base component

A term used in the STANDARD model of generative grammar to refer to one of the two main divisions of the grammar’s SYNTACTIC COMPONENT, the other being the TRANSFORMATIONAL (sub-)component. In Noam Chomsky’s Syntactic Structures (1957), the alternative term was ‘phrase-structure component’, which specified the PHRASE-STRUCTURE RULES of the grammar. In Aspects of the Theory of Syntax (1965), the same distinction (between base and transformational subcomponents) is made, but the roles of the two differ from the earlier version, in relation to the theory as a whole. In Aspects, the base contains a ‘categorial’ component (specifying the CATEGORIES, S, NP, VP, etc.) and a ‘lexical’ component (consisting of LEXICAL entries made up of such FEATURES as ‘animate’, ‘human’, etc.). Taken together, the information in these components specifies the DEEP STRUCTURE of sentences. In later versions of generative grammar, the role of the base component receives further modifications, as the relationship between syntax and SEMANTICS is investigated.