Which term describes the underlying meaning of a sentence separate from its spoken form?

Which term describes the underlying meaning of a sentence separate from its spoken form?

• A. Surface Structure
• B. Deep Structure
• C. Prosodic Rules
• D. Idiosyncratic Rules

Answer: (B)

In linguistics, the deep structure captures the core meaning and the relationships between the verb and its arguments, independent of how the sentence is spoken or written. The term that describes this underlying meaning, separate from the spoken form, is deep structure. It’s the abstract representation of who is doing what to whom, which can be realized in different surface forms through transformations like voice changes or word order. For example, the active sentence “The cat chased the mouse” and the passive “The mouse was chased by the cat” share the same deep structure—the same core who is doing the action to whom—even though their surface forms differ. Prosodic rules deal with rhythm and intonation, and idiosyncratic rules aren’t standard terminology in this context, so they don’t describe the underlying meaning in the way deep structure does.

In linguistics, the deep structure captures the core meaning and the relationships between the verb and its arguments, independent of how the sentence is spoken or written. The term that describes this underlying meaning, separate from the spoken form, is deep structure. It’s the abstract representation of who is doing what to whom, which can be realized in different surface forms through transformations like voice changes or word order. For example, the active sentence “The cat chased the mouse” and the passive “The mouse was chased by the cat” share the same deep structure—the same core who is doing the action to whom—even though their surface forms differ. Prosodic rules deal with rhythm and intonation, and idiosyncratic rules aren’t standard terminology in this context, so they don’t describe the underlying meaning in the way deep structure does.