On the Problem of Describing the Grammar of Natural Languages

Abstract

Difficulties encountered in an attempt to describe the syntax of English determiner phrases resulted in a reconsideration of the purpose and organizational principles of grammatical descriptions. Some illumination of the nature of grammatical descriptions is obtained by a consideration of systems of chess-notation. Problems of grammatical description discussed with reference to two specific examples of chess-notations include:

(1) The problem of describing the" basic regularities " which determine how the sentences of a language are understood;

(2) The problem of translating between two languages with the same " universe of discourse " but with different ways of referring to it ;

(3) The problem of explaining the intuitive notion of " grammaticality "which native users of a language possess.

The importance, for a useful language description, of describing the" semantic interpretation " process is illustrated and emphasized, and the value of language descriptions in the form of generative grammars is questioned.

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