Talk:Generative grammar

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[edit] Obsolete

  • Should it not be mentioned that this is an obsolete theory?
  • i don't know about other fields but this is still relevant in computer science
  • This is still a relevant theory in the basic study of linguistics.
  • it is still a releant theory and not a dead one although popularity has declined. it shold not be merged with gen. ling.

It is far from "obsolete", though there is much argument about its meaning in linguistics. Rainwarrior 02:29, 8 April 2006 (UTC)

Not at ALL obsolete. We're still actively working and researching in this paradigm!!! AndrewCarnie

It's not a paradigm, it's just structuralism that claims not to be structuralism. In fact it's a structuralism taken to the extreme. Chomsky's rebellion against his predecessors was mainly with behaviourism. The fact that the structuralist skeletons have never been cleaned out of the closets accounts for the tendency of generativists to claim attested diachronic changes (that is, the results of diachronic processes) as synchronic processes. I agree however that generativism is not obsolete, it is sadly receiving still a staggering amount of funding.--AkselGerner (talk) 20:53, 13 March 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Merge?

  • Looks like two article about the same subject. Merge Kerowyn 00:36, 19 January 2006 (UTC)
  • JA: Keep separate. These are two distinct concepts. A generative grammar is a technical concept that originated within the field of study called generative linguistics, but it is often used in other fields, such as computer science, and it is also used to some perhaps modified extent in branches of or perspectives on linguistics that would not be described as generative linguistics by their participants. Also, its full development as a subtopic within any other article would eventually need to be broken out as a technical subsidiary, anyway. Jon Awbrey 13:50, 3 February 2006 (UTC)
  • Don't merge. Generative grammar is used widely outside of linguistics. Rainwarrior 02:23, 8 April 2006 (UTC)
It's been a few months and we seem to have more against than for. Mostly it seems people are uninterested in comment. Anyhow, I've decided to remove the merge suggestion. Rainwarrior 07:53, 22 April 2006 (UTC)
Don't merge. --IceHunter 04:57, 11 November 2007 (UTC)
  • To merge or not to merge, it's preposterous to have a microarticle for the general theory and then a vast amount of text for the specific subtheory. Some material could be moved to the generative linguistics article, or generative grammar could be moved in it's entirety to that article as generative grammar is about 95% of generative linguistics anyway. Generative grammar in computer science would have to have it's own article anyway. Anyway, something should be done to flesh out the "generative linguistics" article, even if they are not merged.--AkselGerner (talk) 21:03, 13 March 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Revert of 62.192.140.219's changes

On July 9th, 2006, 62.192.140.219 made changes to this page which, even if new information was added (it is difficult to tell), removed several pieces of useful information, pictures, wiki links, and formatting; furthermore, it was written in a very poor style (it reads like an undergraduate essay). I have reverted this edit. - Rainwarrior 17:59, 9 July 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Huh?

It's not that I don't think that there may be some candles of truth in this article's description of the theory presented, BUT for the most part the page is written in such a fashion that it sounds like a lot of BS masquerading as intelligent discourse -- sort of what you would present to a college professor in an oral exam if you wanted him to think you knew what you were talking about -- but really didn't cause instead of studying you had stayed up too late partying the evening before.Fungible 09:01, 7 March 2007 (UTC)

Really? To me it sounds technical, if a little overdone for an encyclopedia. Most BSing I've done on college papers, at least, hasn't included appropriate references to very technical and specific facets of the ideas being discussed. Although I do think this article needs improvement and better organization, in particular w.r.t. its subject matter's applications in other areas. Space Dracula 05:22, 18 June 2007 (UTC)

It IS too technical and waffley - the whole idea of an encyclopedia is to educate - not to reconfirm what someone already knows. Don;t forget that although you can have technical explanations, the first paragraph should sum up first - then you can have technicalities after. I came onto this article out of interest (from Chomsky entry) and I have no idea of what Generative grammar is after reading this article as I am not a linguistics student Gruffster 20:30, 11 July 2007 (UTC)

Same. I am non the wiser as to what generative grammar actually is. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 88.106.30.140 (talk) 23:01, 22 October 2007 (UTC)

[edit] "Infinite" possibilities

Some linguists go so far as to claim that the set of grammatical sentences of any natural language is indeed infinite.

Isn't this obvious, though? You can make an infinitely long sentence. All you have to do is stack clause upon clause upon clause. I doubt there is a language where such a thing isn't possible, because this sort of flexibility with clauses is an essential feature of language. It logically follows that if you can generate an infinitely long sentence, then there is an infinite number of possible sentences. - furrykef (Talk at me) 21:53, 19 July 2007 (UTC)

IINM, the consensus is that while sentences have no bounds on their lengths, an infinite string is not a sentence. (For one, its grammaticality would be indeterminate.) However, the set of all sentences of unbounded length could be put into a one-to-one correspondence with, say, the infinite set of natural numbers. jackaroodave 69.207.251.137 21:39, 8 August 2007 (UTC)