Syntax
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Etymology
The word syntax comes from Ancient Greek roots: σύνταξις "coordination", which consists of σύν syn, "together", and τάξις táxis, "ordering".
Topics
The field of syntax contains a number of various topics that a syntactic theory is often designed to handle. The relation between the topics is treated differently in different theories, and some of them may not be considered to be distinct but instead to be derived from one another (i.e. word order can be seen as the result of movement rules derived from grammatical relations).
Sequencing of subject, verb, and object
One basic description of a language's syntax is the sequence in which the
Grammatical relations
Another description of a language considers the set of possible grammatical relations in a language or in general and how they behave in relation to one another in the
Constituency
Constituency is the feature of being a constituent and how words can work together to form a constituent (or phrase). Constituents are often moved as units, and the constituent can be the domain of agreement. Some languages allow discontinuous phrases in which words belonging to the same constituent are not immediately adjacent but are broken up by other constituents. Constituents may be recursive, as they may consist of other constituents, potentially of the same type.
Early history
The
For centuries, a framework known as grammaire générale, first expounded in 1660 by Antoine Arnauld and Claude Lancelot in a book of the same title, dominated work in syntax:[7] as its basic premise the assumption that language is a direct reflection of thought processes and so there is a single most natural way to express a thought.[8]
However, in the 19th century, with the development of
The Port-Royal grammar modeled the study of syntax upon that of logic. (Indeed, large parts of Port-Royal Logic were copied or adapted from the Grammaire générale.[9]) Syntactic categories were identified with logical ones, and all sentences were analyzed in terms of "subject – copula – predicate". Initially, that 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).[10])
Theories
There are a number of theoretical approaches to the discipline of syntax. One school of thought, founded in the works of Derek Bickerton,[11] 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.[12] 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 the framework of generative grammar, which holds that syntax depends on a genetic endowment common to the human species. In that framework and in others, linguistic typology and universals have been primary explicanda.[13]
Alternative explanations, such as those by
Theoretical syntactic models
Dependency grammar
Dependency grammar is an approach to sentence structure in which 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 the root. Some prominent dependency-based theories of syntax are the following:
- 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 remains at the core of most phrase structure grammars. In the place of that division, he positioned the verb as the root of all clause structure.[16]
Categorial grammar
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 syntax
Generative syntax is the study of syntax within the overarching framework of generative grammar. Generative theories of syntax typically propose analyses of grammatical patterns using formal tools such as phrase structure grammars augmented with additional operations such as syntactic movement. Their goal in analyzing a particular language is to specify rules which generate all and only the expressions which are well-formed in that language. In doing so, they seek to identify innate domain-specific principles of linguistic cognition, in line with the wider goals of the generative enterprise. Generative syntax is among the approaches that adopt the principle of the autonomy of syntax by assuming that meaning and communicative intent is determined by the syntax, rather than the other way around.
Generative syntax was proposed in the late 1950s by Noam Chomsky, building on earlier work by Zellig Harris, Louis Hjelmslev, and others. Since then, numerous theories have been proposed under its umbrella:
- Transformational grammar (TG) (Original theory of generative syntax laid out by Chomsky in Syntactic Structures in 1957)[17]
- Government and binding theory (GB) (revised theory in the tradition of TG developed mainly by Chomsky in the 1970s and 1980s)[18]
- Minimalist program (MP) (a reworking of the theory out of the GB framework published by Chomsky in 1995)[19]
Other theories that find their origin in the generative paradigm are:
- Arc pair grammar
- Generalized phrase structure grammar (GPSG)
- Generative semantics
- Head-driven phrase structure grammar (HPSG)
- Lexical functional grammar (LFG)
- Nanosyntax
- Relational grammar (RG)
- Harmonic grammar (HG)
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 the following:
- Cognitive grammar
- Construction grammar (CxG)
- Emergent grammar
See also
- Cartographic syntax
- Metasyntax
- Musical syntax
- Semiotics
- Syntactic category
- Syntax (academic journal)
- Syntax (programming languages)
- Syntax–Semantics Interface
- Usage
Syntactic terms
- List of syntactic phenomena
- Adjective
- Adjective phrase
- Adjunct
- Adpositional phrase
- Adverb
- Antecedent
- Appositive
- Argument
- Article
- Aspect
- predicative adjective
- Auxiliary verb
- Branching
- c-command
- Category
- Catena
- Clause
- Closed classword
- Comparative
- Complement
- Compound noun and adjective
- Conjugation
- Conjunction
- Constituent
- Coordination
- Crossover
- Dangling modifier
- Declension
- Dependency grammar
- Dependent marking
- Determiner
- Dual (form for two)
- Endocentric
- Finite verb
- Function word
- Gender
- Gerund
- Government
- Head
- Head marking
- Infinitive
- Inversion
- Lexical item
- Logical form (linguistics)
- m-command
- Measure word (classifier)
- Merge
- Modal particle
- Modal verb
- Modifier
- Mood
- Movement
- Movement paradox
- Nanosyntax
- Non-finite verb
- Noun
- Noun ellipsis
- Noun phrase
- Number
- Object
- Open class word
- Part of speech
- Particle
- Periphrasis
- Person
- Personal pronoun
- Phrasal verb
- Phrase
- Phrase structure grammar
- Plural
- Predicate
- Predicative expression
- Preposition and postposition
- Pronoun
- Grammatical relation
- Restrictiveness
- Right node raising
- Scrambling
- Selection
- Sentence
- Separable verb
- Singular
- Subcategorization
- Subject
- Subordination
- Superlative
- Tense
- Uninflected word
- V2 word order
- Valency
- Verb
- Verb phrase
- Voice
- Word order
- X-bar theory
References
Citations
- ^ "syntax". Lexico UK English Dictionary. Oxford University Press. Archived from the original on 2020-03-22.
