Some Issues in the Theory of Transformations

Abstract

Paul Postal ('Avoiding Reference to Subject' Linguistic Inquiry 1976, 7, 151-182.) has expanded the realm of possible grammars by allowing rules to refer to grammatical relations. He claims that the standard framework is insufficient to account for all the data & allows a grammar a much more powerful scope. Existing constraints, such as the specified subject condition & the complex NP constraint on transformations in combination with the rule, are formulated within the tenets of the standard theory. T. Lamb