Underlying structure
In generative grammar, a underlying structure is the Structure of a Phrase such as it is attached to fundamental rules of the Langue. Its opposite, the superficial structure , is a structure of sentence such as it is attached only to rules nonfundamental in the language.
This difference makes it possible to differentiate Grammaticalité and acceptability : an error in deep strusture, such as confusion between that and whose , calls into question a fundamental part of the system of the language. If is said it is the man that I spoke to you, then that involves multiple errors in the subsystem of the relative pronoun, which is very vast: one will have indeed to say * I spoke this man to you and * I spoke it . The confusion whose/that thus involves errors in sentences where it has there neither of which nor that : most of the system of the language is threatened.
On the other hand, an error of surface, like confusion between with and at ( I go to the hairdresser , I go to Paris ), involves only isolated errors, only in the sentences containing either with or at . These errors do not threaten the system of the language itself.
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