- a description of a language in terms of explicit rules that ideally generate all and only the grammatical sentences of the language
Compare transformational grammar
WordReference Random House Unabridged Dictionary of American English © 2026
gen′erative gram′mar, [Ling.]
- Linguisticsa linguistic theory that attempts to describe the tacit knowledge that a native speaker has of a language by establishing a set of explicit, formalized rules that specify or generate all the possible grammatical sentences of a language, while excluding all unacceptable sentences. Cf. transformational grammar.
- Linguisticsa set of such rules.
- 1955–60
Collins Concise English Dictionary © HarperCollins Publishers::
generative grammar n
'generative grammar' also found in these entries (note: many are not synonyms or translations):
autonomous syntax
- base
- case grammar
- categorial
- Chomskyan
- component
- deep structure
- derivation
- formative
- generate
- generative
- generative semantics
- generative-transformational grammar
- generativist
- phrase marker
- rewriterule
- TG
- TGG
- trace
- transformational-generative grammar
- transformational grammar
- surface structure