In linguistics, syntax (/ˈsɪntæks/[1][2]) is the set of
rules, principles, and processes that govern the structure of sentences (sentence structure) in a
given language, usually
including word order. The
term syntax is also used to refer to the study of such
principles and processes.[3] The goal
of many syntacticians is to discover the syntactic rules common to
all languages.
Etymology
The word syntax comes
from Ancient Greek: σύνταξις "coordination",
which consists of σύν syn, "together", and τάξις táxis,
"an ordering".
Sequencing of subject, verb, and object
One basic
description of a language's syntax is the sequence in which the subject (S), verb (V),
and object (O)
usually appear in sentences. Over 85% of languages usually place the subject
first, either in the sequence SVO or the sequence SOV. The other possible sequences are VSO, VOS, OVS, and OSV, the last three of which are rare. In most generative
theories of syntax, these surface differences arise from a more complex clausal
phrase structure, and each order may be compatible with multiple derivations.
Generative grammar
The hypothesis
of generative grammar is that language is a structure of the human mind. The
goal of generative grammar is to make a complete model of this inner language
(known as i-language).
This model could be used to describe all human language and to predict whether
any given utterance in a hypothetical language would sound correct to a
speaker of that language (versus constructions which no human language would
use). This approach to language was pioneered by Noam Chomsky. Most
generative theories (although not all of them) assume that syntax is based upon
the constituent structure of sentences. Generative grammars are among the
theories that focus primarily on the form of a sentence, rather than its
communicative function.
Among the many
generative theories of linguistics, the Chomskyan theories are:
·
Transformational grammar (TG) (Original theory of
generative syntax laid out by Chomsky in Syntactic Structures in
1957)[9]
Dependency grammar
Dependency grammar is an approach to sentence
structure where syntactic units are arranged according to the dependency
relation, as opposed to the constituency relation of phrase structure grammars. Dependencies are directed links
between words. The (finite) verb is seen as the root of all clause structure
and all the other words in the clause are either directly or indirectly
dependent on this root. Some prominent dependency-based theories of syntax are:
Functionalist grammars
Functionalist
theories, although focused upon form, are driven by explanation based upon the
function of a sentence (i.e., its communicative function). Some typical
functionalist theories include:
No comments:
Post a Comment