Matt. 12:32

Edgar Foster questioning1 at yahoo.com
Thu Jul 23 12:51:51 EDT 1998


---Jim West  wrote:

> Please, pardon the question, but what exactly is "deep structure"? 
Is this some new literary methodology?  If so, what is the source?  I
have not heard of it (though I do my best to keep up with developments
in Biblical Studies).<

> What is the purpose of such a reading?  What are the procedures used
to employ the method?<

Dear Jim,

According to psychologists, sentences have both a surface and deep
structure. Surface structure has reference to the words and phrases
that make up a sentence. Deep structure is the underlying meaning of
the words and phrases in a sentence. Deep structure per se isn't
"new", but the application of deep structure to Biblical studies is a
fairly "new" development.

> What are the goals of this method?  What can it show? What does it
fail to show?<

Linguist Norm Chomsky (1957) discovered that grammar allows the
speaker to move from surface struture to deep structure via the
components of semantics and syntax. These movements are called
transformations. Thus, the goal of deep structure is to ascertain the
essential or underlying meaning behind the morphemes, and lexemes in a
sentence. One way this can be done, and the model I'm working with is
to classify words semantically (over against classifying them
grammatically). 

Let us use as an example, John 1:1c. 

KAI is grammatically a copulative. Semantically, however, it is a
relational term. QEOS is grammatically a substantive. Semantically, it
is an object. Both HN and hO are also relational words. Finally, LOGOS
is an object. Thus the semantic classification of 1:1c would be as
follows:

KAI (R) + QEOS (O) + HN (R) + hO (R) + LOGOS (O)



More information about the B-Greek mailing list