Instead of analyzing the innate meaning of these examples using a structured technique, Chomsky argues that it is only through subconscious knowledge of transformational grammar that one can truly understand the deeper meaning of language. Of course, this theory has been challenged by many with its emphasis on syntax and lack of focus on semantics, but as Chomsky himself said:
But the fundamental reason for [the] inadequacy of traditional grammars is a more technical one. Although it was well understood that linguistic processes are in some sense "creative," the technical devices for expressing a system of recursive processes were simply not available until much more recently. In fact, a real understanding of how a language can (in Humboldt's words) "make infinite use of finite means" has developed only within the last thirty years, in the course of studies in the foundations of mathematics (Chomsky, 1965, 8).
This grammatical theory evolved...
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