Syntax

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.

Early history
The Aṣṭādhyāyī of Pāṇini (c. 4th century
BC in Ancient India), is often cited as an
example of a premodern work that
approaches the sophistication of a
modern syntactic theory (as works on
grammar were written long before
modern syntax came about).[4] In the
West, the school of thought that came to
be known as "traditional grammar" began
with the work of Dionysius Thrax.

For centuries, a framework known as

grammaire générale (first expounded in
1660 by Antoine Arnauld in a book of the
same title) dominated work in syntax: as
its basic premise the assumption that
language is a direct reflection of thought
processes and therefore there is a single,
most natural way to express a thought.

However, in the 19th century, with the

development of historical-comparative
linguistics, linguists began to realize the
sheer diversity of human language and to
question fundamental assumptions
about the relationship between language
and logic. It became apparent that there
was no such thing as the most natural
way to express a thought, and therefore
logic could no longer be relied upon as a
basis for studying the structure of
language.

The Port-Royal grammar modeled the

study of syntax upon that of logic.
(Indeed, large parts of the Port-Royal
Logic were copied or adapted from the
Grammaire générale.[5]) Syntactic
categories were identified with logical
ones, and all sentences were analyzed in
terms of "subject – copula – predicate".
Initially, this view was adopted even by
the early comparative linguists such as
Franz Bopp.

The central role of syntax within

theoretical linguistics became clear only
in the 20th century, which could
reasonably be called the "century of
syntactic theory" as far as linguistics is
concerned. (For a detailed and critical
survey of the history of syntax in the last
two centuries, see the monumental work
by Giorgio Graffi (2001).[6])

Theories of syntax
There are a number of theoretical
approaches to the discipline of syntax.
One school of thought, founded in the
works of Derek Bickerton,[7] sees syntax
as a branch of biology, since it conceives
of syntax as the study of linguistic
knowledge as embodied in the human
mind. Other linguists (e.g., Gerald
Gazdar) take a more Platonistic view,
since they regard syntax to be the study
of an abstract formal system.[8] Yet
others (e.g., Joseph Greenberg) consider
syntax a taxonomical device to reach
broad generalizations across languages.

Syntacticians have attempted to explain

the causes of word-order variation within
individual languages and cross-
linguistically. Much of such work has
been done within frameworks of
generative grammar which assumes that
the core of syntax depends on a genetic
structure which is common to all
mankind. Typological research of the
languages of the world has however
found few absolute universals, leading
some to conclude that none of syntax
has to be directly genetic.

Alternative explanations have been

sought in language processing. It is
suggested that the brain finds it easier to
parse syntactic patterns which are either
right or left branching, but not mixed. The
most widely held approach is the
performance–grammar correspondence
hypothesis by John A. Hawkins who
suggests that language is a non-innate
adaptation to innate cognitive
mechanisms. Cross-linguistic tendencies
are considered as being based on
language users' preference for grammars
that are organized efficiently, and on their
avoidance of word orderings which
cause processing difficulty. Some
languages however exhibit regular
inefficient patterning. These include the
VO languages Chinese, with the
adpositional phrase before the verb, and
Finnish which has postpositions; but
there are few other profoundly
exceptional languages.[9]

Syntactic models
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:

Recursive categorical syntax, or

Algebraic syntax
 Functional generative description
Meaning–text theory
Operator grammar
Word grammar

Lucien Tesnière (1893–1954) is widely

seen as the father of modern
dependency-based theories of syntax
and grammar. He argued vehemently
against the binary division of the clause
into subject and predicate that is
associated with the grammars of his day
(S → NP VP) and which remains at the
core of most phrase structure grammars.
In the place of this division, he positioned
the verb as the root of all clause
structure.[10]
Categorial grammar …

Categorial grammar is an approach that

attributes the syntactic structure not to
rules of grammar, but to the properties of
the syntactic categories themselves. For
example, rather than asserting that
sentences are constructed by a rule that
combines a noun phrase (NP) and a verb
phrase (VP) (e.g., the phrase structure
rule S → NP VP), in categorial grammar,
such principles are embedded in the
category of the head word itself. So the
syntactic category for an intransitive verb
is a complex formula representing the
fact that the verb acts as a function word
requiring an NP as an input and produces
a sentence level structure as an output.
This complex category is notated as
(NP\S) instead of V. NP\S is read as "a
category that searches to the left
(indicated by \) for an NP (the element
on the left) and outputs a sentence (the
element on the right)." The category of
transitive verb is defined as an element
that requires two NPs (its subject and its
direct object) to form a sentence. This is
notated as (NP/(NP\S)) which means "a
category that searches to the right
(indicated by /) for an NP (the object),
and generates a function (equivalent to
the VP) which is (NP\S), which in turn
represents a function that searches to
the left for an NP and produces a
sentence."

