7. The Logical Basis of Linguistic Theory

Abstract

This chapter restricts the term to systems of hypotheses concerning the general features of human language put forth in an attempt to account for a certain range of linguistic phenomena. Linguistic theory addresses that a mature speaker can produce a new sentence of his language on the appropriate occasion, and other speakers can understand it immediately, though it is equally new to them. The grammar is a device that specifies the infinite set of well-formed sentences and assigns to each of these one or more structural descriptions. A concern with perception and acquisition of language has played a significant role in determining the course of development of linguistic theory, as it should if this theory is ever to have broader scientific significance. The present theories of transformational generative grammar provide a basis for extending and deepening our understanding of linguistic structure. Keywords:generative grammar; language; linguistic theory; perception; structural descriptions

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