Syntax. Intro.To Linguistics

SYNTAX

SYNTAX

A.                 Definition of syntax

             

        Based on the experts, Syntax is a central component of human language. Language has often been characterized as a systematic correlation between certain types of gestures and meaning.          

          Syntax can thus be given the following characterization, taken from Matthews (1982:1) the term ‘syntax’ is from the Ancient Greek syntaxis, a verbal noun which literally means ‘arrangement’ or ‘setting out together’. Traditionally, it refers to the branch of grammar dealing with the ways in which words, with or without appropriate inflections, are arranged to show connections of meaning within the sentence.

           Based on the experts

1.      (Chomsky, 2002)

      

        Syntax is the study of the principles and processes by which sentences are constructed in particular languages. Syntactic investigation of a given language has as its goal the construction of a grammar that can be viewed as a device of some sort for producing the sentences of the language under analysis.

2.      (Tserdanelis and Wong, 2004)

         The study of syntax is the study of how words combine to from phrases and ultimately sentences in languages. Because it consists of phrases that are put together in a particular way, a sentences has a structure. The structure consists of way in which the words are organized into phrases and the phrases are organized into larger phrases. The study of phrases and sentences structure is sometimes called grammar. 

3.      . (Hawkins, 2001)

        The syntax of a language is the set of properties which determine the construction of sentences in that language. If a sentence is constructed according to those properties it is well formed or grammatical. If a sentence is constructed  in violation of those properties it is ill-formed or ungrammatical. The study of syntax involves uncovering those properties of language which are involved in the construction of grammatical sentence in particular languages.

4.      (O’grady, at all.,1989)

      syntax  is the system of rules and categories that allows words to be combined to the form of sentence. The data that linguists use to study syntax consists primarily of judgments about grammaticality of individual sentence. Roughly speaking, a sentence is considered grammatical if speakers judge it to be a possible sentence of their language. (O’grady, at all.,1989)

5.      (Fromkin and Rodman,1983)

     Syntax is that part of our linguistics knowledge which concerns the structure of sentences. Knowing a language also means being able to put words together to form sentences to express our thoughts.

             From the experts’ explanation above we can conclude that  syntax is the study of internal structure of sentences. In this case, it explains how words are arranged become phrases and clauses for constructing sentence. It is commonly we call structure. Structure manages how words can be combined with another for creating good sentence.

                                                                              

References

Chomsky, N. (1957 & 2002). Syntactic Structures. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter GmBH.

Fromkin, Victoria, Robert Rodman. (1983). An Introduction to Language.New York: CBS college publising.

Fromkin, Victoria, Robert Rodman, Nina Hyams. (2007). An introduction to Language. Boston: Thomson Wadsworth.

Hawkins, R. (2001). Second Language Syntax: A Generative Introduction.Massachusetts: Blackwell Publishers .

Murcia,M.C and Diane Larsen Freeman. (1999). The Grammar Book: An ESL/EFL teacher's course. Boston: Internasional Thomson Publising.

O''grady,William,Michael Dobrovolsky,Mark Aronoff. (1989). Contemporary Linguistics An introduction. New York: Martin's Press.

Robert, D. and Van Valin,J.R. (2001). An Introdution to Linguistic.Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Tserdanelis,G. and Wai Yi Peggy Wong. (Eds.). (2004). Language File: Material for an Introduction to Language & Linguistics (9th ed.).Columbus: Department of Linguistics, The Ohio State University Press.