Chapter seven

A transformation may involve any of four processes: addition, deletion,

rearrangement, or substitution. ‫جدا‬ ‫مهم‬
1. By addition we place something in the tree that was not in the deep structure;
thus, we may add do to :he past not disappear to give: he past do not disappear

Since the deep structure must contain the full meaning of the sentence, only
words which are relatively empty in meaning, such as do, may be added
transformationally.

2. By deletion we remove something from the structure. We have not yet

encountered deletion, but you can readily see how it operates on the following
structure:

Bill couldn’t hear you, but I could hear you.

Bill couldn’t hear you, but I could.

In the second sentence the MV underlying hear you has been deleted, since it is
repetitious. Only elements that cause no loss in meaning may be deleted.

3. Rearrangement changes the ordering of the structure. We have seen this process
in the negative, yes/no, and WH transformations. As with the other transformations,
rearrangement produces a change in structure and is not just a shifting of words.

4. Substitution involves replacing an element of the deep structure with another

element, as the substitution of where for Adv-p-WH. The WH transformation
involves a combination of rearrangement and substitution.
 Adverbial Movement

Our phrase-structure rules introduce all adverbials after the MV, as in sentences la,
2a, and 3a:
la. I saw her at the bank yesterday.
2a. He found some luggage in the closet.
3a. We didn’t stay long because of the rain.
The following are also grammatical sentences of English:
lb. Yesterday I saw her at the bank.
2b. In the closet he found some luggage.
3b. Because of the rain we didn’t stay long.
Since these sentences mean the same thing as the corresponding sentences la, 2a,
and 3a, we would like to account for this in our grammar. The structure underlying
I saw her at the bank yesterday is as follows:

It will be possible to derive Yesterday I saw her at the bank from this same deep
structure if we rearrange the elements:
Many adverbials may undergo this rearrangement:
la. I eat there sometimes,
b. Sometimes I eat there.
2a. I read about the accident in the newspaper,
b. In the newspaper I read about the accident.
Most adverbials of manner do not shift except for emphasis: ‫*غلط‬carefully he
checked the papers. The adverbial-movement transformation, like the negative and
yes/no, rearranges the structure underlying a sentence.

Indirect Objects
Now let us turn to another group of sentences which share meaning:
la. They sent a note to me.
b. They sent me a note.
2a. Mary has mailed a letter to her friend,
b. Mary has mailed her friend a letter.
3a. She cooked a meal for me.
b. She cooked me a meal.
Our phrase-structure rules will account for la, 2a, and 3a, but not for lb, 2b, and 3b,
in which the words me (lb), her friend (2b), and me (3b) are said to function as
indirect objects. Since sentences la and lb mean the same thing, we would like to
derive them from the same deep structure:
This is the deep structure for “They sent a note to me”. If we rearrange the
structure, we can derive sentence lb:

This transformation rearranges; it also deletes the preposition to.

“They sent a note to me” and “They sent me a note” are exact paraphrases of each
other. The indirect object transformation is optional; there is, therefore, no marker
in the deep structure to indicate that it must be performed. We might state our rule
as follows:

The NPs are numbered so that we can distinguish them. We may illustrate the
sentence “She cooked a meal for me” as follows:

We want to state our rules precisely enough so that they will permit all grammatical
sentences of English; at the same time, we want to prevent all ungrammatical ones.
This rule will account for “They sent me a note” and the other sentences we have
given, but it will also permit the following: ‫النجمة يعني الجمله خطأ‬
1. *They sent me it.
2. *Mary has mailed her friend it.
3. *The driver must have given John it.
From these sentences we see that in the deep structure the first NP following the verb
must contain a common noun, but the NP after the preposition may contain any kind
of nominal. Hence, the structure of They sent the book to me fulfills this requirement
since book is a common noun. They sent it to me does not since it is not a common
noun. We are speaking only of American English, since there are slight differences
found in British usage. We should now revise the rule:

