Re: "Writing Transformational Grammars" Book

Caleb Hines wrote:
> Here's one of the sample excersises from that book.
Well, I need an explanation.

If I ignore sentence 10, I can produce this 'grammar':

  sentence    : subject VERB object
  subject     : noun-phrase
  object      : noun-phrase
  noun-phrase : modifier NOUN
  modifier    : ADJECTIVE | 0

  transformations

     subj VERB obj  ->  VERB obj subj

  vocabulary

    VERB
      ma     "eat"            tagapa "love"
      tagrup "caress"         tasupa "hit"

    NOUN
      bod   "dog"      gal   "girl"      ped   "boy"
      pso   "man"      samak "fish"      umu   "mother"

    ADJECTIVE
      buntu  "big"

The last sentence:
  10) buntu samak tagrup.
  The big fish caresses the fish.

suggests a rule where the object can be deleted if it the same as the
subject - but we are told these are ungrammatical

  *gal tagapa
  *bod tasupa
  *gal tagrup

The difference seems to be the presence of the adjective. So do I create an
optional transformational rule:

   ADJECTIVE NOUN.1 VERB NOUN.1  -> ADJECTIVE NOUN.1 VERB

which would let me say '?buntu gal tagrup'  "the big girl caresses the girl"?

        Erich