PAPER

DEEP STRUCTURE
LECTURER :
MULIANI, M.Pd.

Group name :
AKHYARDI (19101041)
Abdurrosyid (19101062)
Arif Nurhuda (19101067)
Lalu Wahuda Prawinata (19101060)

faculty of Culture, Management and Business

Mataram Mandalika University of Education
2021
 Foreword

Praise and gratitude, thank God, we pray to the presence of God

Almighty, for having bestowed His grace in the form of opportunities
and knowledge so that this paper can be completed on time.
We also thank our friends who have contributed by providing
their ideas so that this paper can be arranged properly and neatly.
We hope that this paper can add to the knowledge of the readers.
But apart from that, we understand that this paper is far from perfect,
so we really hope for constructive criticism and suggestions for the
creation of a better next paper.
Mataram, July 6, 2020

Author

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 TABLE OF CONTENT
FOREWORD…………………………………………………………………………………………i
TABLE OF CONTENTS………………………………………………………………………....ii
CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION
A.Background……………………………………………………………………………………3
B. Problem Formulation…………..…………………….…………………………..…….3
CHAPTER II DISCUSSION
1. Definition………………………………………………………………………………4
2. Properties of Deep Structure…………………………………………………4
3. Examples and Observations ………………………………………………….5
4. Evolving Perspectives on Deep Structure………………………………7
CHAPTER III CLOSING
A.Conclusion……………………………………………………………………………………..8
Reference…………….…………………………………………….……………….………….9

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 CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
A. BACKGROUND
In early transformational syntax, deep structures are derivation trees of a context free
language. These trees are then transformed by a sequence of tree rewriting operations
("transformations") into surface structures. The terminal yield of a surface structure tree, the
surface form, is then predicted to be a grammatical sentence of the language being studied.
The role and significance of deep structure changed a great deal as Chomsky developed his
theories, and since the mid-1990s deep structure no longer features at all.
It is tempting to regard deep structures as representing meanings and surface structures
as representing sentences that express those meanings, but this is not the concept of deep
structure favoured by Chomsky. Rather, a sentence more closely corresponds to a deep
structure paired with the surface structure derived from it, with an additional phonetic form
obtained from processing of the surface structure.
Chomsky noted in his early years that by dividing deep structures from surface
structures, one could understand "slip of the tongue" moments (where someone says
something that he did not intend) as instances where deep structures do not translate into the
intended surface structure.

B. PROBLEM FORMULATION
1. What is deep structure ?
2. What are Properties of Deep Structure ?
3. What is the Examples and Observations of deep structure ?
4. How to Evolving Perspectives on Deep Structure ?

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 CHAPTER II
DISCUSSION
1. Definition
In transformational and generative grammar, deep structure (also known as deep
grammar or D-structure) is the underlying syntactic structure—or level—of a sentence. In
contrast to surface structure (the outward form of a sentence), deep structure is an abstract
representation that identifies the ways a sentence can be analyzed and interpreted. Deep
structures are generated by phrase-structure rules, and surface structures are derived from deep
structures by a series of transformations.
According to the "Oxford Dictionary of English Grammar" (2014):
"Deep and surface structure are often used as terms in a simple binary opposition, with the deep
structure representing meaning, and the surface structure being the actual sentence we see."
The terms deep structure and surface structure were popularized in the 1960s and '70s by
American linguist Noam Chomsky, who eventually discarded the concepts in his minimalist
program in the 1990s.
  The terms deep structure and surface structure were introduced by Noam Chomsky
as a part of his work on transformational grammar. As per Chomsky deep structure refers to
concepts, thoughts, ideas & feelings whereas surface structure refers to the words / language
we use to represent the deep structure
2. Properties of Deep Structure
"Deep structure is a level of syntactic representation with a number of properties that need
not necessarily go together. Four important properties of deep structure are:
1. Major grammatical relations, such as subject of and object of, are defined at deep
structure.
2. All lexical insertion occurs at deep structure.
3. All transformations occur after deep structure.
4. Semantic interpretation occurs at deep structure.
"The question of whether there is a single level of representation with these properties was the
most debated question in generative grammar following the publication of "Aspects [of the
Theory of Syntax" 1965]. One part of the debate focused on whether transformations preserve
meaning."

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– Alan Garnham, "Psycholinguistics: Central Topics." Psychology Press, 1985

3. Examples and Observations

" Chomsky had identified a basic grammatical structure in Syntactic Structures [1957]
that he referred to as kernel sentences. Reflecting mentalese, kernel sentences were where words
and meaning first appeared in the complex cognitive process that resulted in an utterance. In [
Aspects of the Theory of Syntax, 1965], Chomsky abandoned the notion of kernel sentences and
identified the underlying constituents of sentences as deep structure. The deep structure was
versatile insofar as it accounted for meaning and provided the basis for transformations that
turned deep structure into surface structure, which represented what we actually hear or read.
Transformation rules, therefore, connected deep structure and surface structure, meaning and
syntax."
– James D. Williams, "The Teacher's Grammar Book." Lawrence Erlbaum, 1999
"[Deep structure is a] representation of the syntax of a sentence distinguished by varying criteria
from its surface structure. E.g. in the surface structure of Children are hard to please, the subject
is children and the infinitive to please is the complement of hard. But in its deep structure, as it
was understood especially in the early 1970s, is hard would have as its subject a subordinate
sentence in which children is the object of please: thus, in outline [ please children] is hard."
– P.H. Matthews, "The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Linguistics." Oxford University Press,
2007
Deep structure is what you wish to express and surface structure how you express it in with
the help of words and sentence.
To give you an example, If I were to tell you that “I bought colourful clothes”. This is a surface
structure representing a more detailed and elaborate experience (deeper structure). The deep
structure will contain a lot more details like:
 How many clothes?
 Which types?
 What colours?
 Which clothes did I discarded while buying the ones I bought?
 Where did I buy them from?
 Who I was with when I bought the clothes?
 What was the overall experience of buying these clothes
 How I felt while buying these clothes?
 What were the factors based on which I bought some clothes and discarded others?

