Formal Language is a Language generated by a formal grammar ( A fully explicit device which specifies, for a given initial set of elements, the complete set of strings of those elements which are in the language defined by the grammar. A grammar which is fully formal constitutes a linguistic use of what mathematicians and logicians call a formal system. Most contemporary approaches to grammar purport to be formal in this sense, at least in principle, thought in practice some frameworks are considerably more explicit than others.). A formal language may or may not resemble a natural language; one of the goals of grammatical investigation is the construction of grammars which generate formal languages resembling natural languages as closely as possible.
Chomsky (1964:
915) 使用Competence 和 Performance來重新詮釋Saussure的Langue和Parole所表達的觀念。Chomsky的Competence的觀念包含不可縮減的語言核心,也就是指,形式語法(Formal grammer)所描述那些形成自主的,純粹語言學的系統特徵方面的事項。所以,Compentence是許多促成Performace其中的一個系統。
II.
Important People and Readings:
Formal Theory of Exceptions in Generative
Phonology
2. Wim
de. Haas
A Formal Theory of Vowel Coalescence: A Case
Study of Ancient Greek
III. References
1. Cann, Ronnie. 1993. Formal Semantics: An Introduction. Cambridge.
2. Hyman, Larry M. 1975. Phonology Theory and Analysis. Uni. Of Southern California.
3. Katamba, Francis. 1989. An Introduction to
Phonology. London: Routledge.
4. Murray, James A. H. & Henry Bradley & W.
A. Craigie & C. T. Onions. 1989. The Oxford English Dictionary.
Oxford: Clarendon Press.
5. Newmeyer, Frederick J. 1997. Linguistic Theory
in America.
6.
Trask, R. L. 1993. A Dictionary of Grammatical Terms in Lingustics.
London: Routledge.