FC BARCELONA

1. Deep structure is the output of phrase structure rules
   We can not have deep structure if we don’t have phrase structure rules.

3. Deep structure is the level of grammar which can explain adequately the concepts of subject, direct object and indirect object.

• Subject is a noun phrase which is directly dominated by category of sentence.
• Direct object is a noun phrase which is directly dominated by verb phrase
• Indirect object is a noun phrase which is directly dominated by prepositional phrase.

e.g.

4. Deep structure is the level where we can apply selectional restriction rules (rules that restrict the selection of lexicons in a sentence)

e.g. the grass devoured the elephant (it is impossible, how the grass can eat an elephant)

The rule is:

- animate + animate > subject

+ animate +animate < subject

e.g. The tiger devoured the goat. 

The ones who don’t follow the selectional restriction rules are the linguist, writers, author.

5. Deep structure is the level which can solve the problem of ambiguity.

e.g.
"The girl hits the man with an umbrella."

Tree diagram

Note:

• The meaning: the girl hits the man who brings an umbrella;
• The PP is directly dominated by NP.

Note:

• The meaning: the girl hits the man by using an umbrella;
• The PP is directly dominated by VP.

....................................................................
See also:
Chomsky's Generative Linguistics: An Introduction
Linguistic Competence and Linguistic Performance
Deep Structure vs. Surface Structure
5 Definitions of Deep Structure
Phrase Structure Rules
Transformation Rules

Tree Diagram

One of the most important concepts proposed by Chomsky is the concept of surface and deep structure. The Generativism paradigm claims that the concept of structural analysis proposed by Structuralism paradigm is too swallow, it only reaches the level of surface structure. Surface structure can be defined as the syntactic form they take as actual sentences. In the other words, it is forms of sentences resulted from  modification/ transformation. Consider these sentences:

(2)	SD (structure describtion)  : SC (Structural change)      : SS (Surface structure)       :	1 2 3 4 3 4 + be 2+en 1 The door is closed by you
Note: the SC is passive transformation rules
(3)	SD: SC: SS:	1 2 3 4 0 2 3 4 Close the door!
Note: 0 is deletion

There are so many controversies among linguists from time to time, one of them is structuralism vs. generativism. Structuralism was once introduced by Ferdinand de Saussure, in which almost all the concepts of language are strongly influenced by behaviorism paradigm which argues that human mind is just like "blank paper" when they are born (tabula rasa). Based on this concept, structuralism believes that the acquisition of language is learned, which means that  the language abilities possessed by  human is gained by process of learning from surroundings. In addition, they also believe that language is just like a building, which means that it is built from the small parts to create the bigger one. language is built from sentences, sentences are from clauses, clauses are from phrases, and so ford, up to phones.

Meanwhile, generativism which was introduced by Noam Avram Chomsky argues that in the matter of language, the concepts proposed by structuralism are too simple. If we want to understand how language is mastered and used by human, we have to separate what is called cognitive system, that is a system underlying the ability of human to use and master language. In other words, human since they were born unconsciously have system of language in their brain (competence). That is why this paradigm argues that language is innate not learned.

Generative grammar is founded on the idea that linguistics should create a "grammar" that allows us to (in theory) generate every possible sentence in a language using a set of rules. It  is simply an abstract theory that allows us to make a list (in theory) of all sentences, given the time to do so (which would be infinite-- there are infinitely many possible sentences). With tricks like recursion, it is in theory possible to design such a grammar, although so far no perfect grammar for any language has actually been written. And in theory, such a grammar also exists in our heads as "linguistic competence", while something else explains how we actually use it to speak, an action called "linguistic performance"-- and that can be imperfect, with speech errors, etc.

• RULE OF NATURE REFLECTED IN LANGUAGE USAGE
• Assimilation
• Apocope
• Syncope
• Lenition
• Clipping
• Blending
• Performative Sentence
• Imperative Sentence
• Ellipsis Sentence
• Metaphor

Debated issues
• Discourse analyst argued the grammarians only concern with abstract sentences and symbols symbolized meaning but ignore the important of context.
• Grammarians are too much preoccupied by well-formedness. Meanwhile, well-formedness of language sequences is not a sufficient principle.

Fact
The judgment of discourse analyst not all is true:
Discourse analyst will never be able to ignore the role of syntax and semantics in a discourse.

Why???

• The role of syntax in discourse analysis field is in term of the relation of clause in a discourse.

What is clause???
- Clause is a cognitive process used for interpreting the meaning of sentences.

- There are two kinds of clause relation
a. logic clause relation
- Condition-consequence
- Instrument-result
- Cause-effect
b. mixed clause relation
- Compatibility matching (and, or, etc.)
- Context matching (but, however, nevertheless, etc)

In a whole we can say that the role of syntax and semantics to discourse analysis is to maintain the coherence of discourse.