Transformational grammar

Transformational grammar is a broad term describing grammars (almost exclusively those of natural languages) that have been developed in a Chomskyan tradition. The term is usually synonymous with the slightly more specific transformational-generative grammar (TGG).

Development of basic concepts

Though transformations continue to be important in Chomsky's current theories, he has now abandoned the original notion of Deep Structure and Surface Structure. Initially, two additional levels of representation were introduced (LF — Logical Form, and PF — Phonetic Form), and then in the 1990s Chomsky sketched out a new program of research known as Minimalism (see the relevant section in this article), in which Deep Structure and Surface Structure no longer featured and PF and LF remained as the only levels of representation.

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To complicate the understanding of the development of Chomsky's theories, the precise meanings of Deep Structure and Surface Structure have changed over time — by the 1970s, the two were normally referred to simply as D-Structure and S-Structure, and D-Structure bore increasingly less resemblance to the Deep Structure of the 1960s. In particular, the idea that the meaning of a sentence was determined by its Deep Structure was dropped for good when LF took over this role (previously, Chomsky had begun to argue that meaning was determined by both Deep and Surface Structure).

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