TRANSFORMATIONAL RULES

TRANSFORMATIONAL GRAMMAR RULES

Phrase structure rule does not account for the fact that certain sentence types in the language relate systematically to other sentence types Therefore, transformational grammar rule paves a way out

DEFINITION
Originally interpreted as STRING OPERATIONS: mapping one string onto another by: a. reordering b. deleting movement c. wh-movement d. inserting Essentially what TRs do is to take a branch of the tree away from one part of the tree diagram and attach it to a different part

REORDERING
1. INVERSION (SAI) Moving an auxiliary verb to the sentenceinitial position Eg: Miniam is singing his favorite song (SAI) Is Miniam singing his favorite song?

REORDERING
2) PASSIVE TRANSFORMATION Moving the subject to the object position Moving the object to the subject position Ben helped Kelly (passive) Kelly was helped by Ben

DELETION
1) VP DELETION Deleting a VP when it is identical to another VP somewhere close by, not necessarily in the same sentence Eg: Aisyah is reading and Auni is reading too (VP deletion) Aisyah is reading and Auni is too

DELETION
2) GAPPING Deleting some element when it is identical to another element in the preceding discourse. Eg: Hafiz stays up late every night though he should not stay up late every night. (gapping) Hafiz stays up late every night though he should not .

WH-MOVEMENT
Moving WH- phrases to the beginning of the sentence Eg: Max will chase what? (wh- movement) What will Mat chase?

INSERTION
???????????? Eg: I play football everyday (insertion) Do you play football everyday? She is late. Why is she late?

MOVEMENT TRANSFORMATION
1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. Yesterday, George helped Mary (adv) Dolly picked the magazine up (verb-particle) Did the boy buy the dog? (question) Why is she late? (question) The cat was bathed by the owner (passive) Will Sue win a fair wage? (Yes-No question) There is a peacock in the barn (nonreferential)

Adv
Yesterday

S NP V helped

VP

N George

NP N Mary

N
Dolly

VP

V NP Part picked det N up the magazine

S Aux NP Did det N the boy

VP V NP buy det N the dog?

CP

C Why
VP V is

S
NP PR she

Adj late

NP
det The

VP N Aux V PP cat was bathed P NP by the owner

Aux
Will

S NP N V Sue win

VP
NP det adj N a fair wage?

NP P There

VP V NP PP aux det N P NP is a peacock det N in the barn

Draw a Tree Diagram for these sentences

1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. Suddenly, she scurried upstairs Ah Chong asked his sister out for lunch Where is the key to the toilet? The army was tricked by the enemy Is Tini worried? There is a talk on Teaching Method this afternoon

Suddenly, she scurried upstairs

S NP N she

Adv Suddenly

VP V Adv scurried upstairs

Ah Chong asked his sister out for lunch

S

NP
N

Ah Chong

VP V NP Part PP asked det N out P N his sister for lunch

Where is the key to the toilet?

CP

C Where

S
VP NP V N PP is det N P det N the key to the toilet?

The army was tricked by the enemy

S

NP Det N The army

VP
V PP aux V P NP was tricked by det N the enemy

Is Tini worried?
S

Aux Is Tini

NP N

Adj

worried

There is a talk on Teaching Method this afternoon

S NP VP P V NP There aux N PP is det