ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book deals with generative grammar and linguistic competence. Linguistics is a science, and a grammar is itself a scientific theory. A generative grammar is a theory of the speaker's competence. A grammatical theory specifies the terms in which a particular grammar is written. The book presents Noam Avram Chomsky's important contributions. Firstly, Chomsky has tried to clarify the subject matter of linguistics. On this level, the key notions are those of a generative grammar and of the speaker's linguistic competence. Secondly, Chomsky has put forward a specific theory of grammar, or a succession of related theories, conceived in such terms. On this level, the key notions are those of deep and surface structure, of grammatical transformations, and so on. On a third level, Chomsky has made important contributions as an English grammarian.
