The Limited Input, The Infinite Output

In the 1950s and 1960s, Noam Chomsky published three seminal works that progressively established and deepened his theory of Generative Grammar, fundamentally redirecting the course of modern linguistics. These three books form a complete intellectual system, moving from theoretical construction, through model refinement, to philosophical elevation.

在20世纪50年代至60年代，诺姆·乔姆斯基发表了三部开创性著作，逐步确立并深化了其生成语法理论，彻底改变了现代语言学的发展方向。这三部著作共同构成了一个完整的思想体系，经历了从理论构建、模型完善到哲学升华的过程。

1. Syntactic Structures (1957)

"Syntactic Structures" marks the birth of Generative Grammar. Its core proposition is a formal system of rules capable of "generating" all and only the grammatically correct sentences of a language. It introduced the transformational-generative model, comprising Phrase Structure Rules and Transformational Rules.

《句法结构》标志着生成语法理论的诞生。其核心主张是建立一套形式化规则系统，能够"生成"一种语言中所有且仅合乎语法的句子。书中提出了包含短语结构规则与转换规则的"转换-生成"模型。

For example, take the sentence "The man opened the door." Phrase Structure Rules break it down into hierarchical components (e.g., S → NP VP). Transformational Rules then operate on this structure to generate variants like the passive ("The door was opened by the man") or the interrogative ("Did the man open the door?").

例如，以句子"The man opened the door."为例。短语结构规则将其分解为层次成分（如：句子S → 名词短语NP + 动词短语VP）。转换规则随后作用于该结构，生成诸如被动式（"The door was opened by the man"）或疑问式（"Did the man open the door?"）等句式变体。

The book's revolution lay in shifting linguistics' object of study from external speech behavior to the internal, mentally represented grammatical knowledge, emphasizing the autonomy of syntax from semantics.

该书的革命性在于它将语言学的研究对象从外在的言语行为转向了内化的、心智中表征的语法知识，并强调了句法独立于语义的自主性。

2. Aspects of the Theory of Syntax (1965) — Foundations of the Standard Theory

This work introduced the fundamental distinction between "competence" (the speaker-hearer's knowledge of their language) and "performance" (the actual use of language in concrete situations). Linguistics proper is concerned with the study of competence.

这部著作引入了"语言能力"（说话者-听话者对其语言的知识）和"语言运用"（在具体情境中语言的实际使用）之间的根本区分。语言学历来主要关注对语言能力的研究。

Chomsky systematically proposed a grammar with three components: Syntax, Semantics, and Phonology. The syntactic component is central, consisting of a Base (generating Deep Structures) and a Transformational component (mapping Deep Structures to Surface Structures).

乔姆斯基系统性地提出了语法包含三个组成部分：句法、语义和语音。句法部分是核心，由基础部分（生成深层结构）和转换部分（将深层结构映射为表层结构）构成。

The Base, using Phrase Structure Rules and the Lexicon, generates the Deep Structure, which carries fundamental grammatical relations and meaning. Transformational rules modify these into Surface Structures. The Semantic component interprets the Deep Structure for meaning, while the Phonological component interprets the Surface Structure for sound.

基础部分使用短语结构规则和词库生成深层结构，它承载基本的语法关系和意义。转换规则将其修改为表层结构。语义部分对深层结构进行解释以输出意义，而语音部分对表层结构进行解释以输出语音。

This model reflects the cognitive process where core lexical concepts are first selected and then organized with grammatical features (tense, structure, etc.) before being linearized into a spoken sentence.

该模型反映了一种认知过程：核心词汇概念首先被选择，随后与语法特征（时态、结构等）一起组织起来，最后才被线性化为说出的句子。

3. Language and Mind (1968) — A Turn Towards Philosophy and Biology

This book marked a shift in Chomsky's focus from technical syntactic theory to broader questions in philosophy of mind and biology. Its core thesis is that the faculty of language is an innate "mental organ."

本书标志着乔姆斯基的研究重心从技术性的句法理论转向了心智哲学和生物学领域的更广泛问题。其核心论点是：语言能力是一种天生的"心智器官"。

Using the "poverty of the stimulus" argument, Chomsky contended that children's ability to rapidly and uniformly master their native language from limited and often fragmented input necessitates an innate, biologically endowed system of constraints—Universal Grammar.

利用"刺激贫乏论"，乔姆斯基论证指出，儿童能够从有限且往往不完整的语言输入中迅速、一致地掌握母语，这必然依赖于一个天生的、生物性赋予的约束系统——普遍语法。

Consequently, Universal Grammar is not merely an abstract logical framework but part of human biological inheritance. Linguistics thus becomes a branch of cognitive psychology, or even biology, seeking to uncover how this innate "language faculty" defines our uniquely human nature.

因此，普遍语法不再仅仅是一个抽象的逻辑框架，而是人类生物遗传的一部分。语言学由此成为认知心理学、甚至生物学的一个分支，致力于揭示这套天生的"语言官能"如何定义了我们独特的人性。