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Conference on Mathematics of Language

Conference on Mathematics of Language

MOL 2009, MOL 2007: The Mathematics of Language pp 238–254Cite as

Creation Myths of Generative Grammar and the Mathematics of Syntactic Structures

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Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNAI,volume 6149))

Abstract

Syntactic Structures (Chomsky [6]) is widely believed to have laid the foundations of a cognitive revolution in linguistic science, and to have presented (i) the first use in linguistics of powerful new ideas regarding grammars as generative systems, (ii) a proof that English was not a regular language, (iii) decisive syntactic arguments against context-free phrase structure grammar description, and (iv) a demonstration of how transformational rules could provide a formal solution to those problems. None of these things are true. This paper offers a retrospective analysis and evaluation.

This paper is based on an invited presentation at the Mathematics of Language conference at UCLA in August 2007. Many of the ideas here have been profitably discussed with my collaborator Barbara Scholz. I am very grateful to her for her generosity with assistance and advice — not that I have taken all of the advice.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Philosophy, Psychology and Language Sciences, University of Edinburgh, 3 Charles Street, Edinburgh, EH8 9AD, UK

    Geoffrey K. Pullum

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  1. Geoffrey K. Pullum
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Linguistics, University of Tuebingen, Wilhelmstrasse 19, 72074, Tuebingen, Germany

    Christian Ebert  & Gerhard Jäger  & 

  2. Faculty of Linguistics and Literary Studies, University of Bielefeld, Postfach 100131, 33501, Bielefeld, Germany

    Jens Michaelis

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Pullum, G.K. (2010). Creation Myths of Generative Grammar and the Mathematics of Syntactic Structures . In: Ebert, C., Jäger, G., Michaelis, J. (eds) The Mathematics of Language. MOL MOL 2009 2007. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 6149. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-14322-9_18

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-14322-9_18

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  • Online ISBN: 978-3-642-14322-9

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