Transformational syntax

In <a href="/facts/Linguistics/oQuamvf2">linguistics</a>, transformational syntax is a derivational approach to <a href="/facts/Syntax/6PxSV98p">syntax</a> that developed from the extended standard theory of <a href="/facts/Generative_grammar/Pm1AMX5U">generative grammar</a> originally proposed by <a href="/facts/Noam_Chomsky/3rtpzlER">Noam Chomsky</a> in his books <a href="/facts/Syntactic_Structures/t1YdoLTP">Syntactic Structures</a> and <a href="/facts/Aspects_of_the_Theory_of_Syntax/vqPa9xfj">Aspects of the Theory of Syntax</a>. It emerged from a need to improve on approaches to <a href="/facts/Grammar/vprQsHIR">grammar</a> in <a href="/facts/Structural_linguistics/lbAbLF8h">structural linguistics</a>. 
Particularly in early incarnations, transformational syntax adopted the view that <a href="/facts/Phrase_structure_grammar/SbzQXRFM">phrase structure grammar</a> must be enriched by a transformational grammar, with syntactic rules or syntactic operations that alter the base structures created by phrase structure rules. In more recent theories, including <a href="/facts/Government_and_Binding_Theory/2DTpSetS">Government and Binding Theory</a> but especially in <a href="/facts/Minimalist_program/K6YhIlAz">Minimalism</a>, the strong distinction between phrase structure and transformational components has largely been abandoned, with operations that build structure (<a href="/facts/Phrase_structure_rules/B867agmG">phrase structure rules</a>) and those that change structure (<a href="/facts/Transformational_rules/vqIyVYdP">transformational rules</a>) either interleaved, or unified under a single operation (as in the Minimalist operation <a href="/facts/Merge_(linguistics)/ElHY7bDT">Merge</a>).

Transformational syntax open-in-new

Transformational syntax