enough to think about ‘euphemistic’ expansions that came to be used to refer to…