Lectures on Government and Binding: The Pisa Lectures
Encyclopedia
Lectures on Government and Binding: The Pisa Lectures is a book by American linguist Noam Chomsky
, published in 1981. It is based on the lectures Chomsky gave at the GLOW
conference and workshop held at the Scuola Normale Superiore in Pisa
, Italy
in 1979. In this book, Chomsky presented his government and binding theory
of syntax. It had great influence on the syntactic research in early 1980s, especially among the linguists working within the transformational grammar
framework.
With his book Syntactic Structures
(1957), Chomsky established the concept of transformational generative grammar (TGG), a formal approach to linguistic theorizing, and revolutionized the discipline of linguistics. In Aspects of the Theory of Syntax
(1965), the TGG model went through a revision, which included the inclusion of a lexical component, the separation of deep from surface structures, and the introduction of some technical innovations such as syntactic features and recursive phrase structure rules. This Aspects model came to be known as the "Standard Theory". During the early 1970s, some of the rules in the Standard Theory got refined and led to the "Extended Standard Theory", where different syntactic levels contained information relevant to the meaning. Further revisions and technical innovations such as introduction of "empty categories", "X-bar theory", "D- and S-structures", and conditions on representations such as "Case filter", etc. led to the "Revised Extended Standard Theory", in which the grammatical model was greatly simplified. Lectures on Government and Binding contains the next step in Chomskyan linguistic thought where Universal Grammar
and the investigation of its characteristics assume central importance.
Noam Chomsky
Avram Noam Chomsky is an American linguist, philosopher, cognitive scientist, and activist. He is an Institute Professor and Professor in the Department of Linguistics & Philosophy at MIT, where he has worked for over 50 years. Chomsky has been described as the "father of modern linguistics" and...
, published in 1981. It is based on the lectures Chomsky gave at the GLOW
Generative Linguistics in the Old World
Generative Linguistics in the Old World is an international organization, founded in 1977 and based in the Netherlands...
conference and workshop held at the Scuola Normale Superiore in Pisa
Pisa
Pisa is a city in Tuscany, Central Italy, on the right bank of the mouth of the River Arno on the Tyrrhenian Sea. It is the capital city of the Province of Pisa...
, Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
in 1979. In this book, Chomsky presented his government and binding theory
Government and binding theory
Government and binding is a theory of syntax and a phrase structure grammar in the tradition of transformational grammar developed principally by Noam Chomsky in the 1980s...
of syntax. It had great influence on the syntactic research in early 1980s, especially among the linguists working within the transformational grammar
Transformational grammar
In linguistics, a transformational grammar or transformational-generative grammar is a generative grammar, especially of a natural language, that has been developed in the Chomskyan tradition of phrase structure grammars...
framework.
Background
From its inception in the 1950s, the Chomskyan brand of linguistics has been concerned with a person's knowledge of language, the unconscious mental knowledge that makes him a native speaker of some language. This innate, unobservable knowledge of language is called the speaker's linguistic competence, whereas his outward linguistic behavior which provides the linguist with observable data is called his linguistic performance. Generative grammar tries to provide an adequate model of linguistic competence. When such a grammar can generate (i.e. provide an explicit structural description for) all the grammatical (i.e. syntactically well-formed) sentences of a language and successfully detect all the ungrammatical sentences, it is called observationally adequate. But this kind of adequacy does not provide a sufficiently adequate model of linguistic competence. If the grammar can systematically and accurately describe the adult speaker's linguistic competence, it is called descriptively adequate. If a grammar can describe the acquisition of this linguistic competence in a human child from its initial state to the final state, then it is said to have explanatory adequacy. In Government and Binding theory, Chomsky is interested in the initial state of linguistic competence in a child, which is called a human's biological endowment for language. Since every normal human child is capable of acquiring any language, this endowment is also called by the name of universal grammar.With his book Syntactic Structures
Syntactic Structures
Syntactic Structures is an seminal book in linguistics by American linguist Noam Chomsky, first published in 1957. It laid the foundation of Chomsky's idea of transformational grammar...
(1957), Chomsky established the concept of transformational generative grammar (TGG), a formal approach to linguistic theorizing, and revolutionized the discipline of linguistics. In Aspects of the Theory of Syntax
Aspects of the Theory of Syntax
Aspects of the Theory of Syntax is a book written by American linguist Noam Chomsky, first published in August 1965. It is known in linguistic circles simply as Aspects...
(1965), the TGG model went through a revision, which included the inclusion of a lexical component, the separation of deep from surface structures, and the introduction of some technical innovations such as syntactic features and recursive phrase structure rules. This Aspects model came to be known as the "Standard Theory". During the early 1970s, some of the rules in the Standard Theory got refined and led to the "Extended Standard Theory", where different syntactic levels contained information relevant to the meaning. Further revisions and technical innovations such as introduction of "empty categories", "X-bar theory", "D- and S-structures", and conditions on representations such as "Case filter", etc. led to the "Revised Extended Standard Theory", in which the grammatical model was greatly simplified. Lectures on Government and Binding contains the next step in Chomskyan linguistic thought where Universal Grammar
Universal grammar
Universal grammar is a theory in linguistics that suggests that there are properties that all possible natural human languages have.Usually credited to Noam Chomsky, the theory suggests that some rules of grammar are hard-wired into the brain, and manifest themselves without being taught...
and the investigation of its characteristics assume central importance.