Syntax
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In Linguistics, '''syntax''' is "the study of the principles and processes by which sentences are constructed in particular languages"<ref> Chomsky, Noam. [1957]. Syntactic Structures. p. 11.</ref>. It assumes that: | In Linguistics, '''syntax''' is "the study of the principles and processes by which sentences are constructed in particular languages"<ref> Chomsky, Noam. [1957]. Syntactic Structures. p. 11.</ref>. It assumes that: | ||
*natural language sentences can be broken down into components (the so-called syntactic constituents); | *natural language sentences can be broken down into components (the so-called syntactic constituents); | ||
| − | *the resulting structure is hierarchical (a tree-like structure) rather than a simple list; and | + | *the resulting structure (i.e., the relations between syntactic constituents) is hierarchical (a tree-like structure) rather than a simple list; and |
*the structure can be predicted by rules (i.e., the structure is regular), which consist the grammar of the language. | *the structure can be predicted by rules (i.e., the structure is regular), which consist the grammar of the language. | ||
| − | + | For instance, the sentence: | |
| − | + | <blockquote>''the dog ate the bone''</blockquote> | |
| + | is more productively represented as (1) than (2) | ||
| + | {|align=center | ||
| + | |- | ||
| + | |align=center|[[File:thedogatethebone.svg]] | ||
| + | |align=center|[the][ ][dog][ ][ate][ ][the][ ][bone] | ||
| + | |- | ||
| + | |align=center|(1) | ||
| + | |align=center|(2) | ||
| + | |} | ||
Revision as of 20:14, 13 August 2013
In Linguistics, syntax is "the study of the principles and processes by which sentences are constructed in particular languages"[1]. It assumes that:
- natural language sentences can be broken down into components (the so-called syntactic constituents);
- the resulting structure (i.e., the relations between syntactic constituents) is hierarchical (a tree-like structure) rather than a simple list; and
- the structure can be predicted by rules (i.e., the structure is regular), which consist the grammar of the language.
For instance, the sentence:
the dog ate the bone
is more productively represented as (1) than (2)
| File:Thedogatethebone.svg | [the][ ][dog][ ][ate][ ][the][ ][bone] |
| (1) | (2) |
Notes
- ↑ Chomsky, Noam. [1957]. Syntactic Structures. p. 11.
