The explanatory power of Chomsky's transformational generative grammar

Abstract

One of the main difficulties in Chomsky's account of generative grammars and linguistic theories is to determine what exactly these grammars and theories explain. In some places Chomsky seems to be saying that they explain how a set of sentences might be generated and in others that they explain how these sentences are actually generated. On the whole his earlier writings accord with this first view and it is not until his more recent writings that a subtle change of emphasis inclines him to the second view. Only this first view is justified and when this is realised a lot of the contemporary discussion on questions of innateness will be rendered groundless. [opening paragraph]