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The arguments about deep structure

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 March 2026

George Bedell
George Bedell*
Affiliation:
University of California, Los Angeles
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Abstract

The notion of deep structure has served to crystallize a number of recent controversies in syntactic theory. This paper examines several arguments which have appeared in the literature, chiefly in Chomsky's ‘Some empirical issues in the theory of transformational grammar’, in support of the notion. It concludes that these arguments are not compelling, and that the issue of the existence of deep structure is not an empirical one at present.

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Type
Research Article
Information
Language , Volume 50 , Issue 3 , September 1974 , pp. 423 - 445
Copyright
Copyright © 1974 by Linguistic Society of America

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