Scribd
Upload
240 views

Syntax Introduction To Linguistic

Syntax refers to the proper ordering of words in a sentence. It comes from the Greek word meaning "to arrange together". There are rules that govern syntax in English, such as word order and placement of modifiers. Sentences can take different structures, including simple, compound, complex, and compound-complex forms. Tree diagrams are used to visually represent the hierarchical structure of sentences, showing phrases and their relationships. Syntax describes how linguistic elements are arranged to convey meaning according to the rules of a language.

Uploaded by

Shane Mendoza BSED ENGLISH
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
240 views

Syntax Introduction To Linguistic

Syntax refers to the proper ordering of words in a sentence. It comes from the Greek word meaning "to arrange together". There are rules that govern syntax in English, such as word order and placement of modifiers. Sentences can take different structures, including simple, compound, complex, and compound-complex forms. Tree diagrams are used to visually represent the hierarchical structure of sentences, showing phrases and their relationships. Syntax describes how linguistic elements are arranged to convey meaning according to the rules of a language.

Uploaded by

Shane Mendoza BSED ENGLISH
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
You are on page 1/ 6

1.

syntax

 -comes from the Greek, meaning "arrange together." The term is also used to
mean the study of the syntactic properties of a language. In computer contexts, the
term refers to the proper ordering of symbols and codes so that the computer can
understand what instructions are telling it to do. 

Syntax 

∙ Syntax is the proper order of words in a phrase or sentence. 


∙ Syntax is a tool used in writing proper grammatical sentences.
∙ Native speakers of a language learn correct syntax without realizing it.
∙ The complexity of a writer's or speaker's sentences creates a formal or informal
level of diction that is presented to its audience. 

(Burgess 1968)

"It is syntax that gives the words the power to relate to each other in
a sequence...to carry meaning—of whatever kind—as well as glow
individually in just the right place" 

 Syntactic Rules

English parts of speech often follow ordering patterns in sentences and


clauses, such as compound sentences are joined by conjunctions (and, but, or) or that
multiple adjectives modifying the same noun follow a particular order according to
their class  (such as number-size-color, as in "six small green chairs"). The rules of
how to order  words help the language parts make sense. 
Sentences often start with a subject, followed by a predicate (or just a verb in the
simplest sentences) and contain an object or a complement (or both), which shows,
for  example, what's being acted upon. Take the sentence "Beth slowly ran the race in
wild,  multicolored flip-flops." The sentence follows a subject-verb-object pattern
("Beth ran  
the race"). Adverbs and adjectives take their places in front of what they're modifying
("slowly ran"; "wild, multicolored flip-flops"). The object ("the race") follows the verb
"ran", and the prepositional phrase ("in wild, multicolored flip-flops") starts with the
preposition "in". 

 Diction

refers to the style of writing or speaking that someone uses, brought


about by their choice of words, whereas syntax is the order in which
they're arranged in the spoken or written sentence. Something written
using a very high level of diction, like a paper published in an academic
journal or a lecture given in a college classroom, is written very formally.
Speaking to friends or texting are informal, meaning they have a low level
of diction. 

Formal written works or

presentations would likely also have more complex sentences or industry-specific


jargon. They are directed to a narrower audience than something meant to be read or
heard by the general public, where the audience members' backgrounds will be more
diverse. 
Precision

in word choice is less exacting in informal contexts than formal ones, and
grammar rules are more flexible in spoken language than in formal written language.
Understandable English syntax is more flexible than most. 

"...the odd thing about English is that no matter how much you screw
sequences word up, you understood, still, like Yoda, will be. Other languages don't
work that way.  French? Dieu! Misplace a single le or la and an idea vaporizes into a
sonic puff.  English is flexible: you can jam it into a Cuisinart for an hour, remove it,
and meaning will still emerge.” 
(Copeland, 2009) 

Types of Sentence Structures 

 Simple sentence: Subject-verb structure ("The girl ran.") 


