Deep structure and surface structure are two ways of representing sentences in transformational grammar theory. Deep structure is the underlying meaning encoded in the brain, while surface structure is the actual form of the sentence. Transformational rules are used to derive meaning from the surface structure. The innate ability to hold abstract ideas in the brain allows for automatic encoding of language in terms of deep structure. Most linguists no longer believe that deep structure is the only way humans derive meaning from language.
In transformational grammar theory, sentences can be represented in two ways: deep structure and surface structure. Deep structure refers to the underlying meaning of a sentence as it is represented and understood in the brain. It serves as a counterpoint to the surface structure, which is the actual written or spoken form of the sentence. This concept was created by Noam Chomsky in his 1957 book, Syntactic Structures, which formulated the theory of transformational grammar. According to this theory, humans use transformations, a type of cognitive process, to map the structural relationships between sentence referents comprised in linguistic regions of the brain and the actual content of a sentence that is seen or heard.
The deep structure concept holds that information about each component of a sentence, such as its subjects and predicates, is encoded in abstract pieces within the brain. Sentences that are different in terms of surface structure, such as “The boy kicked the ball” and “The boy kicked the ball,” can have the same deep structure. The reason for this is because the component pieces for each sentence are related in the same way in the brain, so that humans can understand sentences as semantically equivalent, even if they are syntactically different. With ambiguous sentences, such as “I saw a man driving,” with only one surface texture, multiple textural interpretations can be created by rearranging the component pieces, such as “I saw a man driving” or “I saw a man driving normally.”
The deep structure, as described by Chomsky, was subject to certain rules that are innate in the human brain. These include transformation rules for deriving meaning from the surface structure of a sentence, such as adding an implied object to a sentence: the command “Guide only!” it becomes an instruction to “Drive the car”, through the addition rule, for example. Through other transformations, the deep structure of a thought is converted into grammatically correct sentences that can be understood by the listener or reader. These rules, as well as the ability to hold abstract ideas in the brain, are innate, according to the theory, so people don’t need to be taught to encode language in terms of deep structure; it is a process that occurs automatically. While the concept of structures remains important in linguistics, most linguists no longer believe that deep structure is the only way humans derive meaning from language.
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