extended standard theory (EST)

The name given to a MODEL of GENERATIVE GRAMMAR which developed in the early 1970s out of that expounded in Noam Chomsky’s Aspects of the Theory of Syntax (1965) (the standard THEORY). The ‘extension’ is primarily due to the range of the SEMANTIC RULES, some of which Chomsky suggested should now be allowed to operate with SURFACE STRUCTURE as input. Features of surface structure relevant to the semantics include various functions of STRESS and INTONATION, aspects of QUANTIFICATION, and the FOCUS in a sentence which provides information concerning the sentence’s PRESUPPOSITIONS. In other words, it was no longer the case that only the DEEP STRUCTURE was the determinant of the semantic REPRESENTATION of a sentence. In a later development of this view, it is argued that perhaps the notion of deep structure can be dispensed with altogether, in relation to the semantics, this being determined by a developed notion of surface structure.