Memory for Syntax

The deep structure of a sentence, according to Chomsky, includes a specification of its fundamental grammatical relations, such as its “logical” subject and object; and a series of transformational “footnotes” indicating the form taken by the actual sentence, for example, that it is passive.

Abstract

THE deep structure of a sentence, according to Chomsky1, includes (1) a specification of its fundamental grammatical relations, such as its "logical" subject and object; and (2) a series of transformational "footnotes" indicating the form taken by the actual sentence, for example, that it is passive. When a sentence is remembered verbatim, such "footnotes" seem to be separately and independently stored2, and to take up a detectable amount of space in short-term memory3. But they may be rapidly forgotten, as Sachs4 has shown; and this is likely in ordinary discourse, because utterances are not usually remembered verbatim.