Asked by Morgan Strand on May 30, 2024
Verified
"Mary chased the man" and "The man was chased by Mary" have
A) a unique transformational grammar.
B) two deep structures but only one surface structure.
C) totally arbitrary speech sounds.
D) two surface structures but only one deep structure.
Transformational Grammar
A linguistic theory that seeks to describe how the deep and surface structures of sentences are related by rules of transformation.
Surface Structures
In linguistics, the outward form of language syntax that can vary without altering the underlying deep structure's meaning.
Deep Structure
In linguistics, the underlying syntactic structure or meaning of a sentence, beyond the words and their direct arrangement.
- Describe the principles of transformational grammar and how they are applied in the analysis of language.
Verified Answer
SR
Simran RamanaJun 01, 2024
Final Answer :
D
Explanation :
The two sentences have different surface structures (active vs passive voice) but only one deep structure (Mary chasing the man). This is because the deep structure represents the underlying meaning or semantic content of the sentence, while the surface structure reflects its grammatical form in a particular language. Therefore, both sentences have the same meaning despite their different surface structures.
Learning Objectives
- Describe the principles of transformational grammar and how they are applied in the analysis of language.