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Generative semantics was a research program in theoretical linguistics which held that syntactic structures are computed on the basis of meanings rather than the other way around. Generative semantics developed out of transformational generative grammar in the mid-1960s, but stood in opposition to it. The period in which the two research programs coexisted was marked by intense and often personal clashes now known as the linguistics wars. Its proponents included Haj Ross, Paul Postal, James McCawley, and George Lakoff, who dubbed themselves "The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse".
Generative semantics is no longer practiced under that name, though many of its central ideas have blossomed in the cognitive linguistics tradition. It is also regarded as a key part of the intellectual heritage of head-driven phrase structure grammar (HPSG) and construction grammar, and some of its insights live on in mainstream generative grammar. Pieter Seuren has developed a semantic syntax which is very close in spirit to the original generative semantics framework, which he played a role in developing.[1][2]
- ^ Newmeyer, Frederick, J. (1986). Linguistic Theory in America (Second ed.). Academic Press.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) See p. 138. - ^ Seuren, Pieter (28 January 2021). "Essentials of Semantic Syntax: an Appetiser". Cadernos de Linguística. 2 (1): 01–20. doi:10.25189/2675-4916.2021.V2.N1.ID290. hdl:21.11116/0000-0007-DAE7-F. Retrieved 27 March 2022.