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On the Failure of Generative Grammar

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 March 2026

Maurice Gross
Maurice Gross*
Affiliation:
Laboratoire d'Automatique Documentaire et Linguistique, Université de Paris VII
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Abstract

An attempt to construct a generative grammar of French with a coverage comparable to that of traditional grammars has failed. A description has been arrived at in the course of this work, however; it is much more complex than expected, and turns out to be entirely taxonomic. This result calls into question the validity of the so-called theory of generative grammar.

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Type
Research Article
Information
Language , Volume 55 , Issue 4 , December 1979, pp. 859 - 885
Copyright
Copyright © 1979 by Linguistic Society of America

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