An Introduction to Linguistics and Language Studies - Second Edition - Anne McCabe
Syntax and Lexicogrammar
An Introduction to Linguistics and Language Studies - Second Edition - Anne McCabe
Anne McCabe [+]
Saint Louis University
View Website
Description
Chapter 4, ‘Syntax and Lexico-grammar’ provides two different ways of analyzing sentences/clauses. The chapter begins with Noam Chomsky’s early work in transformational generative grammar (TGG), as well as its precursor, Phrase Structure Grammar. Through TGG, Chomsky set out to show how humans “make infinite use of finite means” in creating sentences, as part of his larger project of modeling the knowledge which humans have which allows them to speak and to understand. The second part of the chapter moves to Michael Halliday’s Systemic Functional Grammar (SFG). Through SFG, Halliday set out to show how humans use language to mean in society, and modelling of language through SFG shows the meta-functional nature of language. That is, language serves an ideational meta-function, as it represents/constructs real and imagined experience; it serves an interpersonal meta-function, as it allows us to create relationships with others and to express our opinions about experience; it also serves a textual meta-function as language has the ability to order our experience and our interaction into coherent texts. Readers come away from this chapter with a full understanding of the elements of language and how they combine together to make meaning.