Deep Structure vs. Surface Structure

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:

(1)   You close the door.

(2)   The door is closed by you.

(3)   Close the door!

The first sentence is active, second is passive, and the last is imparative. However, if you take a look those closely, you will find that those three are very closely related, even identical.  They seem to be identical, since they have the same undelying abstract representation that is called deep structure. It is defined as an abstract level of structural organization in which all the elements determining structural interpretation are represented. If you want to analyze the relation of those three sentences, the first you have to know about the deep structure of them, since deep structure is the input of transformation rules. We cannot apply transformation rules if you don’t  have deep structure. transformation rules are sets of rules which will change or move constitiuents in the structures derive from the phrase structure rules.

e.g.

The DS (deep structure)

(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

From the above example, it can be concluded that deep structure then is a pure representation of thematic relations. Anything which is interpreted as the subject or object of a given predicate will be in the subject or object position of that predicate at Deep structure no matter where it is found at Surface structure.

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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

Linguistic Competence and Linguistic Performance

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.

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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

Performative vs. Constative Sentence

Philosophically sentence is devided into two categories, performative and constative. Performative is a sentence which does not describe nor affirm about fact but contains a felicity condition, that is a certain condition that have to be fulfilled when the perform takes place. There are five characteristics of performative sentence, they are:

(1) The subject of performative sentence must be in the form of first person pronoun;

(2) The verb must be in the same category with performative verbs such as tell, say, demand, advice, ask etc.;

(3) The object of performative sentence is always a second person pronoun;

(4) It must be in the form of affirmative not negative;

(5) It must be in the form of present tense.

e.g. Stand up!

Note:

- The deep structure of the above sentence before encountering modification (become imperative) is

"I command you to stand up."

- Felicity condition of the above sentence:

¢Your addressee is sitting, or laying, or ducking, etc.

¢Your addressee has ability to stand (not cripple)

On the other hand, constative sentence is a sentence which affirms about fact, reports events, and describes situation and condition. It must contain truth values.

e.g.  Prices slumped.


The sentence is true if the fact in the actual world the prices are slumped. If in fact they are not slumped, you can simply say that the sentence is false.

However, when you take a look constative deeper, you will find that it also fulfills the five criteria of perfomative sentence, since the above example of constative sentence is only in the level of surface structure, in deep structure, it will become: “I tell you that price slumped”. In this form the constative sentence also has the all criteria take to become a performative sentence. Therefore, in short we can simply say that constative sentence is also included into performative sentence. You will find the reflection of the principle of maximum ease of articulation in this pattern. The metrical sentence “I tell you …” is unnecessarily to say, so that it is omitted. A sentence “I tell you that prices slumped” encounters a modification or a deletion process in the phrase “I tell you …” it appears only the surface structure “prices slumped”. Other examples of this phenomenon are that:

See Also:

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

Blending

This combining of two separate forms to produce a single new term is also present in the process called blending. However, blending is typically accomplished by taking only the begging of one word and joining it to the end of other word. In some parts of the United States, there’s a product which is used like gasoline, but is made from alcohol, so the blended term for refereeing to this product is gasohol. If you wish to refer the combined effects of smoke and fog, there’s the term smog. Some other commonly used examples of blending are brunch (breakfast/lunch), motel (motor/ hotel), telecast (television/ broadcast), etc. 

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

Clipping

The element of reduction which is noticeable in blending is even more apparent in the process describes as clipping. This occurs when a word of more than syllable is reduced to a sorter form, often in casual speech. The term gasoline is still in used, but occurs much less frequently than gas, the clipped form. Common examples are ad (advertisement), fan (fanatic), bus, plane, prof, lab, flu, etc.

See Also:
================================================================

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

Lenition

It refers to the process of weakening sound in a word. Do you know that the word ‘mother’ is derived from the word ‘moder’ in old English, in which ‘voiced alveolar stop’ [d] is modified into ‘voiced

(inter-) dental fricative’ [ ]. 

See Also:
==================================================

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

Syncope

It refers to the process of reduction of the syllable caused by the omission vowel sound or middle syllable in a word. In many languages this process is rare to find, only a couples of languages which undergo this kind of phenomenon. In English we know the word “episcope” means bishop or pope, however, did you know that it comes from Latin language “episcopus”. Syncope process happens when the final syllable of the word episcopus (us) is deleted, which means it has been modified from four syllables to three syllables. Moreover, in Bahasa Indonesia, it encounters two syllables deletion. 

