The Shibboleths of TEFL,or Sense and Nonsense in Language Teaching(II)

2.Deep and Surface Structures There are‘hard’and‘soft’versions of this theory.In the hard Chomskyan version,deep structures are hard-wired into the brain.They are manifestations of the universal grammar that is thought to be common to all mankind.They generate surface structures-a process that can be depicted through tree diagrams.Deep structures are still language structures-they are part of the whole system which makes language possible.