An Application of an Extended Generative Semantic Model of Language to Man-machine Interaction

The theory of generative semantics, to be discussed in section II, is an outgrowth of, and reaction to, Chomsky's 1965 theory of transformational linguistics. It is a radical theory which deals with a very great range of problems with very abstract methods. Trose working in this paradigm hold that there is a linguistic level reflecting conceptual or semantic structure which is directly convertible into surface syntax by a single set of garden-variety transformations, with no O significant intermediary level, that is, no deep structure". These of us working in generative semantics believe that methods substantially those long familiar in linguistics can achieve very absract , very general results which treat semantics in a more serious and enlightening way than ever before. I do not, I think, support this very strong claim very well in section II, but I provide summaries of several studies and a lengthy bibliogrpahy of works which when consulted will hopefully give some feeling for what is being attempted, I think not without results.