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Transformational grammar and the layering of structure in Tamil

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 November 2008

T. Kandiah
T. Kandiah
Affiliation:
Department of English, University of Ceylon, Peradeniya, Ceylon
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Extract

In each of the following pairs of sentences, the verb in (a) is intuitively apprehended as being related in some significant way to that in (b): (1) a. The rice grew b. The fanner grew the rice (2) a. The barge sank b. The storm sank the barge (3) a. The coconut dropped b. The man dropped the coconut (4) a. The cart turned b. The driver turned the cart (5) a. The laws changed b. The Government changed the laws (6) a. The mourners collected b. He collected the mourners (7) a. The boat sailed b. The fisherman sailed the boat (8) a. The meeting began b. The Chairman began the meeting For transformational grammarians working on English, the delineation of the kind of relationship illustrated here is vital for the achievement of (at least) descriptive adequacy in their analysis of the language. Deeper investigation of the relationship has, however, revealed that concealed beneath its apparent simplicity there are certain highly complicated problems with fundamental and far-rseaching implications for the theory of transformational grammar itself.

Type
Articles
Information
Journal of Linguistics , Volume 4 , Issue 2 , September 1968 , pp. 217 - 245
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1968

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References

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