CDU 800(049.3) . 
Olga Mišeska Tomic: GENERATIVE SYNTAX IN THEORY AND PRACTICE 
/"Kiril i Metodij" University, Skopje 1978/ 
The book Generative Syntax in Theor;y and Practice has been con-
ceived primarily as a text book for undergradua~e and graduate 
students,whose aim isto introduce.them to one of the most influ-
ential and controversial theories of grammar developed in recent 
tirne, the generative transformational theory. 
The main body of the book is divided into two parts: Part One, 
"The Generative Revolution", and Part Two, "The Major Syntactic 
Transformations". Part One focuses upon generative syntax "in 
theory", tracing its development from its fd.rst appearance in. 
1957 up to the mid-seventies, special attention being paid to 
the main turning-points of the generative revolution. Accordingly, 
Part One is divided into five units covering, in turn, the basic 
concepts of the new approach to syntax /"Underlying and Surface 
Structure"/, the major features of Chomsky's first generative 
317 
model /"Syntactic Structures"/, those of the revised model ad-
vanced by Chomsky in his Aspects of the Theory of Syntax /"The 
Standard Model"/, McCawley's and Fillmore's proposals asa 
reaction and alternative to Chomsky's Standard Model /"The Doom 
of the Deep Structure"/, and, finally, the development of a 
new trend in generative theory, generative semantics /"The Split 
among the Transformationalists"/. 
Part Two presents generative syntax "in practice 11 , offering an 
integrated description of the basic syntactic structures and 
processes generating the~. The general framework, outlined in 
Unit One, is based largely on Fillmore's Case Grammar, intro-
ducing, however, the author's own conception of underlying struc-
ture. The rest of Part Two is organized in the standard way, each 
of the seven units dealing with one of the major syntactic phe-
nomena: Deictics, Operator-triggered Transformations, Relativi-
zation, Nominalization, Conjoining, Pronominalization, and 
Ordering of Transformations. 
All the units of.both parts are accompanied by assignments /the 
key to the assignment~ being provided in Appendix'2/, a reading 
list .and a list of suggestions for further reading. 
Since the generative model is only one, albeit the most influ-
ential, of the several syntactic models advanced over the last 
twenty years, and since the relativity of syntactic description 
has become a universally-recognized language phenomenon, the 
author has found it necessary to mention the most well-known 
alternatives to the generative model. 1 These alternative models 
are briefly outlined in Appendix I. 
1 The author's outline includes the following models: The 
Applicative Model, The Sense-Text Model, The Configurational 
Model, The Categorial Model, The Tagmemic Model, The Stra-
tificational Model, The Functional Generative Model, The 
Scale and Category Model. 
318 
The book also includes a comprehensive bibliography on generat-· 
ive and other syntactic models, as well as an index of proper 
names.and an index o:f subjects. 
The Introduction provides a concise outline o:f the history of 
Syntax and its role in traditional, structural and generative 
grammar. At the.same time the basic characteristics of the three 
approaches to language in general are mentioned, these charac-
teristics reflecting the development of the study of language 
from i ts early stage based on _the grammar of the Classical 
Languages, strictly prescriptive in nature, through the estab-
lishment of linguistics, in the period of early structuralism, 
as an independent, though still largeiy descriptive, scientific 
discipline, to the emergence of the generative theory, which 
conferred upon linguistics the status of a science in the modem. 
sense of the word - a science which s.tri ves not only for descrip-
ti ve but also for explanatory/predictive power• 
The first three uni ts in Part One deal wi th the basic features 
of the generative approach, notably the distinction between under-
lying and surface structure, phrase structure rules and transfor-
mational rules, and the essentials of the two Chomskyan models. 
The latter models are presented in a clear, concise and compre-
hensible wey. Special attention has been paid to the advantages 
and shortcomings of each model with respect to its predecessor. 
This is important, especially for a beginner in this field, since 
it enables him to grasp the pivotal points of discordance among 
generative grammarians and to understand the reasons which ul-
timately led to the construction of several new generative models. 
Two of the latter, McCawley's and Fillmore's, which are discu5sed 
in Unit Four, have been selected for good reasons. They both 
reflect the general tendency to give semantics, whose function 
was much restricted in the Chomskyan models, a position of equal 
status in language analysis, allowing both syntactic and semantic 
facts to be considered in the search for a linguistic theory of 
greater explanatory adequacy. In addition to this, McCawley's 
319 
proposal represents a direct link with the new trend in the 
generative theory - generative semantics, which is discussed 
in Unit Five. The author sketches out only the main features 
of McCawley's proposal, without going into details whose 
comprehension would require considerable knowledge of sym-
bolic logic, and, similarly, in the case of Fillmore' s propos,al, 
sh.e presents only the essentials common to all his proposals, 
which otherwise differ in many details. Such treatment is en-
tirely in accordance with the nature and aims of the present 
book. It is, however, important that a presentation of generat-
ive models other than Chomsky's has .been included, not only in 
order to provide a complete picture of the development of ge-· 
nerative theory from its beginnings to the present state of the 
art but also to demonstrate the viability of the generative 
approach. 
The author does not deal with the psychological and philosophical 
implications of generative grammar, such as the nature of human 
language in general, the question of linguistic universals, and 
the relation between language and mind. It was, in fact, these 
very considerations which, on the one hand, made Chomsky well-
known outside linguistic circles and popularized his theory to 
such an extent, and which, on the other hand, gave rise to a 
number of controversies. Such psychological and philosophical 
reflections on language often make it difficult for the beginner 
to read the original works on the subject of generative theory. 