See Also:
================================================================

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

Apocope

It refers to the process of reduction of the syllable caused by the end vowel deletion in a word. In the old English we know many terms which are modified in the number of syllable in modern English, such as: 

All terms/words in the left, taken from old English, have two syllables in its pronunciations. Along with the development of English those words encounter modification in modern English by altering the number of syllable and deletion of the final vowel.

See Also:
===============================================================

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

Assimilation

Assimilation is the process of sound change where one sound is influenced or modified by other sounds. There are two types of assimilation:

1. Regressive assimilation

It happens when the following sound in a word influences the preceding sound.

  

Note:

·          The letter “N” is written in a capital letter since it is still in the form of abstract nasal.
·         You can find a lot of example of regressive assimilation in Bahasa Indonesia.

2.   Progressive assimilation

It happens when the preceding sound influences the following sound since the preceding sound is too dominant. 

 

See Also:
===============================================

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

NATURE LAWS REFLECTED IN LANGUAGE USAGE

Everything in the universe follows certain pattern lined by God. To know the pattern once you need to discover and analyze the phenomena occurred which underlie them surround you. The task to discover the pattern or the law of nature is once we believe belongs to the researcher, therefore, the action which is aimed at finding the pattern of nature is called research, and this inflicts it from report. The term report is commonly used on the purpose of presenting the fact without discovering or analyzing process.  The reporter, the one conducting the report, only provides a detailed statement and information about an occurrence or situation.

One of the patterns of nature is the journey of the atom through void. The inclination of atom to take the shortest path in reaching the void is also reflected on the language usage. It is the nature of human characteristic that they demand something more by sacrificing few things , in the other word, human tends to use the postulate which is said ‘work less to get more’ in every aspects of their life. Related to the language usage, in all stages of language disciplines we can see that the speaker tends to utilize as less as possible to use energy to produce sounds to create words, phrases, clauses, sentences, even discourse in a conversation. Furthermore, in the stage of sound, phonology, as the encoder, the speaker tends to use as minimum as energy to produce articulation, this principle is known as “the principle of maximum ease of articulation”. The manifestation of this principle in phonology we know four terms reflected this kind of pattern, such as: 

• syncope,
• appocope,
•  lenition, and
• assimilation 

On the other hand, as a decoder, a hearer tends to attempt to understand the message/meaning of an utterance by activating as less as possible his sense of hearing. Therefore, hearer tends to demand the speaker to give as perspicuous, brief, and orderly as possible which can ease him to grasp the message attempted to convey by the speaker. The reflection of this inclination in communication is “the principle of maximum perceptual separation.”  

Moreover, in the stage of morphology (word) we know the terms:

• ·         Clipping and
• ·         Blending

Syntax (sentence):

• ·         Imperative sentence;
• ·         Performative sentence; and
• ·         Ellipsis sentence.

See Also:
===============================================================

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

Diachronic and synchronic

Diachronic and synchronic, the first term refers to the study of language from time to time. The basic characteristic of language is dynamic, it means language constantly changes from time to time depend on the necessity of the language users.

Referring to the history of English, the transformation of English recorded by historian happened once. In the ancient time, we will find that English nowadays is very different than English that used at that time. The previous version of English sometime we call it old English version was used in the era of 5 C, in which it was strongly influenced by three Germany tribes, Jutes, Saxons, and Angles, which conquer the land of Great Britain during that time.

During the 1066-1200, England was ruled by the Normandy. The district of this Normandy spread out on the northern coast of France; hence, their language used was much influenced by France. Long period of governing in England territory, the Normandy contributed the language shift of English. English which was resulted from the accumulation of the three Germany tribes stated previously had changed during this era of ruling colored by the existence of France language brought by the Normandy. The France began to manifest itself to the development of old English.

The first link in the chain binding England to the continent was broken in 1204 when King John lost Normandy. As a result, during The Middle English period (1150–1500) was marked by momentous changes in the English language, changes more extensive and fundamental than those that have taken place at any time before or since. They took place more rapidly because the Norman invasion removed from English those conservative influences that are always felt when a language is extensively used in books and is spoken by an influential educated class. The changes of this period affected English in both its grammar and its vocabulary. Those in the vocabulary involved the loss of a large part of the Old English word-stock and the addition of thousands of words from French and Latin. At the beginning of the period English is a language that must be learned like a foreign tongue; at the end it is Modern English. Thus, related to diachronic, we can trace the evolution of language through the recorded data presented by the language historian, and learn from it.