Tree-adjoining grammar is a categorial

grammar that adds in partial tree
structures to the categories.

Stochastic/probabilistic
grammars/network theories
…

Theoretical approaches to syntax that

are based upon probability theory are
known as stochastic grammars. One
common implementation of such an
approach makes use of a neural network
or connectionism.
Functional grammars …

Functionalist models of grammar study

the form–function interaction by
performing a structural and a functional
analysis.

Functional discourse grammar (Dik)

Prague linguistic circle
Role and reference grammar (RRG)
Systemic functional grammar

Generative grammar …

The hypothesis of generative grammar is

that language is a biological structure.
The difference between structural–
functional and generative models is that,
in generative grammar, the object is
placed into the verb phrase. Generative
grammar is meant to 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)[11]
Government and binding theory (GB)
(revised theory in the tradition of TG
developed mainly by Chomsky in the
1970s and 1980s)[12]
Minimalist program (MP) (a reworking
of the theory out of the GB framework
published by Chomsky in 1995)[13]
Other theories that find their origin in the
generative paradigm are:

Arc pair grammar

Generalized phrase structure grammar
(GPSG; now largely out of date)
Generative semantics (superseded by
semantic syntax)[14]
Head-driven phrase structure grammar
(HPSG)
Lexical functional grammar (LFG)
Nanosyntax
Relational grammar (RG) (now largely
out of date)
Harmonic grammar (HG) (similar to
the optimality theory of syntax)
Cognitive and usage-based …

grammars

The Cognitive Linguistics framework

stems from generative grammar, but
adheres to evolutionary rather than
Chomskyan linguistics. Cognitive models
often recognise the generative
assumption that the object belongs to
the verb phrase. Cognitive frameworks
include:

Cognitive grammar
Construction grammar (CxG)
Emergent grammar

See also
List of language disorders
 List of syntactic phenomena
Metasyntax
Musical syntax
Semiotics
Syntactic category
Syntax (academic journal)
Syntax (programming languages)
Usage

Syntactic terms …

Adjective
Adjective phrase
Adjunct
Adpositional phrase
Adverb
Anaphora
Answer ellipsis
Antecedent
Antecedent-contained deletion
Appositive
Argument
Article
Aspect
Attributive adjective and predicative
adjective
Auxiliary verb
Binding
Branching
c-command
Case
Category
Catena
Clause
Closed class word
Comparative
Complement
Compound noun and adjective
Conjugation
Conjunction
Constituent
Coordination
Coreference
Crossover
Dangling modifier
Declension
Dependency grammar
Dependent marking
Determiner
Discontinuity
Do-support
Dual (form for two)
Ellipsis
Endocentric
Exceptional case-marking
Expletive
Extraposition
Finite verb
Function word
Gapping
Gender
Gerund
Government
Head
Head marking
Infinitive
Inverse copular construction
Inversion
Lexical item
m-command
Measure word (classifier)
Merge
Modal particle
Modal verb
Modifier
Mood
Movement
Movement paradox
Nanosyntax
Negative inversion
Non-configurational language
Non-finite verb
Noun
Noun ellipsis
Noun phrase
Number
Object
Open class word
Parasitic gap
Part of speech
Particle
Periphrasis
Person
Personal pronoun
Pied-piping
Phrasal verb
Phrase
Phrase structure grammar
Plural
Predicate
Predicative expression
Preposition and postposition
Pronoun
Pseudogapping
Raising
Relation (Grammatical relation)
Restrictiveness
Right node raising
Sandhi
Scrambling
Selection
Sentence
Separable verb
Shifting
Singular
Sluicing
Small clause
Stripping
Subcategorization
Subject
Subject-auxiliary inversion
Subject-verb inversion
Subordination
Superlative
Tense
Topicalization
Tough movement
Uninflected word
V2 word order
 Valency
Verb
Verb phrase
Verb phrase ellipsis
Voice
Wh-movement
Word order
X-bar theory

References

Citations …

1. "syntax" . Oxford Dictionaries UK

Dictionary. Oxford University Press.
Retrieved 2016-01-22.
2. "syntax" . Merriam-Webster Dictionary.