Syntax, Semantics, and Linguistic Structures
Syntax, derived from Greek, concerns the way words combine to form sentences. It involves arranging words to show relationships of meaning within sentences. The study of syntax analyzes the constituent parts of a sentence: their form, positioning, and function; how they are internally organized and arranged, and how they relate to one another.
Semantics is the study of how languages organize and express meanings, focusing on linguistic meanings. Pragmatics studies the additional meanings a sentence has in specific contexts. Semiotics is the science of communication in general, both verbal and non-verbal.
Key Grammatical Units
- Clause: An immediate constituent of a sentence.
- Sentence: A word, clause, phrase, or group of clauses or phrases forming a syntactic unit that expresses an assertion, question, command, or wish.
Sentence Types
- Simple Sentence: Contains one independent clause, expressing minimal grammatical completeness and unity. Example: Sam bought the tickets.
- Compound Sentence: Contains two independent clauses linked in a relationship of coordination. Example: Sam bought the tickets, and Sue parked the car.
Clause Elements
- Predicator: The function of the verb phrase (VP) in the clause. It may constitute the whole predicate or part of it, and can be finite or non-finite. Examples: The plane landed. / The plane landed on the runway.
- Indirect Object: Denotes the participant who receives something or benefits from the action. Occurs in ditransitive clauses, usually before the direct object. Example: He gave me some flowers. / He poured me some tea.
- Prepositional Object: Occurs in clauses with prepositional verbs. Syntactically, the preposition belongs with the noun group (NG) it precedes. Example: I don’t care for parties.
- Catenative Complement: A non-finite clause functioning as the internal complement of a verb. Example: Kim decided to leave.
Syntactic Relationships
- Juxtaposition: Adjacent, asyndetic constructs linked by punctuation.
- Apposition: Modification at the group/phrase level, indicating a hypotactic relationship (non-restrictive/loose or restrictive/close).
Parataxis and Related Concepts
Parataxis is created by associating two or more semantically homogeneous components to form a superior unit with a distinct semantic value. Key features include:
- Elements are free and function as whole units.
- Elements have equal syntactic and semantic status, often similar in form.
- Elements are usually reversible.
That-clause: Complement clauses functioning as clause elements. Positions include:
- Post-predicator: We all agree that cuts are needed. (as a direct object)
- Extraposed that-clause: The reason he resigned was that he didn’t get on with the boss.
Relative Clauses: Post-modifiers in a noun group, expanding the meaning and specifying the reference of the head noun (antecedent). Introduced by a relative word (relativizer) with a specific syntactic function.
Comparatives: Constructions where a meaning in the main clause is compared to a meaning in a dependent clause, concerning a gradable or quantifiable element.
Adverbial Clauses: Introduced by a subordinating conjunction (e.g., when, before, after, while, because, since, if, unless, lest), explaining the adverbial meaning. The conjunction indicates a relationship of cause, concession, comparison, condition, place, manner, purpose, result, or time. The type of clause is determined by examining its function.
Coordination and Subordination
Coordination is a structure with two or more grammatically equivalent members, bound together at the same level by a linking device. It implies a relationship between elements of equal syntactic status (coordinates). Semantic implications of disjunction include exclusive, inclusive, restatement, and negative condition. Semantic implications of “but” include adversative, replace/corrective, and enhancing/concessive.
Features of coordination:
- Order change: Coordinates can often be reversed without affecting meaning (with exceptions).
- Openness: No grammatical limit to the number of elements.
- Range of occurrence: Can occur in most sentence positions.
- Reducibility: A coordinated structure is typically replaceable by any of its elements.
- Explicit markers and likeness of class and function.
Basic Coordination: Reflects balance by placing elements at the same structural level. Material in coordinated clauses can be elided if it’s the same as in the primary clause. Example: She finished the report and went home.
Non-basic Coordination: Involves bound ellipsis, restructuring, and discontinuity.
- Gapping type a: Different subjects; middle ellipsis in non-initial coordinates. Example: Jill came to Fiji in 1967, and her parents the following year.
- Gapping type b: Coordination of sequences that aren’t syntactic constituents elsewhere. Example: I gave 10 dollars to Kim and 5 to Pat.
- Restructuring (Delayed right constituency coordination): A change in normal constituent structure. Example: Jean has read, and Paul is planning to read, the complete works of Shakespeare.
- Discontinuity (Interpolated coordination): The second coordinate is interpolated within the first.
- Pseudo-coordination: Verbs of predication with an idiomatic function similar to a catenative construction. Example: I will try and come tomorrow.
Iteration vs. Recursion
- Iteration: Yields flat output structures. Example: He talked, talked, and talked.
- Recursion: Builds structures by increasing embedding depth. Example: The chair in the classroom in the school.
Hypotaxis: The grammatical arrangement of functionally similar but “unequal” constructs. In Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL), it refers to binding elements of unequal status. The dominant element is free; the dependent element is not. Elements are ordered in dependence.
Subordination: A subordinate clause functions as a dependent within a larger clause or constituent. It cannot stand alone. Example: They left before the meeting ended.
- Non-embedded Subordination: Both clauses are immediate sister-constituents of a sentence (complex sentences).
- Embedded Subordination: Subordinate clauses function as below-clause constituents (complex clauses). A unit functions as a constituent within a group, which is itself a constituent of a clause. Examples: I know she isn’t here. / …pleased you could come. / …at the corner of the street. / blackbird.
- Non-finite Clauses: Have a non-tensed verb and may differ in subject form. Example: I didn’t approve of his/him doing it.