structural linguistics

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. A method of synchronic linguistic analysis employing structuralism, especially in contrasting those formal structures, such as phonemes or sentences, that make up systems, such as phonology or syntax.
2. n. A school of linguistics developed in the United States from the 1930s to the 1950s that advocated and employed such a method.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. linguistics defined as the analysis of formal structures in a text or discourse