surface structure
noun Linguistics. (in transformational-generative grammar)
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.
the string of words that is actually produced.
Origin of surface structure
First recorded in 1960–65
Words nearby surface structure
British Dictionary definitions for surface structure
surface structure
noun
generative grammar
a representation of a string of words or morphemes as they occur in a sentence, together with labels and brackets that represent syntactic structure
Compare deep structure