The Method of Deep and Surface Structures

This method is primarily associated with the name of N. Chomsky. It is based on the notions of deep and surface structures. A surface structure is observable, while a deep structure is unobservable. It is a purely logical structure, underlying a surface structure. Deep structures are revealed transformationally. These are simple, subject- and- predicate structures, roughly comparable with kernels. Underlying surface structures, they convey semantic relations which are deeply hidden.

The sphere of the application of the method is as large as that of the transformational method. One surface structure can be analyzed in terms of several deep structures to reveal explicit and implicit predicative lines. (The invisible Got has created the visible world => The God is invisible. The world is visible. The God created the world).

With the help of it we can analyze 1. Identical structures, feeling their semantic differences (John is eager to please => John pleases somebody; John is easy to please => Somebody pleases John); 2. the nature of the double predicate (The moon rose red =>The moon rises. The moon is red. In the second transform the formerly implicit predicate red is made explicit; 3. the nature of the predicate of double orientation ( He is said to come => They say. He comes. We see that the two parts of this predicate refer to different subjects, one of which being beyond the borders of the sentence under analysis); 4. semantic and syntactic syncretism (It is dark and raining => It is dark. It is raining . The former is is an explicit link- verb and the latter is is an implicit auxiliary, forming a continuous form); 5. the mechanism of ambiguity (Flying planes can be dangerous =>A plane flies. It is dangerous. I fly a plane. It is dangerous; The king’s portrait => The king has a portrait of somebody, The king has a portrait of himself, The King draws a portrait of somebody, Somebody draws a portrait of the king, etc.).

The Functional Sentence Perspective Method (FSP)

The syntactic structure of a sentence is in part determined by the communicative function of its constituents, that is the FSP. The FSP method studies an objective distribution of information among the elements of the sentence, the actual division of a sentence (актуальное членение предложения) into the theme and the rheme. The Greek terms “the theme” and “the rheme”, which replaced the earlier terms “the logical subject” and “the logical predicate”, allow scholars to avoid wrong associations. The FSP method also describes the interrelations between the grammatical structure of a sentence and its functional organization, its communicative dynamism. This method also distinguishes the system of means to thematize and rhematize sentence elements and varieties of word order.

The first element of a sentence, which is usually the subject, carries thematic, i.e. known, familiar information, the final elements (predicates, objects, adverbial modifiers, carry rhematic, i.e. new or important information. In other words, the thematic elements tend to the beginning of the sentence, while the rhematic elements strive to the end.

We distinguish several communicative varieties of word order: 1. thematic wordorder, which can be rendered by the model theme – transition – rheme (John has written a letter, where John is the theme and a letter is the rheme); 2. rhematic non-emotive word order , rendered by the model rheme – transition - theme (A woman entered the room). The indefinite article is a signal of new information); 3. rhematic emotive word order, also rendered by the model rheme –transition – theme (Strange his wife was to him). Normally the predicate and predicatives do not precede the subject, but if they do, they become rhematic.

We can rhematize the subject 1. by putting it in the final position by inversion (Followed a complete silence.);2. by turning an active construction into a passive one ( A letter was written by John); 3. by ttransforming a simple sentence into a complex one with a complement clause( It’s John who has written a letter).