Lecture № 7 Transformations in simple sentences

S S

The two fundamental problems of the T-grammar are: (1) the establish­ment of the domain of the kernel sentences), and (2) the establishment of the set of transformation rules for deriving all the other sentences as their trans­forms.

Thus a fundamental distinction is made between two kinds of sentences: kernel sentences and transforms.

A third and a less important problem of the T-grammar is the establish­ment of the order in which the transformations occur.

The first problem has been dealt with in several works of contemporary linguists.

Z. S. Harris gives the following list of kernel sentences of the English language:

N vV (for the V that occurs with-out object)	The team went there.
N vV N	We'll take it.
N vV PN (for PN that have restricted co-occurrence with particular V)	The teacher looked at him.
N is N	He is an architect.
N is A	The girl is pretty.
N is PN	The paper is of importance.
N is D	The man is here.

Harris also includes a few 'minor constructions' into the set, such as

"N is between N and N" and some inert constructions which hardly enter into transformations: e. g. N! (a call), Yes.

He also makes a very important observation that a different set of kernel sentences may be yielded.

In accord with the valence of the V in the structure the set of kernel or basic sentences may be enlarged. Some authors distinguish three more basic structures in connection with the completeness of the VP (verb phrase) in the sentence, and also with regard to the capability of the structure to undergo dif­ferent transformations.

The following sentence-structures are added to the kernel:

N vV N N (for the V of the GIVE subclass)	The teacher gave him his pen.
N v V N D (for the V of the PUT subclass)	He threw his coat on the sofa

Thus there may be different estimations of the kernel set, but it should be borne in mind that a smaller or greater number of the kernel sentences does not make the general idea of the T-grammar representation of the structure of a lan­guage. The later development of the T-grammar gave rize to the concept of the deep sentence formed on the basis of the obligatory valence of the V and its subclasses.

The set of kernel sentences reveals that they belong to two classes, those with a V and others with BE.

Some modern grammarians do not include BE into the V class. They say that BE is unique: most of the grammatical rules that apply to verbs do not ap­ply to BE, most of those which apply to BE do not apply to verbs, to whose rules it (BE) almost always constitutes an exception.

All the kernel sentences can be regularly generated by means of the 1С rules, i. e. by means of the rewriting rules.

The problem of the transformational rules must begin with the definition of the term 'transformational rules' and the definition of the transform.

A transformational rule is a rule which requires or allows us to perform certain changes in the kernel structure. The product of a transformation is a transform It retains the grammatical and semantic relations of the kernel sen­tence it is derived from.

"A transformational rule tells us how to derive something from some­thing else by switching things about, putting things in or leaving them out, and so on."

The transformational rules may be called also 'derivation rules' because they tell us how a variety of sentence structures and nominal structures are de­rived or generated from the kernel sentences.

E. g., from the kernel word 'love' a number of derivative words can be generated by means of certain rules, telling us what morphemes must be added and to what kernel they must be added (V or N):

love (N)	love (V)
lovely (A)	loving (A)	lovingly (D)
loveliness (N)	lovable (A)
loveless (A)	beloved (A)
	lover (N)

This shows that the kernel of a word may generate about ten new words. A kernel sentence structure also gives out a number, and an even much larger number, of derived transforms.

SNP	SS
the work of the machine	The machine does work.
the machine's work	Does the machine work?
the machine work	What works?
the working machine	The machine does not work.
for the machine to work	The machine did not work, etc.
the machine's working
the machine working

The machine works

S₁ + S₂ S₃

The machine works and hums.

When the machine works it hums.

Working, the machine hums.

When (while) working the machine hums.

I like when the machine works.

If the machine worked!

etc.

The study of the transformational rules will come to the reader in three steps.

First one must study the transformations in simple sentences, then the two-base transformations (compound, semi-compound, complex, semi-complex sentences) and the transformation of nominalization.

Transformations in simple sentences produce such transforms that are also simple sentences: S S.

The transformations of the simple sentences can be divided into two types: obligatory transformations and optional transformations. Obligatory transformations are transformations on the morphemic level, whose applica­tion is indispensable for building up a sentence. They generate intra-model transforms within one and the same model.

* * *

These transformations are generally designated as T-AUX (AUX stands for the word auxiliary'). T-AUX involves the following changes of the finite V:

1. the choice of the tense;

2. the choice of number and person: the addition of the -s suffix if the V is in the present tense, if the NP is singular, 3rd person; the zero-suffix if the NP is plural "John has been laughing"; "The boys have been laughing";

3. the choice of modality: the addition of a modal verb ("The boys must have been laughing"; "The boys will be laughing"; "They ought to be crying"),

4. the choice of aspect;

1. the addition of the discontinuous morpheme 'have -en' ("You have seen that");

2. the addition of the discontinuous morpheme 'be-ing' ("She was smiling").

We must note that some modern linguists do not extend the term 'tense' to the phrasal constructions (such as 'is writing', 'has written' and others), they reserve the term 'tense' for those expressed in the verb itself, thus recog­nizing only two tenses in the English verb: present and past. The phrasal con­structions are considered to be 'aspects' (with 'have-еn' and with 'be-ing') and modals ('will do', 'shall ask', 'can go', etc.), all these also have two tenses.

The general formula of the grammar of the finite verb reflecting the T-AUX, is:

AUX -+ tense (M) ('have -en' ('be -ing') - { V / BE }

The sign V / BE shows that all these transformations on the mor­phemic level can be applied to verbs and to the word BE.

The sign M shows that one of the modal verbs can be added: can, may, will, shall, must, ought to.