For this.reason it is an advantage rather than a shortcoming of 
a book of this nature to exclude them ~rom direct treatment. The 
works cited in 11 Suggestion~ for Further Reading" and "Bibli-
ography" provide ample opportunity for readers to get familiar 
with the above-mentioned aspects of generative the9ry if they 
so desire. 
As has already been noted, the general framework adopted by the 
author for the treatment of major syntactic phenomena is largely 
of the Fillmorian type. However, the crucial notion of underlying 
320 
structure has been conceived somewhat differently from Fillmore's 
and it represents an original contribution by the. author. She 
points out, however, that the proposed underlying structure has 
not been chosen as yet another theoretical alternative, but 
rather as a basis which seems suitable to the author for the· 
treatnient of those syntactic.phenomena which she has set out to 
exami!le. rt is, then, in view of the extent to which the author 
has been successful in pursuing thispracticalgoal that her 
choiee must be evaluated; althbugh a comparison withFillmore's 
. . , . . . 
underlyi!lg structure on a more theoretical level lllight be in-
tere.sting •. From the author' s treatment of these phenomena pres-
ented in the following units, it can be.seen that she has been 
successful in achieving this goal. 
During the discussi.on of the major syntactic structures and 
processes, frequent reference is made to Jacobs and Rosenbaum's 
work English Transformational Grammar, 2 which is one of the first 
and most well-known text books on generative grammar. Although it 
can still be considered to be one of the major works of its kind 
in this field it must be borne in mind that it was ~ritten during 
the early stage of development of t.he generative theory and the-
refore its account of some phenomena is incomplete in the light 
of more recent developments. For this reason. the author has 
tried, throughout the book, to incorporate into her framework 
the more recent approaches to particular syntactic problems /if 
they seem to provide greater insight, of course/,. as well as to 
offer some improvements of her own. Among the former, mention can 
be made of the distinction between factive and non-factive predi-
cat,es, which makes possible a more adequate acc.ount of Nomin-
alization. The author's improvements include a unified treatment 
of prepositions and particles, and the avoidance of most of the 
segmentation transf·ormations. Both steps contribute to greater 
simplicity of description. In the majority of cases, however, 
2 Jacobs, R.A. and P.S.Rosenbaum: English Transformational 
Grammar, Blaisdell Company, Boston 1968. 
321 
the author follows the familiar and widely accepted analyses of 
particular syntactic phenomena, set, of course, within the 
general framework she has adopted. 
All the main points under discussion are illustrated with 
simple, typical examples, which make it easy for the reader to 
follow the argument. Another important feature of this book is 
that all the crucial notions used are consistently explained 
and often provid:ed with illustrative examples. This is of great 
significance. if it. is recalled that many a misunderstanding 
among generative grammarians themselves has turned out to be 
merely the result. of terminological inconsistencies. It is no 
wonder that a beginner in this field is often puzzled by the 
different uses by various authors.of the same term.3 Such a 
reader expects to find terminological clarity and an explanation 
of !'llllbiguous terms at least in a text book on the subject. In 
this connection it must be men1;;ioned that the author's decision 
to write her book in English is most appropriate, not only be-
cause it makes the book accessible to a wider c1rcle o.f readers, 
but also because ·the reader has to get .familiar with the orig-
inal terminological apparatus o.f the generative theory i.f he is 
to be able to follow the major original works in this field, 
which have been written in English. 
The book can be used both .for individual study and in a teaching 
course. In addition to the above-mentioned praiseworthy .features, 
the individual reader will particularly welcome the key to the 
assignments, which enables him to check his progress, and the 
graded list of relevant works - those cited under the "Reading 
List" representing the works which are less complex and which 
he should de.finitely consult, and those cited under "Suggestions 
3 This is particularly true of the earlier works on the 
generative theory, which, like any novel scientific ap-
proach, had to .face the di.fficulties of building up an 
adequate terminological apparatus. 
322 
for Further Reading", which he can turn to if he so wishes at 
a more advanced stage. Although the book is primarily intend~d 
as an introduction to generative syntax, it will be also useful 
to those who are already familiar with that subject, since the 
"Suggestions for Further Reading" and a carefully compiled, up-
to-date bibliography provide a good source of reference for 
particular syntactic phenomena. 
The book can be used within a course on theoretical linguistics, 
both at an introductory and at an advanced level, since i ts o·r-
ganization enables the teacher to deal with only the fundamentals 
of the generative theory or else to enlarge upon the material 
.according to the nature of the course. 
The book is also suitable for the teaching of English syntax to 
foreign students of the English language. The choice of the ge-
nerative approach to syntax instead of the structural or tra.-
di tional one appears to be entirely justified, for.it is in the 
area of syntax that the generative theory has achieved the most. 
The syntactic phenomena have never before been explored with such 
explicitness and scientific rigour as by the generative theory. 
Moreover, the latter has revealed a great number of hitherto un-
known features of human language, and the fact that it has not 
· been able to explain adequately all those f eatures does not in 
the least diminish its importance, for, in the author's words, 
"the validity of a theory is assessed not only through the 
answers it gives but also through the questions it poses. 114 
Whatever future developments may bring, the generative theory 
has already won a permanent place for itself in linguistics and 
no student of languages can afford to neglect it. 
4 p. 14 
323 
Milena Milojevi6-Sheppard 
Ljubljana