Explain the deep structure and surface structure.
Or, Differentiate between deep structure and surface structure.
Differences between Deep Structure and Surface Structure
American linguist Noam Chomsky presents the terms deep structure and surface structure as part of his work on transformational grammar.
- According to Chomsky, deep structure refers to ideas, concepts, and feelings whereas surface structure refers to the words we use to represent deep structure.
- The surface structure produces the structure. It refers to the sentence as pronounced or written. The deep structure is the abstract structure.
- The surface structure detects sounds, graphic-phonic systems, alphabetical principles, phonemic awareness, and decoding lexical systems. Conversely, the deep structure deeply and subtly understands the meaning of words from literal concepts.
- The surface structure usually uses the active form but the deep structure uses the passive form.
