- To solve the crossword is difficult.
- The crossword is difficult to solve.
T-G grammar specifies that the second sentence is derived from the first
through what is called theobject-raisingtransformation. (The crosswordfunc-
tions as the subject in the second sentence but as an object in the first.) In the
first sentence, the focus is on the process of solving the crossword, whereas in
the second it is not. Thus, the meaning of the first sentence can be generic; in the
second, it cannot.
Or consider the following:
- Fritz gave the flowers to Macarena.
- Fritz gave Macarena the flowers.
- Fred cleared the table for his mother.
- *Fred cleared his mother the table.
How would markers account for the fact that the transformation that de-
rived the grammaticalFritz gave Macarena the flowersfromFritz gave the
flowers to Macarenaalso produces the ungrammaticalFred cleared his
mother the table?
Equally problematic is that psychological research on language processing
could find no evidence of markers of any type in language. It also failed to find
any evidence that meaning resides anywhere other than in the surface struc-
ture.^3 The rationalist response has been that such evidence counts for very little,
but there also is no intuitive basis for specifying such markers in the deep struc-
ture. Thus, these problems remained unsolved.
APPLYING KEY IDEAS- Explain two differences between phrase-structure grammar and trans-
formational grammar. - The idea that there are internalized rules for generating sentences might lead
to an assumption regarding composition. What might this assumption be?
3.The question of whether the theoretical features of transformational gram-
mar are important for teachers has been debated for many years. What do you
think might be the central issues in the debate, and what is your position?
168 CHAPTER 5
(^3) The next chapter examines this assertion more closely through the concept ofconstrual,which centers
meaning in the surface structure of sentences but connects it to context and to readers/hearers. Stated most
simply, what a speaker means when uttering a sentence very often is not what the hearer construes it to mean.