- ^ "syntax". Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary.
- ISBN 978-0-08-097087-5.
- ISBN 978-0-08-097087-5.
- ISBN 978-0-19-938465-5.
- ISBN 978-1-4051-8896-8.
[The Aṣṭādhyāyī] is a highly precise and thorough description of the structure of Sanskrit somewhat resembling modern generative grammar...[it] remained the most advanced linguistic analysis of any kind until the twentieth century.
- ISBN 9789027930040.
- ^ Arnault, Antoine; Lancelot, Claude (1660). Grammaire générale et raisonnée de Port-Royal.
- ^ Arnauld, Antoine (1683). La logique (5th ed.). Paris: G. Desprez. p. 137.
Nous avons emprunté...ce que nous avons dit...d'un petit Livre...sous le titre de Grammaire générale.
- ^ Graffi (2001).
- ISBN 978-0-262-01356-7.
- ^ Gazdar, Gerald (2 May 2001). "Generalized Phrase Structure Grammar" (Interview). Interviewed by Ted Briscoe. Archived from the original on 2005-11-22. Retrieved 2008-06-04.
- . Retrieved 2022-03-13.
- ISBN 978-1-139-03393-0.
- S2CID 244941417.
- ^ Concerning Tesnière's rejection of the binary division of the clause into subject and predicate and in favor of the verb as the root of all structure, see Tesnière (1969:103–105).
- ^ Chomsky, Noam (1957). Syntactic Structures. The Hague: Mouton. p. 15.
- ISBN 3-11-014131-0.
- ^ Chomsky, Noam (1995). The Minimalist Program. Cambridge, Massachusetts: The MIT Press.
Sources
- Brown, Keith; Miller, Jim, eds. (1996). Concise Encyclopedia of Syntactic Theories. New York: Elsevier Science. ISBN 0-08-042711-1.
- Carnie, Andrew (2006). Syntax: A Generative Introduction (2nd ed.). Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell. ISBN 1-4051-3384-8.
- Freidin, Robert; Lasnik, Howard, eds. (2006). Syntax. Critical Concepts in Linguistics. New York: Routledge. ISBN 0-415-24672-5.
- Graffi, Giorgio (2001). 200 Years of Syntax: A Critical Survey. Studies in the History of the Language Sciences 98. Amsterdam: Benjamins. ISBN 90-272-4587-8.
- Talasiewicz, Mieszko (2009). Philosophy of Syntax – Foundational Topics. Dordrecht: Springer. ISBN 978-90-481-3287-4. An interdisciplinary essay on the interplay between logic and linguistics on syntactic theories.
- Tesnière, Lucien (1969). Eléments de syntaxe structurale (in French) (2nd ed.). Paris: Klincksieck. ISBN 2-252-01861-5.
Further reading
- Everaert, Martin; ISBN 978-1-4051-1485-1. 5 Volumes; 77 case studies of syntactic phenomena.
- Isac, Daniela; Reiss, Charles (2013). I-Language: An Introduction to Linguistics as Cognitive Science (2nd ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-966017-9.
- Moravcsik, Edith A. (2006). An Introduction to Syntax: Fundamentals of Syntactic Analysis. London: Continuum. S2CID 144032671.
- Müller, Stefan (2020). Grammatical Theory: From Transformational Grammar to Constraint-Based Approaches (4th revised and extended ed.). Berlin: Language Science Press. ISBN 978-3-96110-273-0.
- Roark, Brian; ISBN 978-0-19-927477-2. part II: Computational approaches to syntax.
External links
- The syntax of natural language: An online introduction using the Trees program – Beatrice Santorini & Anthony Kroch, University of Pennsylvania, 2007