Semantic and Pragmatic Considerations in Chomskyan Syntactic Theories: An Overview of Surface and Deep Structure within Bolinger’s Meaning and Form Model

Abstract

This paper addresses some key questions concerning the syntactic and pragmatic descriptions of Chomsky’s Surface and Deep Structure and Bolinger’s (1977) Meaning and Form model. The module of surface and deep structure recommends two levels of representations for a syntactic structure. First, it specifies a surface representation which is the superficial level of phonetic description. Second, a syntactic description also has a distinct abstract deep structure which is semantic in its representation. The module recognizes the fact that one deep structure can find expression in more than one surface structures without any semantic or pragmatic implications. In other words, a single meaning can be expressed through different forms and there exists no one-to-one correspondence between the two. This view, however, assumes a different dimension in Bolinger’s Meaning and Form model. The model regards a surface structure as semantically compatible with the underlying deep structure and stipulates that any variation within the phonological representation of a sentence will generate a divergent deep structure. Hence, a straight forward account of form (surface) and meaning (deep) relationship that has been observed in Chomskyan syntactic theories must be revisited with semantic and pragmatic configurations. Moreover, the module does not describe the semantic and pragmatic significance of certain syntactic phenomena like pronominalization, deletion, topicalization and comparative structures. The current study attempts to provide cogent, yet not final, solutions to these gaps. The study follows a qualitative mode of research and attempts to provide a theoretical analysis of the theories concerned.

            Keywords: surface and deep structures, meaning and form model, topicalization, deletion, comparative structures