Syntax

syntax, the arrangement of words in sentences, clauses, and phrases, and the study of the formation of sentences and the relationship of their component parts. In a language such as English, the main device for showing the relationship among words is word order; e.g., in “The girl loves the boy,” the subject is in initial position, and the object follows the verb. Transposing them changes the meaning. In many other languages, case markers indicate the grammatical relationships. In Latin, for example, “The girl loves the boy” may be puella puerum amat with “the girl” in initial position, or puerum puella amat with “the boy” in initial position, or amat puella puerum, amat puerum puella, or puella amat puerum. The meaning remains constant because the -um ending on the form for “boy” indicates the object of the verb, regardless of its position in the sentence.

Sentences are constructed from phrases or groups of words that have a closer relationship to each other than to the words outside the phrase. In the sentence “My dog is playing in the yard” there is a closer relationship between the words “is playing,” which together form the verb, than between the words “playing in the,” which form only part of the verb and part of the phrase indicating the location of the playing.

The study of syntax also includes the investigation of the relations among sentences that are similar, such as “John saw Mary” and “Mary was seen by John.” Syntax received much attention after 1957, when the American linguist Noam Chomsky proposed a radically new theory of language, transformational grammar (q.v.).