What Is Generative Grammar?

Generative grammar is a theory of human language that posits that the grammatical structure of sentences is generated by the human mind as a generative process. The theory was originally developed by Noam Chomsky in the late 1950s and 1960s. The term "generative grammar" was introduced by Chomsky in his 1965 book "Aspects of the Theory of Syntax", where he argued that his theory was a significant departure from the prevailing structuralist theories of the time, such as those of Ferdinand de Saussure and Roman Jakobson. In Chomsky's view, structuralist theories were not sufficiently explanatory. In contrast, generative grammar has a descriptive power that structuralist theories lack.