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Mythical Lady Posted 20 years ago
Linguistics Studies

Surface/Deep Structure

Hi there,

"Every surface structure manifests an underlying conceptual structure. However, sometimes the relationship between surface and deep structure is distant & indirect. e. g. ambiguous sentences in which a surface structure can represent two or more different conceptual structures, for example biting dogs can be bothersome: (do the dogs bite or get bitten?).The application of syntactic rules and the choice of lexical items may destroy the underlying differences so that a number of distinct structures have the same number of surface manifestations."

I quite understand the role of syntactic rules which are deletion, rearrangement and insertion rules. My question is "how could the choice of lexical items destroy the deep structure?" Could you help me with it??Emotion: thinking

I'd much appreciate an answer accompanied with an example.Emotion: smile

Thank very much in advance.
Regards,
  

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3 Answers
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Emotion: crying can't I have any answer?
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0Consider Case Theory (you using the S / D Structure distinction), given VP internal subject hypothesis.02br
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00VP[DP[He] V'[V[drive] DP[a car]]]02br
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00Case theory mandates that the Subject be assigned Nominative, and the Object Accusative. Thus, Operation Move comes into play:02br
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00AgrS P[Spec[t DP[He]] VP[ [t] V'[V[driv
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0Hi Randy_Tam,02br
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00Sorry for my late reply. I've done more research about this subject. And the image is much clearer now. I've never thought about Case Grammar Theory.Your answer opens a broader scope to me. 02br
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00Thanks Soooooooo Much,0-

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