The sign AUX stands for tense (present or past). Tense applies to what­ever follows it in the verbal phrase (only 'must' and 'ought' do not change). It also involves the number and person transformations:

Singular 3d person -s

present

Plural Ø

V

past

Singular I am, he (she, it, N) is

present

Plural are

Be

past

singular was

plural were

Each grammatical morpheme must be added to the end of the following element. Thus if you choose to construct a sentence in the present with the V, say, 'walk', you will begin it in the following way: The man—you don' t need expressing modality so you discard (M)—and add -s to the element 'have', and so get 'has'; the next element -en should be added to 'be', and you get 'been'; the next element in the diagram is -ing which is added to the V 'walk' yielding 'walking', and the whole form of the V will appear as "The man has been walk­ing."

The same rules can be applied to BE. "He must be here." "I am being po­lite." "I must have been here before." "He has been absent for a week."

This T-AUX is an obligatory transformation which applies to all kernel sentences.

There is a special rule for the 'N is N' kernel structure which consists in adding -s to both the N in the construction when the V is also plural, i. e. 'are', 'were', 'have been'. E. g. "The girls are friends." "These ladies are actresses."

* * *

Optional transformations in simple sentences are transformations on the syntactic level or, on the word class level. An optional transformation may be chosen by the speaker depending on the purpose of communication (question, command, exclamation). An optional transformation results in a transform which is not a kernel sentence any longer.

A kernel sentence is a declarative one, it relates about facts. Such a sen­tence can be transformed into an affirmative sentence which affirms a state­ment more intently; it also can be transformed into a negative sentence. Both these transforms can be further transformed into interrogative sentences or questions, so that these may be either affirmative questions or negative question.

In sentences with HAVE the V HAVE is stressed. But there is a tendency to introduce the function 'do' into sentences with HAVE, e. g. "And I did have fun". "He does have a family".

T-NOT designates a negative transformation. The procedure here con­sists in introducing the function word 'not', or its phonetical variant 'n','t', which put after DO, BE, HAVE or some modal (M) and is sometimes fused with them. E. g. "She did not see him." "The girl didn 't see him." "She was not (wasn 't) happy. " "He has not (hasn 't) come." "Don't you like it? " "Haven't you seen him?"

There are some other ways of constructing negative transforms:

1. With negative substitutes:

"Somebody saw that Nobody saw that"

"I saw a man there I saw none there"

2. By introducing negative function words, such as 'never', 'nowhere':

"You can tell You never can tell" »

"I see him there I see him nowhere"

T-O is the transformation of interrogation, it transforms an affirmative sen­tence into a question, hence the symbol T-Q.

A question is easier derived from the T-A. The operation of transforming it into a T-Q consists in changing the arrangement of the units in the underlying sentence. The function word 'do' changes positions with the NP, standing now before it, thus the product will be the transform: "Do you love summer?" "Do you know it?" "Did he say it?" "Does she love sweets?"

Thus the contour of the sentence changes.

The operation used in this transformation, is called permutation.

There are several colloquial variants of questions which are the products of different operations:

(1) the change of the intonation contour of the statement, "You know it?"

2. the change of the intonation contour and the addition of the interjection. "You know it, eh?"

3. the adding of a disjunctive question to the statement, which repeats the T-AUX elements of the statement. "You met my people, didn't you?" "She loves sweets, does she not?"

(4) the adding of some modal expression. "You are waiting for her, I suppose?"

The word BE has a special rule here, and also the verb HAVE: they are put before the NP in the same way as 'do'. In American English 'do' is used in T-Q transforms of kernel sentences with V-HAV'E. "Do you have any more questions?" "Does he have any friends?"

T-W is the sign of the transformation of a sentence into a special question. Special questions are introduced with special interrogative words, most of which begin with Wh; hence the sign T-W. The interrogative function word substitutes one of the form-words in the kernel sentence, thus in the trans­form the word does not appear.

There are two cases to distinguish:

(1) The form-wordWh- substitutes the NP the subject to the V, then the other function word 'do' is not needed. "Peter has come." "Who has come?"

"I know it." "Who knows it?" The wind is singing in the trees." "What is singing in the trees?" '

(2) The interrogative function word substitutes any element of the under­lying sentence other than the subject. The underlying sentence must be theT-Q. "Do you know the song?" The NP standing after V, that is the object to the V, is replaced by 'what'. The product of the transformation is: "What do you know?" "Do you live in the country?" " Where do you live?" ('in the coun­try' is substituted by 'where').

"He is a teacher." "What is he?"

In both cases the intonation contour of the transform is the same as that of the kernel sentence.

The interrogative function words are simple and compound, such as: 'how old', 'how many', 'how much', 'what time', 'what size', 'what number', 'where from', and others. T-EX Any sentence may be exclamatory if it is pro­nounced with an emphatic intonation. However there are special transforma­tions which produce exclamatory sentences.

To my mind there will be exclamatory transforms.

Kernel

S

(declarative)

T-A (affirmative)

T-not(negative)

N-Q

T-W

T-Q

T-W

1. "The girl is pretty". "How pretty the girl is!" HereA is put after the introductory 'how' (a function word).

1. "He is a boy." " What a boy he is!"

"The man is genius." " What at a genius the man is!" Here the secondN is put after the introductory word 'what'.

(3) "The rain is beautiful. " " How beautiful is the rain!" This is transformed from the first exclamatory structure by permutatingNP and 'is'. This structure is very emphatic.

There is still another type of T-EX produced on the morphemic level by the change of the finite V into V-to. "He marry her!" "You tell such lies!" "A man not know it!"

The T-Q and T-W transformations are based on the T-A and T-not trans­forms but not on the kernel sentence directly.

Thus the optional (syntactic) transformations on the word class level may be represented by the following diagram: