Transformation in Pashto Language

An Analysis of Pashto Phrases and Sentences

Abstract

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Transformation is a significant area of research that focuses on how language users utilise knowledge of their language (s) to generate different surface structures from the same deep structure. The study aims to describe how different surface structures are generated from the deep structure and how Pashto speakers use different transformational processes to generate various constructions from a single construction. The study is qualitative in nature, using qualitative data and analysing it qualitatively. The untested sentences selected based on the researcher’s general observation served as the study’s data. Transformational Generative Grammar theory was used as a theoretical framework for the study. The study confirmed that the speakers of Pashto construct new structures from a deep structure using all the transformational processes found in English. The transformational processes the Pashto speakers use are merging, movement, insertion, and deletion. The study supports Noam Chomsky’s view that languages share some universal features.