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  How much did it cost?
Now if a particular deep structure could have been represented by only one surface structure and
a particular surface structure could only represent one deep structure there would be no scope for
misunderstanding and hence there wouldn’t have been any need to question the surface structure.
But alas that is not the case.
Because of the nature of language, a particular deep structure can be represented by
multiple surface structure sentences.
“I bought colourful clothes” and “Colourful clothes were bought by me” are two different
surface structure sentences that mean exactly the same thing i.e. represent the same deep
structure.
 
Also a particular surface structure sentence can be used to represent multiple deep
structures.
 
“Speaking to you as an intelligent person” is a surface structure that could represent two different
deep structures. Does the sentence represent a deep structure where:
 I think of you as an intelligent person? or
 I think of myself as an intelligent person who is speaking to you?
This creates a scope of misunderstanding as the speaker may have used surface structure to
represent deep structure 1 but the listener may have understood deep structure 2 because of
ambiguity or lack of specific details. Now the decisions and actions of the listener are based on
the deep structure 2 instead of the deep structure 1.
Consider the following statement that a client speaks to the therapist while discussing his
relationship issues.:
“My spouse’s parents treat my children differently because they are handicapped.”
This surface level structure could represent a deep structure where:
 My children are handicapped
 My spouse’s parents are handicapped
Also the expression “treat my children differently” is a vague expression that could mean
different things. It could mean:
 Treat my children favourably or
 It could mean unfavourably.

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Also the actual action that is being termed as “different treatment” can represent different deep
structures.
Now if the therapist does not ask questions to explore the deep structure, the therapist will have
to continue the therapy based on their interpretation of the surface structure. Since there is a
possibility of incorrect interpretation, the entire line of therapy could go off-track.

4. Evolving Perspectives on Deep Structure

"The remarkable first chapter of Noam Chomsky's Aspects of the Theory of Syntax (1965)
set the agenda for everything that has happened in generative linguistics since. Three theoretical
pillars support the enterprise: mentalism, combinatoriality, and acquisition...
"A fourth major point of Aspects, and the one that attracted most attention from the wider public,
concerned the notion of Deep Structure. A basic claim of the 1965 version of generative
grammar was that in addition to the surface form of sentences (the form we hear), there is
another level of syntactic structure, called Deep Structure, which expresses underlying syntactic
regularities of sentences. For instance, a passive sentence like (1a) was claimed to have a Deep
Structure in which the noun phrases are in the order of the corresponding active (1b):
 (1a) The bear was chased by the lion.
 (1b) The lion chased the bear.
"Similarly, a question such as (2a) was claimed to have a Deep Structure closely resembling that
of the corresponding declarative (2b):
 (2a) Which martini did Harry drink?
 (2b) Harry drank that martini.
"...Following a hypothesis first proposed by Katz and Postal (1964), Aspects made the striking
claim that the relevant level of syntax for determining meaning is Deep Structure.
"In its weakest version, this claim was only that regularities of meaning are most directly
encoded in Deep Structure, and this can be seen in (1) and (2). However, the claim was
sometimes taken to imply much more: that Deep Structure is meaning, an interpretation that
Chomsky did not at first discourage. And this was the part of generative linguistics that got
everyone really excited—for if the techniques of transformational grammar could lead us to
meaning, we would be in a position to uncover the nature of human thought...
"When the dust of the ensuing 'linguistic wars' cleared around 1973 . . ., Chomsky had won (as
usual)—but with a twist: he no longer claimed that Deep Structure was the sole level that
determines meaning (Chomsky 1972). Then, with the battle over, he turned his attention, not to
meaning, but to relatively technical constraints on movement transformations (e.g. Chomsky
1973, 1977)."

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– Ray Jackendoff, "Language, Consciousness, Culture: Essays on Mental Structure." MIT Press,
2007.

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 CHAPTER III
CLOSING
A. CONCLUTION
It can be concluded that deep structure then is a pure representation thematic
relations. Anything which is interpreted as the subject or object of a given
predicate will be in the subject or object position of predicate at deep
structure no matter where it is found at surface structure.

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 REFERENCE

https://www.instituteofclinicalhypnosis.com/nlp/difference-between-deep-and-surface-
structure-nlp/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deep_structure_and_surface_structure
https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780199534067.001.0001/acref-
9780199534067-e-2112
https://www.thoughtco.com/deep-structure-transformational-grammar-1690374
https://www.slideshare.net/Akzharka/deep-and-surfacestructures

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