In the other hand, synchronic refers to the study of language in particular period of time. It means that the study of language can be done in the particular of time in which the language is still used and utilized by the language users to communicate each other in a society in particular period of time; it can be present day, 50 years ago, ancient time and so ford. However, one point to be paid attention is that there is no comparison made to other states language or other times. Thus, the first dichotomy introduced by de Saussure is meant to point out that language can be traced from time to time along with the history of it and can be learned in a particular period of time in which the language occur.


Back to THE COMMON GROUND OF LINGUISTICS AND LITERATURES

THE COMMON GROUND OF LINGUISTICS AND LITERATURES

Many branches of studies include the discussion of the relationship between form and function. In linguistics the note of form and function was first introduced by de Saussure considered as the founding father of modern linguistics. In presenting his ideas concerning linguistics, he tended to use dichotomies. There are six dichotomies granted by Saussure in describing linguistics:

1. Diachronic and Synchronic
2. Langue and Parole
3. signifian and Signifie
4. Form and Meaning
5.
6.

Literature

GRAMMARIAN vs. DISCOURSE ANALYST

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.

LINGUISTICS REVOLUTIONS

According to Thomas Kuhn, the revolution of knowledge occurs when the paradigm being utilized in an era can be denied by the occurrence of the new paradigm. In linguistics era, it was recorded when the structuralism paradigm, introduced by Ferdinand de Saussure , the founding father of structuralism, was contrasted by the occurrence of the new paradigm mentalism (GTG)which was first echoed by Noam Chomsky . According to structuralism, which strongly influenced by behaviorism paradigm, in acquiring language proficiencies, human learn from the surrounding. The process of transformation of language skills in human mind was through the relation between stimulus and response pattern, further they argued that the human’s mind when he was born was just like a blank paper, tabula rasa, so he/she learned through the surrounding about everything; those were the main thought of the behaviorism’ learning theory. However, the GTG denied those by proposing a new theory which says that language is innate, human is granted by God with language competence since he/ she was born. Therefore, the process of language acquisition is not in the form of relation between stimulus and responses through the surrounding interaction, for he/she has already been furnished that ability in his/her mind. The interaction committed with the surrounding is a kind of media to develop that ability.

In the structure of language, structuralism believes that the structure of language is just the same as the structure of building, so it is built from the smallest unit, in this case is word, word builds phrase, phrase builds clause, clause builds sentence, sentence builds paragraph and so forth. However, this postulate is questioned by the GTG, they claimed that the explanation given by the structuralism is not as adequate as it is required to elucidate what is beyond the surface, in the other words, the deep structure of the language. According to GTG, the postulate of the structuralism has not touched yet the occurrence of deep structure of language.

Now the question is, is it true that Chomsky was the whistle blower of that revolution? By studying more deeply about the history of language development we can reveal that question. Many provided information state that the embryo of theory of innateness in language acquisition was first introduced by Descrates, he claimed that human is granted by God with what so called ‘language usage creativity’ since he/she was born, this was the fundamental assumption underlying the theory of innateness proposed by Chomsky . The second linguist that has to be considered is Juan Huarte, he divided human intelligence into three kinds; first, docile wit: all creatures have ability to seize the signs given by nature with their senses (instinct); second, normal human ingenio (normal intelligence): human has an ability to acquire knowledge from various sources by means of their senses of data and build a cognitive system, and it can be developed automatically in their brain; the last, true creativity: human is granted with the ability to invent totally new things. Moreover, among those three only human have all of them; animal and automaton are only on the stage of docile wit.

In addition, the other thought which underlies the Chomsky’s theory is grammar philosophy, these grammarians’ thought can be found in their legacy, Port Royal Grammar, which contains their vision on the structure of language, in it, they argued the smallest unit in language is not word and inflectional, but phrase. They distinguished between the term meaning and sound as deep and surface structure which later on becomes the fundamental foundation of the theory deep and surface structure in GTG. The last linguist who has strong influence to Chomsky’s ideas is Wilhelm Von Humboldt, he introduced his ideas in the form of postulate, his postulate stated that human has ability to create unlimited sentences with the explanations of the relationship between deep and surface structure and connect it with the representation of sounds and meanings in which it does not contrast with phonology and semantics.

Therefore, all those evidences show that it was not Chomsky who blown the whistle of the revolution, for almost all his ideas come from the previous experts of linguistics discussed above. Chomsky was the one who continued and perfected those ideas to reject the structuralism paradigm.