Structural Analysis

Abstract

Structures in Other Domains The methodology of structural analysis discussed in this article has been applied beyond the narrow realm of syntax that we have discussed in this article. Within the study of language, similar methods of analysis have been pervasively applied to the study of sounds (phonology), words (morphology) , and, to some degree, meanings (semantics), yielding abstract structural representations whose properties bear considerable explanatory burden. Additionally, these representations have shed substantial light on the processes of language acquisition and language change. If we move outside the domain of language, the most direct application of these same methods, using formal representations like those used in language, has been in the study of music cognition (Jackendoff and Lehrdahl 1983). We also find a certain amount of work in visual PERCEPTION that posits complex representational structures to explain aspects of behavioral data in both early and late vision (..