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surface structure

Surface structure is a sentence in the form that it is heard and spoken.

(noun)

An example of surface structure is that's my book.

See surface structure in Webster's New World College Dictionary

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in transformational grammar, the formal structure of a sentence as it actually occurs in speech and as distinguished from the abstract, underlying deep structure

See surface structure in American Heritage Dictionary 4

noun

In generative grammar, the structure that corresponds with the actual form of a sentence.

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