∙ Compound sentence: Subject-verb-object-conjunction-subject-verb structure
("The girl ran the marathon, and her cousin did, too.") 
∙Complex sentence: Dependent clause-subject-verb-object structure ("Although
they were tired after the marathon, the cousins decided to go to a celebration at
the park.")
∙ Compound-complex sentence: Four clauses, dependent and independent
structures ("Although they weren't fond of crowds, this was different, they
decided, because of the common goal that had brought everyone together.")

  Social dialects are also called "social varieties."


 Noam Chomsky created the sentence "Colorless green ideas
sleep furiously," which is syntactically and grammatically correct
because it has the words in the correct order and verbs that
agree with subjects, but it's still nonsense. With it, Chomsky
showed that rules governing syntax are distinct from meanings
that words
convey.
 One of the main rules states that a sentence consists of a
noun phrase and a verb phrase. The hierarchical structure of
a sentence can be represented by tree structures, i.e. diagrams
showing the hierarchical organization of phrases. On the whole,
the analysis of sentence structure proceeds along a number of
different lines, depending on the linguistic school and model
of analysis.  
 Sentences are classified into different
Formal classification
Functional
 The formal classification makes a distinction between
declarative, interrogative, imperative, and exclamatory sentences.
One more categorization of sentences is into simple, complex and
compound.
Simple sentences have one Subject – Verb unit, e.g. The cat
jumped on the couch.
compound sentence consists of two or more main clauses, e.g.
He is a busy man, but he promised to help me with this problem.
complex sentence when one clause is used as a main clause
and another is added to express subordinate meaning,
developing some aspect of the main clause, e.g. When I first saw
the building, I was amazed by its size.  
 From the point of view of their function, sentences are
divided into statements (She closed the window.), questions (Did
she close the window?), commands (Close the window!),
and exclamations (What a big window!).
 DETERMINER slot we could choose, for instance, ‘A,’ ‘THE,’ or another
from a small set of options. The word we choose here will depend upon the
meaning we want to express. Is it a specific entity we want to talk about, or
an abstract one?
 NOUN we could choose, say, ‘MAN’, or ‘DOG’, or ‘PAVEMENT’, or any other
from an enormous list. Any of these words would work within the sentence,
it just depends on what idea the speaker wants to convey.
  TENSE describes when an event is happening: now, in the past, or in the
future?  Words like future tense ‘WILL,’ or the modals ‘CAN’ and ‘SHOULD’
are all related in some way to when an action occurs, so they are all instances
of TENSE.

 verb we choose a word that describes an event. What do we want the


noun to be doing? We could choose ‘RUN’, or ‘SING’ or ‘REMEMBER’ or a
different event-related word.
 ∙ PREPOSITION will tell us where or when the action is taking place, so
‘IN’ or ‘AT’ are two of a set of options here.
We then just repeat the same choice for DETERMINER and NOUN again,
from the list of words in both of those categories.

 Syntacticians are not here to say what is stylistically right or wrong, but to
describe how people do use language. Has anybody ever told you not to
end a sentence with a preposition (1)? This prescriptive rule, which comes
from Latin, is not actually how people speak English today. 
1. Who did you talk to? 
2. To whom did you talk?
 tree diagram is a newer method for diagramming sentences that is most
commonly used by linguists and other academic professionals.
 Reed-Kellogg diagram was considered an effective tool for students to
visualize sentence structure, it had many limitations.
 primary goal of a tree diagram is to illustrate these concepts in a way
that is visibly apparent, even for those previously unfamiliar with sentence
diagrams.
 In a tree diagram, a sentence is divided into two parts:
Subject, predicate
They are made up of noun phrases or verb phrases. These are groups of
words that include a noun or verb and any words that add as modifiers. The
subject is a noun phrase while a predicate is usually a verb phrase. The
noun phrase A big dog is comprised of the indefinite article ‘a’, the adjective
‘big’, and the noun ‘dog’. The verb phrase jumped over the fence consists of
the verb ‘jumped’ and the prepositional phrase ‘over the fence’. 

You might also like