The document discusses surface structures and underlying structures in language. It provides examples of how speakers understand meanings that are not explicitly stated through surface structures alone, such as implicit knowledge of syntactic operations. The document also discusses question formations in English, including yes/no questions that use subject-auxiliary inversion and information questions that use wh-movement of question words. Underlying structures are proposed to account for this implicit syntactic knowledge, including positing an auxiliary constituent in sentence structure.

2. Surface Structures and
Underlying Structures
Merra Mae Ramos
Ed. D – ELT student

3. Speakers do not only have
implicit knowledge of constituent
structure within the linear strings of
words in a sentence – what is
referred as its surface structure -
but we often perceive or
understand constituents that are
unexpressed in the linear string.

4. For example,
Lisa
won a
prize,
but
Larry
1. didn’t.
2. didn’t care.
3. didn’t tell Sarah.
4. didn’t
congratulate her
5. didn’t win a
prize.

5. The speakers know that the only
legitimate interpretation of 1 is 5
and therefore the sentences 2
through 4 are not possible
interpretation of 1. But that
understanding requires a speaker
to have implicit knowledge of
syntactic operations.

6. One way to account implicit
knowledge about sentence
structure is to posit underlying
structures for syntax.

7. Syntactic Operations:
Question Formations
and the Auxiliary

8. English has two principal
kinds of question:
 yes/no questions (closed
questions); and
 information questions

9. Three Varieties of Yes-No
Question
 inverted question
 inverted question offering an
alternative (which may require
more than a simple yes or no for an
answer)
 the tag question

10. Examples:
 Are you going? (inversion)
 Are you staying or going?
(inversion with alternative)
 You're going, aren't you? (tag)

11. In yes-no questions, an
auxiliary verb typically appears
in front of the subject--a
formation called subject-
auxiliary inversion (SAI).
 Suze will earn a fair wage.
Will Suze earn a fair wage?

12. Because an auxiliary often must appear in
the surface structure of sentences, a
constituent representing the auxiliary is
postulated in the underlying structure of
every sentence. That mean, that instead of
its earlier expansion simply as NP, VP, the
expansion of S must include AUX, as below:
S NP AUX VP

13. We thus represent the underlying
structure of both “Suze will earn a
fair wage.”and “Will Suze earn a
fair wage?” as in the tree on the
left. The tree on the right
represents the constituent structure
that results from application of the
subject-auxiliary inversion
operation.

14. Suze will earn a fair wage.
Will Suze earn a fair
wage?

15. Notice that yes/no questions
contain an auxiliary even when the
corresponding declarative sentence
does not.
Example:
Jordan studied journalism in
college.
Did Jordan study journalism in
college?

16. The auxiliary usually must appear
in the surface structure of negative
sentences, as in the example
below.
 Jordan studied journalism in
college.
Jordan didn’t study journalism
in college.

17. Auxiliaries can also be used to
express:
 contrast or emphasis
Example: Jen certainly does exercise
every day!
 tense (providing a time
reference, i.e. past, present, or
future)

18. Example: Tyler will certainly pass the
course.
 grammatical aspect (expresses
how verb relates to the flow of time)
Example: They were travelling then.
 modality (quantifies verbs)
Example: Bill can swim.

19.  voice (describes the relationship
between the action expressed by
the verb and the participants
identified by the verb’s subject,
object, etc.)
Example: The lion was killed by the
hunter.

20. Information Questions. In an
information question, the
information is sought － the
questioned constituent － is
represented by WH-word (who or
whom, why, when, where, which,
what, how).

21. Such WH-questions occur in two
forms: ordinary information
questions and echo questions.

22. Question words:
1. what - asking for information
about something
* What is your name?
- asking for repetition or
confirmation
* What? I can't hear you.

23. 2. what...for - asking for a reason,
asking why
* What did you do that for?
3. what kind - description
* What kind of music do you like?
4. what time - time
* What time did you come home?

24. 5. when - asking about time
* When did he leave?
6. where - asking in or at what
place or position
* Where do they live?
7. which - asking about choice
* Which color do you want?

25. 8. who - asking what or which
person or people (subject)
* Who opened the door?
9. whom - asking what or which
person or people (object of the
verb)
* Whom did you see?

26. 10. whose - asking about
ownership
* Whose turn is it?
11. why - asking for reason, asking
what...for
* Why do you say that?

27. 12. why don't - making a
suggestion
* Why don't I help you?
13. how - asking about manner
* How does this work?
- asking about condition or
quality
* How was your exam?

28. 14. how many - quantity
(countable)
* How many students are there?
15. how much - amount, price
(uncountable)
* How much time have we got?

29. 16. how long - length (time or
space)
* How long did you stay in that
hotel?
17. how often - frequency
* How often do you go to the gym?

30. 18. how far - distance
* How far is your school?
19. how old - age
* How old are you?
20. how come (informal) - asking
for reason, asking why
* How come I didn't see you at the
party?

31. Echo Question. Echoes the form
of the statement, as in these
examples:
 (He’s boiling horse-feathers.)
He’s boiling what?
 (She was looking for Sigmund
Freud.)
She was looking for who?

32. Much more common than echo
questions are ordinary information
questions. They take the form
illustrated below in which a
syntactic operation called WH-
movement fronts the WH-word to a
position before the subject:

34. If you compare these ordinary
information questions with the
parenthesized echo questions
following them, you’ll see that two
movements have occurred:
The WH-word (the questioned
constituent what or who) appears
at the front of its clause.

35. The auxiliary (is or was) precedes
the subject NP which is italicized in
the examples.

36. Asking questions:
1.If you ask about the subject of the
sentence, simply add the question word
at the beginning:
Examples:
* James writes good poems.
Who writes good poems?
* The glass is on the table.
What is on the table?

37. 2. If you ask about the predicate of
the sentence (the part of a
sentence which contains the verb
and gives information about the
subject), there are three options:
 If there is a helping (auxiliary)
verb that precedes the main verb

38. ( for example: can, is, are, was,
were, will, would...), add the
question word and invert the
subject and the helping (auxiliary)
verb.
Examples:
* He can speak Chinese.
What can he speak?

39. * They are leaving tonight.
When are they leaving?
 If you ask about the predicate
and there is no helping (auxiliary)
verb and the verb is "to be",
simply add the question word and
invert the subject and the verb.

40. Example:
* The play was interesting.
How was the play?
 If there is no helping (auxiliary)
verb in the the predicate and the
main verb is not "to be", add the
auxiliary "do" in the appropriate
form.

41. Examples:
* They go to the movies every
Saturday.
Where do they go every
Saturday?
* He wakes up early.
When does he wake up?

42. * They sent a letter.
What did they send?

43. References
Auxiliary (or Helping) Verbs.
https://www.gingersoftware.com/conten
t/grammar-rules/verbs/auxiliary-or-
helping-verbs/
https://www.englishclub.com/vocabular
y/wh-question-words.htm

44. https://www.myenglishpages.com/site_
php_files/grammar-lesson-wh-
questions.php
Nordquist, Richard (2018). The Yes-No
Question in English Grammar.
https://www.thoughtco.com/yes-no-
question-grammar-1692617