subtexts

From "Language and Culture" by Carol and Melvin Ember 1995:

"Besides producing and understanding an infinite variety of sentences, speakers of a language can tell when a sentence is not ‘correct’ without consulting grammar books. For example an English speaker can tell that ‘Child the dog the hit’ is not an acceptable sentence, but ‘The child hit the dog’ is fine” …only a few sentences later… “Noam Chomsky’s theory about syntax, know as transformational/generational theory, suggests that language has a ‘surface structure’ and a ‘deep structure.’ For example, the sentences ‘John killed Mary’ and ‘Mary was killed by John’ have different surface structures ( John is the subject of the first; Mary is the subject of the second). But the sentences mean the same thing to the English-speakers…” ...violent farce