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A grammatical rule which changes one sentence into another: for example, the question transformation changes “Ruby can operate an electric drill” into “Can Ruby operate an electric drill?” In G enerative grammar transformations operate on abstract grammatical structures. So the question transformation changes the structure (noun phrase – auxiliary verb – verb phrase) into (auxiliary verb – noun phrase – verb phrase). Transformations were an important innovation in early generative grammar, so much so that the theoretical framework as a whole was sometimes called “transformational grammar.” In later work transformations became less central. See also C homsky , N oam ; G enerative grammar ; H arris , Z ellig . 1988 : Transformational Grammar . 1990 : The Chomsky Update: Linguistics and Politics . ... log in or subscribe to read full text