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 19:14, 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

  1. Chomsky, Noam. [1957]. Syntactic Structures. p. 11.
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