Noam Chomsky’s theory of transformational-generative grammar explains how human language is acquired and generated. It has facilitated research in natural language processing and natural language generation. While transformational-generative grammar primarily focuses on syntax and the legitimacy of sentence structures, applying its underlying concept to the structures of narratives and their legitimacy in proposing the theory of generative narratives that explains how human storytelling narratives are generated is possible. The fundamental generative grammar of the theory of generative narratology consists of the rules of understanding the deficiencies of the world and creating a setting in them, the rules of generating characters derived from the world, and the characters’ sequences of actions. Within this framework, different types of narratives can render transformational narratives and, thus, the theory of transformational-generative narratology. From the perspective of the “narrative-transformational grammar of narrative”, each narrative can be regarded as a sentence with a subject-predicate-object structure. This is the fundamental generative grammar of narrative based on the characters’ action sequences. All specific narratives are then the result of the transformation and generation of this fundamental grammar. The study of the transformational-generative grammar of narrative contributes to our understanding and interpretation of existing literary works. More importantly, it provides inspiration for generating narratives in creative writing and serves as a theoretical guide for the research and practice of generating narratives in creative writing.

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The Generative Theory of Creative Narrative

  • Hong Bing Ge

摘要

Noam Chomsky’s theory of transformational-generative grammar explains how human language is acquired and generated. It has facilitated research in natural language processing and natural language generation. While transformational-generative grammar primarily focuses on syntax and the legitimacy of sentence structures, applying its underlying concept to the structures of narratives and their legitimacy in proposing the theory of generative narratives that explains how human storytelling narratives are generated is possible. The fundamental generative grammar of the theory of generative narratology consists of the rules of understanding the deficiencies of the world and creating a setting in them, the rules of generating characters derived from the world, and the characters’ sequences of actions. Within this framework, different types of narratives can render transformational narratives and, thus, the theory of transformational-generative narratology. From the perspective of the “narrative-transformational grammar of narrative”, each narrative can be regarded as a sentence with a subject-predicate-object structure. This is the fundamental generative grammar of narrative based on the characters’ action sequences. All specific narratives are then the result of the transformation and generation of this fundamental grammar. The study of the transformational-generative grammar of narrative contributes to our understanding and interpretation of existing literary works. More importantly, it provides inspiration for generating narratives in creative writing and serves as a theoretical guide for the research and practice of generating narratives in creative writing.