"In linguistics, syntax is the study of how words and morphemes combine to form larger units such as phrases and sentences."
The set of rules governing the structure of sentences and phrases in a language.
Parts of Speech: Understanding the difference between nouns, verbs, adjectives, pronouns, and adverbs.
Syntax vs. Semantics: Understanding the difference between syntax (the structure of language) and semantics (the meaning of language).
Sentence Structure: Understanding the different types of sentences, such as simple, compound, and complex.
Phrase Structure: Understanding the different types of phrases, such as noun phrases, verb phrases, and prepositional phrases.
Subject-Verb Agreement: Understanding how the subject and verb in a sentence must agree in terms of tense and number.
Pronoun-Antecedent Agreement: Understanding how pronouns and the words they refer to (antecedents) must agree in terms of gender, number, and person.
Modal Auxiliary Verbs: Understanding the function and use of modal auxiliary verbs, such as can, will, must, and should.
Tense and Aspect: Understanding how verbs can express different tenses and aspects, such as past, present, and future, and perfect and progressive.
Passive Voice: Understanding how sentences can be written in the passive voice, and when it is appropriate to use this construction.
Direct vs. Indirect Speech: Understanding how to convey the meaning of what someone else has said or written, either directly or indirectly.
Negation: Understanding how to use negatives, such as not and never, in sentences.
Word Order: Understanding how the order of words can affect the meaning of a sentence, especially in languages that do not rely on inflection or other grammatical markers.
Collocation: Understanding which words tend to occur together in natural language use, and which combinations are unusual or inappropriate.
Word Sense Disambiguation: Understanding how to distinguish between different meanings of words, depending on the context in which they are used.
Pragmatics: Understanding how language is used in context, and the various conventions, rules, and expectations that govern communicative interaction.
Phrase Structure Syntax: This type of syntax refers to the structure of a sentence in terms of phrases and their constituent parts. It involves dividing sentences into smaller parts, such as nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs, which are then grouped together according to their relationships with each other. This type of syntax is often represented using a tree diagram, where the main sentence is at the top and the smaller phrases and words are branches below.
Transformational Syntax: This type of syntax focuses on the transformations that occur within a sentence as it is constructed. For example, when an active sentence is transformed into a passive sentence, or when questions are formed from declarative sentences. This type of syntax also considers the underlying principles and rules that govern the transformation of one sentence form into another.
Dependency Syntax: This type of syntax is based on the relationship between words in a sentence, rather than their internal structure. It involves identifying the head of a sentence (typically a verb), and then identifying the dependents (words that are necessary to complete the meaning of the sentence). The structure of the sentence is then represented using arrows to show the relationships between the words, with the head of the sentence at the top and the dependents branching out below.
"Central concerns of syntax include word order, grammatical relations, hierarchical sentence structure (constituency), agreement, the nature of crosslinguistic variation, and the relationship between form and meaning (semantics)."
"Central concerns of syntax include word order..."
"Central concerns of syntax include grammatical relations..."
"Central concerns of syntax include hierarchical sentence structure (constituency)..."
"Central concerns of syntax include agreement..."
"Central concerns of syntax include the nature of crosslinguistic variation..."
"Central concerns of syntax include the relationship between form and meaning (semantics)."
"...the study of how words and morphemes combine to form larger units such as phrases and sentences."
"There are numerous approaches to syntax..."
"There are numerous approaches to syntax that differ in their central assumptions and goals."
"Syntax (SIN-taks)"
"The study of how words and morphemes combine to form larger units such as phrases and sentences."
"The relationship between form and meaning (semantics)."
"Syntax is the study of how words and morphemes combine to form larger units..."
"Central concerns of syntax include grammatical relations..."
"The nature of crosslinguistic variation..."
"Central concerns of syntax include word order..."
"The nature of crosslinguistic variation..."
"In linguistics, syntax is the study of how words and morphemes combine to form larger units such as phrases and sentences."