Generative Grammar
Generative grammar is the set of language rules that indicates the structure and explanation of sentences that native speakers accept as belonging to their language.
The head principle of generative grammar is that all people are born with an inborn ability for language and this ability forms the regulations for what is “correct” grammar.
The idea of inborn language ability (“universal grammar”) is not accepted by all linguists. On the contrary, some believe that all languages are learned and, hence, based on particular constraints [1].
Generative grammar is defined as a grammar of a certain language which is able to define all and only the grammatical sentences of that language. American linguist Noam Chomsky introduced the term “generative grammar” in the 1950s, and it has been deeply influential. A generative grammar is mechanical – once constructed, it needs no further human involvement. The rules of grammar automatically define the entire set of grammatical sentences of the language, without producing any ungrammatical rubbish. Considering the number of possible sentences in any language is infinite, and considering we don't want to write an infinitely long set of regulations, a generative grammar has the property of recursion: a single rule is allowed to apply over and over in the construction of a single sentence. [Trask, 67].
In particular, what distinguishes work in generative grammar is the goal of describing languages systematically, as opposed to the approach of traditional grammar [Wasow, 297]
⠀ 1. Retrieved from: ThoughtCo [https://www.thoughtco.com/what-is-generative-grammar-1690894].
⠀ 2. R.L.Trask. (1999). Key Concepts in Language and Linguistics. London: Routledge.