This rule is optional. Whether we apply it or not depends upon stylistic preferences.
It will transform “We shipped the fruit to Tom” to “We shipped Tom the fruit”
and “We made a bird house for Sam” to “We made Sam a bird house”. In
American English it will not apply to “They gave it to me” or “We threw it to
John”.
Imperatives
An imperative sentence such as Close the door or Be good has obviously undergone
a transformation, since there is no noun phrase before the verb. This NP must have
been deleted. Traditional grammarians said that these sentences are derived from
You close the door and You be good. At first glance, You close the door appears
to pose no problem, but the string you +tense + be + good yields You are good or
You were good, not You be good. If we inquire about tense in You close the door,
we see that this cannot be turned into past tense and retain the same meaning. The
traditional explanation is not valid.
1. He was ready, wasn’t he?
2. They had been sleeping, hadn’t they?
3. You can ski, can’t you?
4. She had finished the book, hadn’t she?
5. You will go, won’t you?
The first part of these sentences before the comma is generated by the phrase-
structure rules that we have already outlined. Following the comma is a repetition of
tense, Aux1, and noun phrase. We could write a rule for this kind of tag question:
Notice that the tense remains the same, that the first occurring auxiliary is repeated,
and that there is no change in the noun phrase: He was going, wasn’t he? But not
*He was going, isn’t she?
Now let us see what tag questions are necessary for imperatives:
1. Close the door, won’t you?
2. Be good, won’t you?
3. Answer my question, won’t you?
These examples show that in the deep structure the noun phrase is you, the tense is
present, and the first auxiliary is will. These three sentences must go back to
structures similar to “You will close the door, You will be good”, and “You will
answer my question”. These structures have no morpheme in them that requires a
transformation; we, therefore, add the sentence modifier Imp (imperative). We
now can generate a deep structure like this: Imp you present will go home. Notice
that this differs from the deep structure of you will go home by the inclusion of Imp,
which means that the sentence is an imperative.

This rule is an example of the process of deletion. Notice that it is much more
restrictive than the others we have encountered. In the other transformations we were
able to use NP, since they apply for all kinds of noun phrases in the same way. The
imperative transformation, on the other hand, applies only to sentences containing
you as the first noun phrase. One principle of our grammar is that the listener must
always be able to understand unambiguously which words are deleted. If just any
NP were deleted, he would not be able to do this; but if there is a rule saying that
you in imperatives may be deleted, both speaker and listener have no problem
deciding what has been left out. Similarly, we must specify present tense, not just
tense, since sentences with past tense cannot undergo this transformation. Finally,
the first auxiliary must be will, not just any modal. When you hear someone say
Open the door or Be on time, you are able to recover the deleted information
unambiguously. Deleted information is always understood by both speaker and
listener.
We have now examined in some detail the four transformational processes:
rearrangement, substitution, addition, and deletion. All transformations involve one
or more of these processes in converting deep structures into intermediate or surface
structures. Transformations alter the structure of the sentence, but they do not affect
the meaning given by the deep structure.

Exercises
A. Perform the indirect object transformation:
1. She has mailed a letter to me.
2. The farmer gave a watermelon to Fred.
3. Those people threw pennies to the dancer. 4. Someone was telling a story to us.
5. Don must have handed the eraser to Bill.
B. Transform the following deep structures into surface structures. Take the
transformations one at a time and in the order (1) imperative, (2) negative, (3)
yes/no, (4) WH, (5) do.
1. Imp you will wash the car now
2. Imp not you will open a window
3. Q, he can do NP-WH
4. Imp you will tell the answer
5. Q not she arrived on time
C. For each of the following sentences give the deep structure and take it through
the relevant transformations to derive the given surface structure:
1. He didn’t tell me his plans.
2. Where are you singing tonight?
3. Listen to me.
4. Yesterday he didn’t know her address.
5. Why aren’t you ready?