surface structure

sur·face struc·ture

S s

Definitions of surface structure words

noun surface structure a structural representation of the final syntactic form of a sentence, as it exists after the transformational component has modified a deep structure. Compare deep structure. 1
noun surface structure the string of words that is actually produced. 1
noun surface structure a representation of a string of words or morphemes as they occur in a sentence, together with labels and brackets that represent syntactic structure 0
noun surface structure in transformational grammar, the formal structure of a sentence as it actually occurs in speech and as distinguished from the abstract, underlying deep structure 0

before 1960

One of the 3% newest English words

First recorded in 1960-65

noun

adjective

verb

adverb

pronoun

preposition

conjunction

determiner

exclamation

This term is known only to a narrow circle of people with rare knowledge. Only 2% of English native speakers know the meaning of this word.

According to our data most of word are more popular. This word is almost not used. It has a much more popular synonym.

This diagram is provided by Google Ngram Viewer

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